It’s beautiful here in Boulder, Colorado, but any newcomer to the area quickly discovers our wonderful 300 days of sunshine is tempered with the fact that Boulder is located at 5,430 ft (1655m) above sea level. You can get a sunburn incredibly fast here!
The ZOPT2201 is an excellent UVBS (ultraviolet energy sensor) in that it does true 310nm UVB sensing, not interpolated UV from ambient light like most sensors on the market. Without fuss or weird look up tables this sensor gives the current UV Index accurately.
Have a look at the image of the Measure UVI vs Reference UVI. The ZOPT2201 tracks nice and accurately to the actual UV Index. Stop messing with sloppy sensors. When the ZOPT says it’s 7 or higher, slather on that sunscreen, and put on a hat. Your skin will thank you.
It seems every sensor and their brother has ambient light sensing (ALS) these days. The ZOPT2201 is no different; you can use this sensor to detect very accurate ALS (lux), but we’re most excited about the UVB sensing.
The astute will notice the INT pin looks funny: there’s no annular ring on the top side of the board. We used the wrong footprint in EAGLE (the ‘kit’ version removes the annular ring on one side). It may look odd, but the INT pin works perfectly fine. If you need the INT pin (most folks don’t), you’ll just need to solder your header or wire on the backside of the board.
The Qwiic UV Sensor has two Qwiic connectors on board. The Qwiic system enables fast and solderless connection between popular platforms and various sensors and actuators. You can read more about the Qwiic system here. We carry 200mm, 100mm, 50mm, and breadboard friendly Qwiic cables.
We do not plan to regularly produce SparkX products so get them while they’re hot!
Features:
- UVB and Ambient light sensing
- Simple I2C interface
- Voltage: 3.3V
- Current: 110μA
- Dual Qwiic connectors enable daisy chaining and easy connection
Documents:
- ZOPT2201 Datasheet
- Schematic
- Eagle Files
- Arduino sketches demonstrating reading of UVB, ALS, and the calculation of UV Index
- To get the latest files please visit the GitHub repo
- The UV Index from the EPA
- Find the UV Index for your location
- For a good breakdown of UV Intensity and how the UV Index is calculated, checkout the ML8511 hookup guide for our older UV sensor.
