The ZOPT2201 was EOL'd but you can get even better performance from our Qwiic VEML6075 UV sensor board.
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!
NOTE: The I2C address of the ZOPT2201 is 0x53 and is Software changeable to 0x52. A multiplexer/Mux is required to communicate to multiple ZOPT2201 sensors on a single bus. If you need to use more than one ZOPT2201 sensor consider using the Qwiic Mux Breakout.
We welcome your comments and suggestions below. However, if you are looking for solutions to technical questions please see our Technical Assistance page.
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I wired this to VCC, GND, SDA, and SCL on a 3.3V Arduino Pro Mini, loaded the examples, and it worked the first time! I'm looking forward to powering the Pro Mini from a battery pack and taking it outside. I imagine if you wanted to run it from a 5V processor, you'd need a bidirectional level shifter, but I haven't tried that.
This might seem like an obvious question, but how do you run 2 of these at the same time? From what I understand from the datasheet, the limit is 2 per bus. And the address can be changed to another one. But when I change the address and cycle the power the address switches back to the default. The datasheet says the I2C address is changes with non-volatile memory, but it seems to change back to the original address for the two that I have.