AS7262 6-channel Spectral Sensor (Spectrometer) Breakout

by Pimoroni

Detect six distinct channels of visible light with this fancy-pants spectral sensor!

Unlike normal RGB colour sensors, with the AS7262 you'll get six bands of colour readings that roughly translate to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Rainbow-y!

The two on-board white LEDs mean that you can illuminate materials to give more accurate spectral readings and also measure reflectivity of surfaces. The LEDs we've used are really high quality ones with a CRI of >=90 and a colour temperature of 4,000K for consistent and accurate colour rendering.

You can do all sorts of cool things with this sensor, like analysing different light sources, measuring  transmission of light through materials or solutions (with an additional light source), and more. Why not combine the AS7262 breakout with one of our OLED breakouts, and chart the colour information on it?

The AS7262 6-Channel Spectral Sensor Breakout has an I2C interface and is 3.3V or 5V compatible. Like our other Pimoroni breakouts, we've designed it so that you can solder a piece of right-angle header onto it and then pop it straight onto the bottom left 5 pins on your Raspberry Pi's GPIO header (pins 1, 3, 5, 6, 9).

It's also compatible with our fancy Breakout Garden, where using breakouts is as easy just popping it into one of the six slots and starting to grow your project, create, and code.

Features

  • AMS AS7262 6-channel spectral (visible) sensor (datasheet)
  • I2C interface (address: 0x49)
  • 6 spectral channels (450, 500, 550, 570, 600, 650nm)
  • 2 on-board illumination LEDs
  • 3.3V or 5V compatible
  • Reverse polarity protection
  • Raspberry Pi-compatible pinout (pins 1, 3, 5, 7, 9)
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi (Python library)
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico (C++/MicroPython libraries)

Kit includes

  • AS7262 6-Channel Spectral Sensor Breakout
  • 1x5 male header
  • 1x5 female right angle header

Software

We've put together a Python library that you can use to read data from your AS7262 6-Channel Spectral Sensor Breakout, an easy one-line installer to install everything, and a couple of examples of reading data from it. 

You can also use this breakout with Raspberry Pi Pico and other RP2040 boards, using C++ or Pirate brand MicroPython.

Notes

  • This AS7262 breakout cannot be used in serial mode
  • The five pads on the underside of the breakout are for programming the flash memory on the sensor during production, and shouldn't be used unless you know what you're doing
  • Dimensions: 19x21x4mm