Light sensor

VEX V5 General Discussion General Forum
1

Is there any way that a 3 wire light sensor that was used with the old system would be able to be used with the v5 3 wire ports or not.

2

Yes. It is a standard analog sensor. It interfaces electrically with the Brain/Cortex the same way a potentiometer, line tracker, accelerometer, or gyroscope does.

3

Ok thanks, but on vex coding studio it doesnt show up on the sensor list, so how do we make it a sensor.

4

Create an instance of a light sensor, it’s probably not in the robot config as it’s not an often used sensor, it should be in the drawer when using C++ Pro


light Light( Brain.ThreeWirePort.A );

int main() {
  while(1) {
    int value = Light.value( analogUnits::range12bit );
    
    Brain.Screen.printAt( 10, 50, "Light Sensor %d", value);
    // Allow other tasks to run
    this_thread::sleep_for(10);
  }
}
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5

K, we are using c++ not pro so would it basically be the same concept.

6

What are you going to use for a light source? It works well with an incandescent light but we could not make it work with the Vex Flashlight 276-2210 or other LED’s. I assume that earlier versions of the Vex Flashlight were incandescent?
We tried a pair of Vex Line Followers using one as a source and one as a sensor, but couldn’t make that work either.
We wanted to detect a field object broke the beam and was in position fort the claw grip it.

7

yea, same idea, just add the constructor for the light sensor at the top of main.cpp. Make sure you pick the correct port, this is, Brain.ThreeWirePort.A would be port A etc.

1 Like
8

We had the sensor and code working when we had a non Vex legal incandescent light. It just did not work with the Vex Flashlight or any LED. What is a legal light source, I assume a “Radio Shack” light bulb would not be legal.