Advice on best choice of light sensor for greenhouse temperature control

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

I’m looking for a light sensor to do some monitoring in a greenhouse (ultimately will be used as part of a temperature control system but right now just trying to collect data on the amount of sunlight (i.e. insolation) hitting the greenhouse in different weather conditions.

I’ve found some temperature sensors with Qwiic / STEMMA QT connectors, so ideally something compatible, but that’s not critical. I need a digital signal output (e.g. I2C) because it could be going down a few meters of cable to the Raspberry Pi.

Most important is accurate ambient light sensing in the range of intensities expected in a greenhouse with rapid response to changes.

There seem to be a lot of options:

  1. Gravity I2C VEML7700 Ambient Light Sensor, 0 ~ 167Klx
  2. Phidgets Light Sensor 70,000 lux, up to 70 kilolux
  3. Waveshare TSL25911 High Sensitivity Digital Ambient Light Sensor I2C, 600M:1 wide dynamic range
  4. Adafruit BH1750 Light Sensor - STEMMA QT / Qwiic
  5. SparkFun Ambient Light Sensor - VEML6030 (Qwiic)

Any advice on how to choose?

thanks.

1 Like
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Hi @billtubbs and welcome to our forum!

Sorry for this late reply.

You mentioned: Most important is accurate ambient light sensing in the range of intensities expected in a greenhouse with rapid response to changes.

My question would be, what are these values? Do you know some examples?

If it is the most important parameters, then you should choose light sensor according to it.

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No I do not know the range of intensities of direct sunlight in a greenhouse. According to wikipedia sunlight at the earths surface is about 100,000 lux.

Is there anyone there who was had experience using a light sensor outdoors?

Bill.