As a result of the questions from lekirst on this ible of my hand: LED-as-lightsensor-on-the-arduino/ and the cleaner code made by hansc44 at: Arduino-Use-LED-as-a-light-sensor/ it was time to come with a better Ible. So here it is. (I didn't solve lekirst's problems yet so she probably is open for suggestions)

What is the idea?

You might know that a LED emits light when you put the right amount of volts on the right leads. The funny thing is that it also works the other way around. Not the leads, it doesn't work when you put the leads the other way around. But what does work is that when you shine light on a LED it will GIVE current. It is a very small current but just enough for an Arduino to detect.

What will it do?

When you darken the sensor led, for instance by covering it with your hand, it will turn on the other LED.

Does this work with any LED?

As far as I know, it works with any LED, but not with any LED as good.
green and red LEDs seem to work best.
If trough experimenting you find out that other colors even work better, let me know.

Does it work with any light?

This sketch works very reliable with normal daylight. It is not fully tested in dark rooms or bright sunlight yet.

Step 1: You Will Need

You will need

an Arduino board (Uno, Duemilanove or something like that)
two LEDs

And really that's it! (you could even do it with just one LED and use the SMD-LED on the Arduino board as the second LED)

You will need no tools.

You do need a computer with the Arduino software installed and a USB-cable to connect the Arduino board. (But if you have an Arduino board, you probably have that sorted already)

Step 2: Setting Everything Up

To set this project up, you just need to put the two LED's in the Arduino.

Put the LED that you want to use as the sensor with the long lead (this is the anode and positive lead) in pin analog 3 in the Arduino. This could also be an other analog pin, but then you need to change this in the sketch later on.
Put the other, short lead in the GND.
Put the other LED with the long lead in pin (digital) 13 in the Arduino. Put the short lead in the GND that is next to pin 13.

Now you just need to hook up the Arduino board with the computer and the fun can begin.

Step 3: Uploading the Sketch

//Copy the following sketch in your Arduino software and upload it to the Arduino board. (be sure to select the right board and com-port in the Arduino software)

int led = 13;                                        // the pin where you will put the LED
int sensorpin = A3; // the analog pin where you put your sensorLED
int resetteller = 0; // the rest are counters and variables to calculate with
int sens = 0;
int teller = 0;
int basis = 1024;
int test = 1024;
int test2 = 1024;
int test3 = 1024;

// this are the values to play with to get better (or worse) results
int marge = 5; // the space between a positive and negative reading
int vertraging = 1;                  // the speed of the readings; a lower number is a higher speed
int samples = 70;                   // the amount of samples to compare to make one reading
int resetsamples = 30; // how many cycles to run the light on before you don't trust the value anymore

void setup() {
pinMode(led, OUTPUT);
Serial.begin(9600); // no real part of the program, just for debugging
for(teller =0; teller < samples; teller++) {// remember the lowest value out of many readings
   sens = analogRead(sensorpin);
   if (sens < basis){basis = sens;}
   delay(vertraging); // the sensor needs a delay here to catch its breath
}
}

void loop() {
for(teller =0; teller < samples; teller++) {// remember the lowest value out of many readings
   sens = analogRead(sensorpin);
   delay(vertraging); // the sensor needs a delay here to catch its breath
   if (sens < test){
   test3 = sens; // remember the 3 lowest readings
   test2 = test3;
   test = test2;}
}
if (test < basis-marge && test2 < basis-marge && test3 < basis-marge){//all 3 low readings mus be < the basis reading
    digitalWrite(led, HIGH);
    resetteller++; // count how long the LED stays on
}
    else{
      digitalWrite(led, LOW);
      basis = test; // if the lowest test reading is higher than the basis, basis will be reset
      resetteller = 0;
    }
    if (resetteller > resetsamples){basis = test;}//if LED stays on to long, we don't trust it and reset basis
    Serial.print(basis);Serial.print(" ");Serial.print(test);Serial.print(" ");Serial.println(sens);//just for debugging
    test = 1024;
}

Step 4: About the Sketch

What does it do?

When you darken the sensor led, for instance by covering it with your hand, it will turn on the other LED.

Why is this one better?

This sketch works much more reliable than the previous version.
This sketch has the serial monitor functionality.
All the tweaking is done in the top of the sketch with four variables.
I did put a lot more explanations in the sketch

Is this sketch perfect?

No, it is far from perfect, but is works great most of the time. Sometimes it doesn't work at all for no apparent reason. But when it works, it will keep on working for hours.
Besides that does it still not do what lekirst wants it to do: The LED sensor is also the emitting sensor that stays on as long as it is touched.
I'm sorry that I use Dutch names for the variables some of the time, but that is because Dutch isn't Dutch to me.

How to tweak

You can change the "marge". This will set how sensitive the sketch will be for light changes. A low value is a high sensitivity.

When you change the "vertraging" you can set the speed of the sensor. A low value is a high speed. My Arduino doesn't work when I set it al the way to 0, but with 1 it works most of the time. Somehow the Arduino needs a short rest in-between sensing.

With the "samples" you change the accuracy of the sketch. More samples is a higher accuracy, but with a higher value it will also react slower.

The last value you can tweak is the "resetsamples". This value sets how long the sketch will accept a low reading on the sensor (and turn on the LED) until it doesn't trust it anymore and reset the sensor back to zero.

What else?

Well if you want to put your emitting LED in an other pin, you should change the value of "led" to the number of the pin you want to use.
The same goes for the value of "sensorpin" if you want to use an other analog pin for your sensor LED.

You might notice that the LED turns off after a short time when I keep my hand over the sensor. This is because of the "resetsamples" value. When you increase this value, the LED will stay on longer. But when the sensor makes a mistake because of changing light or something, it also takes longer for the sketch to correct this.

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42 Comments

mkpeker

6 years ago

Use code below for real light sensing with LED.

Connections: LED's cathode to GND pin, LED's anode to A0 pin (Anode is smaller part in LED)

you can see result on pin13 arduino's built in led, also serial terminal

Green or red classic 5mm LEDs gives best result

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:

void setup() {

// initialize serial communication at 9600 bits per second:

pinMode(13, OUTPUT);

Serial.begin(9600);

}

// the loop routine runs over and over again forever:

void loop() {

// read the input on analog pin 0:

int sensorValue = analogRead(A0);

Serial.println(sensorValue);

if (sensorValue < 50) { digitalWrite(13, HIGH);}

else if (sensorValue >= 50) { digitalWrite(13, LOW);}

else { // digitalWrite(led, HIGH);

delay(500);

digitalWrite(13, LOW);}

}

SzymonB2

7 years ago

This does not use the LED as a light sensor but rather an antenna. It picks up 50/60Hz noise from the grid. If you put your hand close to the LED without changing the incident light you will see the thing still "working". If you remove the LED and replace it with a small wire it will continue "working".

68erDirk

7 years ago

I found your description on my search for building a "reactive light" for geocaching and I'm very happy since most examples I had were for ATTINY in BASCOM. (google for the german "Reaktivlicht"). But it seems there is a small error in your code (which doesn't make any problems but it will not work as intended according to your comments. Look here:

if (sens < test){
test3 = sens; // remember the 3 lowest readings
test2 = test3;
test = test2;}
}

if (test < basis-marge && test2 < basis-marge
&& test3 < basis-marge){//all 3 low readings mus be < the
basis reading

After

test3 = sens; // remember the 3 lowest readings
test2 = test3;
test = test2;}

test, test2 and test3 will have the same value (sens), therefore your if statement will just compare the lowest reading.

So you could just use

if (sens<test) test=sense;

}

if (test < basis-marge && test2 < basis-marge &&
test3 < basis-marge){//all 3 low readings mus be < the basis
reading

...

instead.

If you want to be less tolerant and require that all three lowest values stay below basis - merge you could use the following:

for ....{ ...

if(sens < test3) {

if(sens < test2) {

if(sens < test) { // sens is smaller than all three test values

test3 = test2;

test2 = test;

test = sens;

} else { // sens is smaller than test3 and test2 but not than test

test3 = test2;

test2 = sens;

}

} else { // sense is smaller than test3 but not smaller than test2 and test

test3 = sens;

}

} // after this you have test < test2 < test3!

}

if (test3 < basis-marge){//all 3 low readings mus be < the basis
reading

digitalWrite(led, HIGH);

resetteller++; // count how long the LED stays on

}

Since nobody complained so far this discussion may be purely academical. Somaybe you should just use the version from my comment to keep your code shorter.

Cofficted

8 years ago on Step 3

What you made is some sort of antenna (in this case EM detector) on the A0 pin. Try to put your hand near the sensor LED but not between the LED and the light and you will see. BTW is true LED can act like light sensors but you will need an amplifier.

To see that i'm right take off the LED and pass your hand over the Arduino A0 pin ;)

And if you put a wire on this port the effect will be amplified.

ssreekanth

8 years ago on Introduction

used to work ,now not working

WX4ME

8 years ago on Introduction

Great enhancment

please keep going further

can you tell me how can i make it sense more than one LED like putting 2 more sensing leds and operate the same ?

thanks a lot

swolf11

9 years ago on Introduction

nice! i made it and is working nice!

Introduction: Better LED As Light Sensor