Arduino Color Sensors - TCS230 & ISL29125

In today's colorful episode we will learn to calibrate and use the TCS230 and ISL29125 Color Sensors with an Arduino.

Today we will be working with two different color sensors. I’ll show you how they work, how to hook them up, how to calibrate them, and how to extract RGB values from them.

The TCS230 (also known as the TCS3200) is a popular and inexpensive color sensor that operates on a wide voltage range. It outputs a square wave whose frequency reflects the color intensity.

The Sparkfun ISL29125 is a more capable sensor that provides a 16-bit digital output using the I2C bus. It also has a programmable interrupt feature that you can set to trigger in response to a specific color.

Both of these sensors will be useful in designing color-following robots, Rubik's Cube solvers or jelly bean sorters. But before you use them you’ll need to calibrate them.

I’ll show you how to calibrate the sensors and then use that calibration data to extract actual RGB values from them.

Here is what we will be covering today:

00:00 - Introduction
01:15 - Color Sensor Operation
02:51 - TCS230 Intro
05:31 - TCS230 Arduino Hookup
06:18 - TCS230 Calibration
12:10 - TCS230 RGB Extract
17:26 - ISL29125 Intro
19:52 - ISL29125 Arduino Hookup
21:46- ISL29125 Library & Calibration
27:19 - ISL29125 RGB Extract

I hope that you enjoy this video and that it adds some color into your life!

Thanks for watching!

[matrodsilver]

4 years after it was posted and I'm thankfull for this amazing explanation 👍

[MikeBramm]

Nice tutorial. Now I have a craving for jelly beans.

[scottwood]

Wow, lots of great info here. It was good to have the demo and explanation of the calibration process, and then show how to normalize the sensor data for useful output. I’ll definitely have rewatch to understand better, and follow the link to the article. Always appreciate the time and effort you put into these projects. Thank you!

[dotancohen]

@21:30 Why isn't the 3.3v ground connected also to the Arduino's ground? If I'm not mistaken, the logic level board's GND pin is to get a reference ground to compare to 3.3, not to provide a reference ground for the connected device.

[tilmanaboeck]

To me the best tutorial channel by far. Thank you so much for your work.

[arjunps]

Why am I always getting FFFF from isl29121

[skillerlarva]

Sir do you have modul library fritzing TCS230/3200, If you have I need

[VenujanSrithar]

Sometimes I got values for white is more than 255 like 270 and for black I got in minus (-188) why ?

[surenbono]

..how to software decode color in SD card file at certain coordinate on that file?... Example: decode timezone & country name with GPS coor on a 2d color world map file just by software..

[devanshubansal]

can i interface arduino uno directly with ISL29125 sensor without logic controller b/se I don't have that one?

[raahimirfan]

Can I please know which animation software or video editing software is used here 1:15
Thanks in advance!

[farougshiyab]

Hello...

I have a project that needs a color recognition sensor with longer Detection distance(400 mm)

[rethinkscience]

Can you make a 3d measuring scanner probe which will digitise the real time space within a room

[papageorgiou]

2 questions, first why you use 255 as you max and not 65535 which is the max of the data type that you are using (int) to have a better resolution, and second why you selected 20% width scaling? i think the arduino wouldnt have any problem for the 100% which based on the datasheet of the sensor has a typical value of 600khz

[perfectpakka]

Someone pls help me!
Can I use ISL29125 as a optical receiver (or as an alternate to a Photodiode)?
How much will be maximum distance so between the sensor and the subject so that it will be able to sense properly?

[hughaskew]

Why are the readings of the PW values so variable?

[busybraintinkering]

I'm in the process of making a bead sorter for my kids, but those beads are tiny! How would you approach that tiny read area? Ive thought about fiber optic, but im afraid there are to much loss and hard to attach the fiber to the sensor (TCS3200 in my case), or a focal lens, but im unsure how to focus it. Any advice?

[pareshmhatre]

Very detailed information
Best video!

[nextwave]

RGB(0, 0, 0) = black RGB(255, 255, 255) = white. The output from functions confused me for a sec, then i thought .. return 255 - PW = more sense .. just me though ;)

[poepflater]

all LEDs are photo diodes and can be used as inputs as well as outputs... Going to let you think about that for a second.