Hi!
I have bought this promising sensor some months ago, but till now I did not make it working.
I would like to know more in detail how to switch this sensor to UART so that I can give AT commands.
On the guide it is written that the sensors is originally in I2C mode and that it can be switched to UART in two steps:
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The I2C jumper on the front of the board must be opened to remove the pull-up resistors from the TX and RX lines.
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The JP2 on the rear of the board must be closed with a solder jumper.
But it is not clear to me what should I do . It is so small . How to do it ? Should I use the solder ? Is there a more detailed guide? And once I have switched to UART can I come back to I2C in a simple manner ?
Thank you very much for your help.
Bye
- On the front of the board, you will need to cut the small traces on the jumper labeled “I2C” that connect the center pad with the two outside pads.
- On the back of the board, where the jumper labeled "JP2" is you will need to add a small blob of solder that connects both pads.
To reverse this, place a small blob of solder that connects all three pads on the "I2C" jumper and remove the solder blob on the "JP2" jumper.
There’s a tutorial in the link below for working with traces and jumpers, we recommend you read that and practice on some junk boards before attempting to modify your device. If you’re not careful you can damage your board beyond repair.
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/ho … pcb-traces
OK . I will read carefully this tutorial. Thank you. My question is, once done , and migrated to UART, can I still come back to I2C easily ? The first blob can be difficult to remove. Thank you again. Bye
Yes, it can be undone, you just need the proper tools to remove the solder blob.
We recommend [solder wick for that. :-)](Solder Wick #2 25ft. - TechSpray - TOL-08775 - SparkFun Electronics)
HI!Thank you very much for your replies. They have been very useful. I arranged reading with arduino for now and I have obtained a graphical plot (I have attached it). This plot corresponds to a piece of color blue paper. The program flashed on Arduino is taken from Example 2 - Basic Reading with Leds , of arduino libraries provided by Sparkfun. I do not understand some things. On the plot there are the 18 frequencies of wave lenght but how can be interpreted the y axis ? It should be the energy Ev. How can I interpret this plot ? I suppose that the energy reflected is maximum for the A frequency. While the x axis should be time .
Then I have another more general question about this spectrometer. Can this be considered a spectrophotometer ? And also since the value measured is the light reflected from the surface of the object this should be called a reflectance spectrometer and not an absorbance one. And finally I would ask about the Ginger Pocket Counter. What does mean Counter ? What is counted ? Is there a legenda for all the materials ? Thank you for your great patience. Bye
Unfortunately we just make the board the sensor is on, interpreting the data is going to be up to you but the Y axis indicates how strong a return you’re getting on a particular wavelength.
On your Ginger Pocket Counter question, I think you mean [Pocket Geiger Counter.[/i]
The Wikipedia article blow should help answer your questions about that. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geiger_counter](Pocket Geiger Radiation Sensor - Type 5 - SEN-14209 - SparkFun Electronics)
On the plot there are the 18 frequencies of wave lenght but how can be interpreted the y axis ?
The Y axis report the count values for each wavelength channel, which are proportional to the intensities of light received at each wavelength.
The sensor data sheet describes the interpretation of channel count values in detail, so study it very carefully.
