Arduino Color Sensing Tutorial And Color Sorter

The TCS230 senses color light with the help of an 8 x 8 array of photodiodes. Then using a Current-to-Frequency Converter the readings from the photodiodes are converted into a square wave with a frequency directly proportional to the light intensity. Finally, using the Arduino Board we can read the square wave output and get the results for the color.

If we take a closer look at the sensor we can see how it detects various colors. The photodiodes have three different color filters. Sixteen of them have red filters, another 16 have green filters, another 16 have blue filters and the other 16 photodiodes are clear with no filters.

TCS230 Color Sensor Source Code

Description: First we need to define the pins to which the sensor is connected and define a variable for reading the frequency. In the setup section we need to define the four control pins as outputs and the sensor output as an Arduino input. Here we also need to set the frequency-scaling, for this example I will set it to 20%, and start the serial communication for displaying the results in the Serial Monitor.

In the loop section, we will start with reading the red filtered photodiodes. For that purpose we will set the two control pins S2 and S3 to low logic level. Then using the “pulseIn()” function we will read the output frequency and put it into the variable “frequency”. Using the Serial.print() function we will print the result on the serial monitor. The same procedure goes for the two other colors, we just need to adjust the control pins for the appropriate color.

//Prateeek //www.prateeks.in #define S0 9 #define S1 8 #define S2 11 #define S3 10 #define sensorOut 12 int frequency = 0; void setup() { pinMode(S0, OUTPUT); pinMode(S1, OUTPUT); pinMode(S2, OUTPUT); pinMode(S3, OUTPUT); pinMode(sensorOut, INPUT); // Setting frequency-scaling to 20% digitalWrite(S0,HIGH); digitalWrite(S1,LOW); Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { // Setting red filtered photodiodes to be read digitalWrite(S2,LOW); digitalWrite(S3,LOW); // Reading the output frequency frequency = pulseIn(sensorOut, LOW); // Printing the value on the serial monitor Serial.print("R= ");//printing name Serial.print(frequency);//printing RED color frequency Serial.print(" "); delay(100); // Setting Green filtered photodiodes to be read digitalWrite(S2,HIGH); digitalWrite(S3,HIGH); // Reading the output frequency frequency = pulseIn(sensorOut, LOW); // Printing the value on the serial monitor Serial.print("G= ");//printing name Serial.print(frequency);//printing RED color frequency Serial.print(" "); delay(100); // Setting Blue filtered photodiodes to be read digitalWrite(S2,LOW); digitalWrite(S3,HIGH); // Reading the output frequency frequency = pulseIn(sensorOut, LOW); // Printing the value on the serial monitor Serial.print("B= ");//printing name Serial.print(frequency);//printing RED color frequency Serial.println(" "); delay(100); }

Arduino Color Sorter Project :-

Code :-

//Prateek //www.prateeks.in #include <Servo.h> #define S0 9 #define S1 8 #define S2 11 #define S3 10 #define sensorOut 12 Servo topServo; Servo bottomServo; int frequency = 0; int color=0; void setup() { pinMode(S0, OUTPUT); pinMode(S1, OUTPUT); pinMode(S2, OUTPUT); pinMode(S3, OUTPUT); pinMode(sensorOut, INPUT); // Setting frequency-scaling to 20% digitalWrite(S0, HIGH); digitalWrite(S1, LOW); topServo.attach(2); bottomServo.attach(3); Serial.begin(9600); } void loop() { topServo.write(115); delay(500); for(int i = 115; i > 65; i--) { topServo.write(i); delay(2); } delay(500); color = readColor(); delay(10); switch (color) { case 1: bottomServo.write(50); break; case 2: bottomServo.write(75); break; case 3: bottomServo.write(100); break; case 4: bottomServo.write(125); break; case 5: bottomServo.write(150); break; case 6: bottomServo.write(175); break; case 0: break; } delay(300); for(int i = 65; i > 29; i--) { topServo.write(i); delay(2); } delay(200); for(int i = 29; i < 115; i++) { topServo.write(i); delay(2); } color=0; } // Custom Function - readColor() int readColor() { // Setting red filtered photodiodes to be read digitalWrite(S2, LOW); digitalWrite(S3, LOW); // Reading the output frequency frequency = pulseIn(sensorOut, LOW); int R = frequency; // Printing the value on the serial monitor Serial.print("R= ");//printing name Serial.print(frequency);//printing RED color frequency Serial.print(" "); delay(50); // Setting Green filtered photodiodes to be read digitalWrite(S2, HIGH); digitalWrite(S3, HIGH); // Reading the output frequency frequency = pulseIn(sensorOut, LOW); int G = frequency; // Printing the value on the serial monitor Serial.print("G= ");//printing name Serial.print(frequency);//printing RED color frequency Serial.print(" "); delay(50); // Setting Blue filtered photodiodes to be read digitalWrite(S2, LOW); digitalWrite(S3, HIGH); // Reading the output frequency frequency = pulseIn(sensorOut, LOW); int B = frequency; // Printing the value on the serial monitor Serial.print("B= ");//printing name Serial.print(frequency);//printing RED color frequency Serial.println(" "); delay(50); if(R<45 & R>32 & G<65 & G>55){ color = 1; // Red } if(G<55 & G>43 & B<47 &B>35){ color = 2; // Orange } if(R<53 & R>40 & G<53 & G>40){ color = 3; // Green } if(R<38 & R>24 & G<44 & G>30){ color = 4; // Yellow } if(R<56 & R>46 & G<65 & G>55){ color = 5; // Brown } if (G<58 & G>45 & B<40 &B>26){ color = 6; // Blue } return color; }