This week, we're announcing the Yocto-Light-V5, which is now the most powerful ambient light sensor in our range, in terms of both measuring range and acquisition speed. Let's have a look!
A brief review
The Yocto-Light and Yocto-Light-V2, which were released in 2011 and 2014 respectively, have not been produced for several years now, as manufacturers OSRAM and Avago have stopped production of their SFH 5712 and ADPS-9301 sensors.
The Yocto-Light-V3, based on ROHM's BH1751FVI sensor, is clearly the best-selling Yoctopuce product, probably because it's relatively inexpensive and easy to integrate into a display panel to implement automatic brightness adjustment according to ambient light. It can measure up to 100 000 lux at a frequency of 4Hz. However, it lacks a little sensitivity in low light, the minimum detectable being 0.25 lux.
That's why we later created the Yocto-Light-V4, based on Texas Instruments' OPT3004 sensor, which is sensitive down to 0.01 lux. It's also faster, with a maximum sampling rate of 10Hz. Unfortunately, its measuring range is limited to 83 000 lux, which is far too low for a sunny day, which can easily reach 120 000 lux.
The Yocto-Light-V5
A few months ago, when a customer drew our attention to Texas Instruments' OPT4003 sensor, which is an improvement on the OPT3004, we decided that it would be worthwhile to build a new Yoctopuce module based on this sensor.
The Yocto-Light-V5
The Yocto-Light-V5 is therefore based on the OPT4003 sensor and has exactly the same form-factor as versions 1 to 4, but much better performance than its predecessors.
- Measuring range from 0 to 143 000 lux
- Maximum sensitivity of 0.001 lux
- Maximum sampling frequency 20Hz
However, like the Yocto-Light-V4, the resolution of the Yocto-Light is not fixed and depends on the measured value and sampling frequency.
- At 1Hz, it varies from 1 mlux at the lower end of the measuring range to ~137 mlux at 143 000 lux.
- At 20Hz, it varies between 9 mlux at the lower end of the range and 2.2 lux at 143 000 lux.
All other functionalities are strictly identical, so if you have an application based on a Yocto-Light V1, V2, V3, or V4, you can replace it with your Yocto-Light-V5, and chances are it will continue to work without even recompiling your application.
The Yocto-Light: Family portrait
Micro-B or USB-C?
A few months ago, Yoctopuce announced its intention to gradually migrate its products to USB-C connectivity. So should we release the Yocto-Light-V5 in Micro-USB or USB-C? We've decided to make both versions: the Yocto-Light-V5 comes with a Micro-B connector as usual, and the Yocto-Light-V5-C comes with a USB-C connector.
Available in Micro-B and Type-C versions
What will happen to versions 3 and 4?
Given that the Yocto-Light-V5 is far superior to its predecessors, we have to wonder what will happen to Yocto-Light versions 3 and 4.
The Yocto-Light-V3
There won't be a USB-C version of the Yocto-Light-V3, as we don't think this is necessary, given that the Yocto-Light-V5-C can be advantageously used in place of the V3. What's more, the Yocto-Light-V3 is doomed in the medium term. Some time ago, ROHM announced the end of production of its BH1751FVI sensor, and it's becoming a little difficult to get hold of it. On the face of it, we have enough stock to last another year or two, but there will inevitably come a time when we simply won't be able to build them anymore.
The Yocto-Light-V4
For the same reason, there won't be a USB-C version of the Yocto-Light-V4 either, and production will cease as soon as our stock of OPT3004 sensors runs out. But don't panic, we've got more than enough sensors in stock to last a few more years.
Conclusion
Today, the Yocto-Light-V5 is the ultimate Yoctopuce ambient light sensor. It surpasses its predecessors in every respect, and should cover most needs in terms of sensitivity, measuring range, and sampling speed. Unless Texas Instruments is messing with us, we should be able to hold on to it for a long time.
