AS7265X compatibility with raspberry pi

Hello

I want to use the “SparkFun Triad Spectroscopy AS7265x” sensor for a project I am building with a raspberry pi 4. I have also seen that you have a Qwiic HAT adapter for the raspberry pi. I have seen however in the spec documents that the LEDs on the AS7265x sensor require up to 100mA of current each, while the maximum current that can be provided by the 3V3 GPIO pin is limited to 16mA.

Is this sensor fully compatible with the raspberry pi?

Hello liangour.

The Qwiic Hat pulls it’s power from the 5 volt power supply on your Pi and then regulates that down to the 3.3 volts for any attached Qwiic devices. The hat supplies 600mA for attached Qwiic devices.

We don’t have any code or libraries for AS7265X that I know of, but if you were to write your own, there’s no reason why the AS7265X wouldn’t work with a Pi. If you didn’t want to write those, you could always attach the board to an Arduino Uno and then run the Arduino code on the Uno and then spit the data out serially to your Pi for further processing.

Hello Chris and thank you for your answer. Is the Qwiic Hat necessary or can it also be done with the use of the Qwiic SHIM?

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15794

Since multiple Qwiic connect system sensors can be connected in series, what is the need of multiple qwiic connect ports?

The Qwiic Shim would work too it also has a voltage regulator that gets it’s power from the 5 volt line on a Pi. The multiple Qwiic ports are just on the hat for your convenience, you really only need one and can connect everything in series from that, or you can use the individual sockets if you like.

Ok great!

What should the maximum distance be from an object or a light source in order for the triad sensor to provide credible data?

It varies depending on your setup, you will need to determine the optimal distance experimentally.