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PaKw
Explorer
November 5, 2023
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Using VL53L1X to get an ambient light value

  • November 5, 2023
  • 1 reply
  • 1112 views

Hi,

in my next application I plan to use VL53L1X. What I also need, independent from the object detection, is the amount of ambient light. Would it be possible to read that value from VL53L1X using it's full API? Is that value at all available in one of it's I2C registers?

Thanks for any support provided.

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Best answer by John E KVAM

It's a good question, but it doesn't work. The Single Photon Avalanche Diodes detect the photons. But they don't care about which photons they detect. So we put a very narrow filter over the SPAD array. 

So we get a level of ambient - but only at 940nm. You could use it to detect sunlight as sunlight has a lot of 940nm in it. A better way to do it is buy an ambient light sensor. ST makes one - the VD6283. It will do a much better job of giving you the ambient light.

- john

1 reply

John E KVAM
John E KVAMBest answer
ST Employee
November 6, 2023

It's a good question, but it doesn't work. The Single Photon Avalanche Diodes detect the photons. But they don't care about which photons they detect. So we put a very narrow filter over the SPAD array. 

So we get a level of ambient - but only at 940nm. You could use it to detect sunlight as sunlight has a lot of 940nm in it. A better way to do it is buy an ambient light sensor. ST makes one - the VD6283. It will do a much better job of giving you the ambient light.

- john

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