LightSensorArray
User Guide
What is LightSensorArray
LightSensorArray is an array of 8 sensors to
detect color equivalent gray scales in front of the
sensor window. It has a built in light source for
each of its sensors and can detect and
differentiate dark and light shades.
Connections and Placement
LightSensorArray can be connected to any of the four sensor ports of NXT
or EV3 by using standard cables from NXT set, or FlexiCable from
mindsensors.com.
While attaching sensor to your robot, face the long clear sensor window
towards the mat, placing it approx 5 millimeters above the mat surface
(approx ¼ inch).
If you plan to use this sensor to track a line, place the sensor in front of the
driving wheels – (in the direction the robot will be moving).
Mounting LightSensorArray on your contraption
The holes on the LightSensorArray enclosure are designed
for tight fit of Technic pins (or axles) with ‘’ cross section.
The holes however are not designed for repeated
insertions/removals of these pins.
To mount LightSensorArray on your contraption we suggest that you use two
dark gray ‘Technic Axle 3 with Stud’ as shown.
Insert axles from the top of the LightSensorArray and secure with a
bushing on the back or mount it on your contraption directly.
Alternately, you may use blue ‘Technic Axle Pin with Friction’,
as shown.
While disassembling contraption, leave the pins on LightSensorArray.
Sensor Calibrations
NOTE
For best results, LightSensorArray should be calibrated for the surface it
will be used on. To calibrate the sensor, keep the sensor window on white
area, and calibrate white. Then keep the sensor window on black area and
calibrate black. While placing on the white or black area, ensure that all
sensors are over the same color surface.
Calibration programs can be found in the sample programs of the respective
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programming environment. Download sample programs from the Programming
Techniques section below.
Sensor Operations
You can use the raw sensor readings of the sensor and compute yourself
whatever you need from it. The raw values are returned as byte per sensor
with 0 indicating black and 100 indicating white.
NOTE
In order to write a good line follower program, you will need to know and
understand the ‘PID Control Theory’. http://www.google.com/search?
q=PID+control+theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller
PID without a PhD
Programming Techniques
EV3:
To use capabilities of the sensor, please download EV3 blocks
available at following URL:
http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php?
controller=attachment&id_attachment=192
Installation instructions for EV3 block are available at:
http://www.mindsensors.com/content/13-how-to-install-blocks-in-ev3
Download EV3 sample program from following URL and modify it to suit your
needs.
http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php?
controller=attachment&id_attachment=193
NXT-G:
Download the NXT-G blocks available in the NXT-G Blocks
Repository at mindsensor’s website, at following location:
http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php?
controller=attachment&id_attachment=195
Installation instructions for NXT block are available at:
http://www.mindsensors.com/content/21-nxt-g-blocks-how-to-install-blocks
Also download sample programs from following location, and modify to suit
your needs.
http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php?
controller=attachment&id_attachment=196
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RobotC:
The driver implementation is available in Xander's driver suite at
following url:
https://github.com/botbench/robotcdriversuite
the header file for the driver is: mindsensors-lightsensorarray.h
example program: mindsensors-ligthsensorarray-test1.c
NXC:
Download the sample programs and library file available at following location,
and include the library file it in your program by #include directive as:
#include “LSA-lib.nxc”
http://www.mindsensors.com/index.php?
controller=attachment&id_attachment=191
Alternately, you can modify the sample programs to suite your needs.
I2C Registers:
The LightSensorArray appears as a set of registers as follows:
Register Read Write
0x00- Firmware version – Vxxxx -
0x07
0x08- Vendor Id – mndsnsrs -
0x0f
0x10- Device ID – LSArray -
0x17
0x41 - Command
Register Read Write
0x42 – Calibrated Sensor reading - Reading measured -
0x49 for each of the sensor in the array. Higher
value indicates brighter object. (one byte for
each sensor – 8 bytes)
0x4A – White Reading Limit (threshold above which -
0x51 color is identified as white)
0x52 – Black Reading Limit (threshold below which -
0x59 color is identified as black)
0x5A- White Calibration data - Calibration value for -
0x61 White color for each sensor. (one byte for
each sensor – 8 bytes)
0x62- Black Calibration data - Calibration value for -
0x69 Black color for each sensor (one byte for each
sensor – 8 bytes).
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0x6A- Uncalibrated sensor voltage (Integer values, -
0x79 two bytes for each sensor)
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Supported I2C Commands:
CMD Description
W Calibrate White
B Calibrate Black
D Put Sensor to sleep
P Wake up the sensor
A Configure Sensor for US region (and regions with 60
Hz electrical frequency).
E Configure sensor for European region (and regions with
50 Hz electrical frequency)
U Configure sensor for universal frequency (in this mode
the sensor adjusts for any frequency, this is also the
default mode).
Reading Frequency
The array of sensors is reading at 7 milliseconds interval.
Note however, your reading speed from sensor is throttled by the I2C speed
of your NXT firmware (in firmware 1.29 it is around 17 milliseconds per
reading operation).
Physical Specs
Weight: 0.53 oz (14.8 grams)
Foot-print: 24.5mm x 72.6 mm
Height: 20.75 mm
Current Consumption
To conserve power, the sensor goes to sleep after 1 minute of inactivity. The
sensor will wake up on its own when any activity begins. You can also wake it
up (or put to sleep) via command. Average measured current profile is as
follows:
Current Consumption Duration
5.7 mA (max) While awake Depending on your mat
colors ratio, this will vary between
3.5 mA to 5.7 mA
3.0 mA While sleeping
I2C Bus address
Factory Default Address: 0x14 (Decimal: 20)
Changing the I2C Bus Address:
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The I2C bus address of LightSensorArray can be changed. To set an
address different from default address, send sequence of following
commands on the command register:
0xA0, 0xAA, 0xA5, <new I2C address>
Note: Send these commands with no break/read operation in between. This
new address is effective immediately. Please note down your address
carefully for future reference.
Instructions for changing the I2C address can be found at:
NXT and EV3
http://www.mindsensors.com/blog/how-to/change-i2c-device-address.
PiStorms
http://www.mindsensors.com/blog/how-to/change-i2c-device-address-with-
pistorms
Doing your own PID Control
If you wish to write your own PID control, following urls and references
would be useful.
An excellent reference describing PID control:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller
A Google search on PID Control theory yields several informative artifacts -
http://www.google.com/search?q=PID+control+theory
An article from Embedded Systems: PID without a PhD
(http://www.embedded.com/2000/0010/0010feat3.htm)
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