Out of the Box
The TCS230-DB Color Sensor Daughterboard
Kit consists of a TCS230-DB daughterboard
that includes the TAOS TCS230 color sensor
chip, a lens, and two current-regulated white
LEDs. Also included are four one-inch
aluminum standoffs and four 3/4" screws.
The daughterboard is compatible with all
Parallax motherboards, including the
MoBoStamp-pe. It can operate with Vdd set
anywhere between 2.7V and 5.5V. However, a
nominal 5V supply is needed for operation of
the LEDs, which the motherboard
automatically provides. For operation without
a motherboard, such as with Parallax's Board
of Education, an extension cable (p/n 800-
28301) and a SIP adapter ("DB Expander", p/n
28325) are available separately to convert the
TCS230DB's two-row, 2mm header to a more
convenient single-row, 0.1-inch spacing.
Getting Started
Hardware Notes
If you are using the TCS230-DB with the
MoBoStamp-pe, make sure that you have the
GPIO3 firmware loaded into the AVR
coprocessors. The MoboStamp-pe comes from
the factory with the GPIO3 firmware installed.
If you have installed other AVR firmware,
reload the GPIO3 hex file using the
LoadAVR.exe utility before proceeding.
The TCS230-DB works best with the front
surface of the printed circuit board located
between 1" and 1 / " from the subject being
sensed. For this reason, aluminum spacers are
included, which can be affixed to form legs. If
you are using your TCS230-DB with a
Parallax motherboard, remove all the screws
from the brass spacers at both ends of the
board, and replace them with the 3/4" screws
included in this kit. The screws should be
installed from the bottom of the motherboard
and protrude through the brass spacers. At
this point, you can install the TCS230-DB on
the "B" end of the motherboard and attach the
spacers as shown below. The left-over short
screws may also be screwed into the ends of
the legs as a height adjustment.
If you are connecting the TCS230-DB to the
motherboard via the extension cable (p/n
800-28301), attach the spacers directly to the
TCS230-DB using the unused short screws
provided with the motherboard.
If you are using the TCS230-DB with the DB-
Expander instead of a motherboard, you will
need to obtain eight 4-40 x 1/4" panhead
machines screws (Parallax p/n 700-00028) to
attach the legs, since the 3/4" screws
provided are too long, and to use as a height
adjustment.
Now, assuming you're using the
MoBoStamp-pe, key the following BS2pe
program into the BASIC Stamp Editor. (A
similar program, along with programs for
different BASIC Stamp versions is available
for download at
)
Next, connect the motherboard to your PC,
and
the program you've entered. Two
things should now happen: 1) the white LEDs
on the sensor module will come on, and 2)
you will see output appear in the debug
window that looks something like this:
These numbers are relative values for the
red, green, and blue components of the color
the sensor is looking at. With the TCS230-DB
perched on its legs atop a piece of white
paper, you will notice that the LEDs form a
bright spot of light in front of the lens. You
may need to adjust the LEDs or the height a
bit to make sure that the spots from both
merge into a single round spot.
No technical discussion of the TCS230 sensor
module set would be complete without the
material contained in the TAOS TCS230
datasheet. If you do not have this datasheet,
you are encouraged to download it from the
TAOS website,
.
The TCS230 has an array of photodetectors,
each with either a red, green, or blue filter, or
no filter (clear). The filters of each color are
distributed evenly throughout the array to
eliminate location bias among the colors.
Internal to the device is an oscillator which
produces a square-wave output whose
frequency is proportional to the intensity of
the chosen color. There is one output from
this oscillator, and the color to be read is
selected using two address lines:
and
.
In addition, it is possible to program the
divide rate of the oscillator using two
additional lines,
and
. The settings for
these control lines and their functions are
summarized below:
The TCS230 chip's data and control lines are
brought directly to the 2mm header, through
which it interfaces to the motherboard or to
another system. The only exception is the
/OE output enable line, which is
permanently asserted low. In addition, both
S0 and S1 are pulled high through resistors
to Vdd, which programs the TCS230 for its
maximum output frequency. Therefore, to
use this setting, neither S0 nor S1 need to be
connected. There are also jumper pads on the
TCS230-DB by which either S0 or S1, or both,
can be strapped low.
To program the data rate from a BASIC
Stamp, it will be necessary to connect S0 and
S1 to a programmable port. On the
MoBoStamp-pe, this must be done through
the AVR coprocessor via the OWOUT
instruction, since these signals do not
1 16
www.parallax.com.
www.taosinc.com
S2
S3
S0
S1
Run
R123 G065 B200
R120 G060 B187
etc.
S0 S1 Divide
S2 S3 Color
0
0
0
0
Red
0
1
1:50
0
1
Blue
1
0
1:5
1
0
Clear
1
1
1:1
1
1
Green
Pwr. Down
'{$STAMP BS2pe}
Out
CON 7
S3
CON 0
S2
CON 1
LED
CON 5
pRED
CON 15
pGREEN CON 12
pBLUE
CON 9
RED
VAR Word
GREEN
VAR Word
BLUE
VAR Word
Start:
HIGH
LED
MainLp:
GOSUB
Color
DEBUG
"R", DEC3 RED
DEBUG
" G", DEC3 GREEN
DEBUG
" B", DEC3 BLUE
DEBUG
CR
GOTO
MainLp
Color:
LOW
S2
LOW
S3
COUNT
Out, pRED, RED
HIGH
S3
COUNT
Out, pBLUE, BLUE
HIGH
S2
COUNT
Out, pGREEN, GREEN
RETURN
TCS230-DB
COLOR SENSOR
DAUGHTERBOARD KIT
www.parallax.com
T E X A S
A D V A N C E D
O P T O E L E C T R O N I C
S O L U T I O N S
www.taosinc.com
®
®
TM
TAOS #TCS230-DB
Parallax #28302
