AMS TSL2541 User manual

User guide
TSL2541 EVM
TSL2541 ALS, Light-to-Digital Sensor Evaluation Kit
Version 1.0

TSL2541 EVM User Guide
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Contents
1Introduction........................................................................................................................... 3
1.1 Kit Contents..........................................................................................................................3
2Getting Started.....................................................................................................................3
3Hardware Description...........................................................................................................3
4Software Description............................................................................................................4
4.1 Connect Software to Hardware............................................................................................4
4.2 System Menus .....................................................................................................................5
4.3 System Level Controls .........................................................................................................6
4.4 Auto Polling..........................................................................................................................6
4.5 Device ID Information...........................................................................................................7
4.6 Log Status and Control Information.....................................................................................7
4.7 “ALS” Tab ............................................................................................................................. 8
5Resources..........................................................................................................................10

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1 Introduction
The TSL2541 evaluation kit comes with everything needed to evaluate the TSL2541 ALS, Light-to-
Digital sensor. The device features advanced digital Ambient Light Sensing (ALS) with two output
channels for visible and IR light.
1.1 Kit Contents
No.
Item
Description
1
TSL2541 Daughter Card
PCB with TSL2541 sensor installed
2
EVM Controller Board
Used to communicate USB to I2C
3
USB Cable (A to Mini-B)
Connects EVM controller to PC
4
Flash Drive
Include application installer and documents
Figure 1. Evaluation Kit Contents
2 Getting Started
The software should be installed prior to connecting any hardware to the computer. Follow the
instructions found in the Quick Start Guide (QSG). This loads the required driver for the USB
interface and also the device’s graphical user interface (GUI).
The balance of this document identifies and describes the controls available on the GUI. In
combination with the TSL2541 datasheet, the QSG and application notes available on the ams
website, www.ams.com, there should be enough information to allow evaluation of the TSL2541
device.
3 Hardware Description
The hardware consists of the EVM Controller, the TSL2541 EVM daughter card, and a USB
interface cable. The EVM controller board provides power and I2C communication to the daughter
card through a seven pin connector. When the EVM controller is connected to the PC through USB,
a green LED on the board flashes once on power up to indicate the system is getting power.
For schematics, layout and BOM information, please see the documents included with the install
located in the TSL2541 EVM folder (All Programs -> ams -> TSL2541 EVM -> Documents).

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Figure 2. Evaluation Kit Hardware
4 Software Description
The main window (Figure 3) contains the system menus, system level controls, device information
and logging status. The ALS tab contains controls for the light sensing function. The application
polls the ALS data continuously and calculates the lux.
Figure 3. Software Main Window
4.1 Connect Software to Hardware
On startup, the software automatically connects to the hardware. On successful initialization, the
software displays a main window, containing controls pertinent to the connected device. If the
software detects an error, an error window appears. If “Device not found or is unsupported”
appears, verify the correct daughterboard is properly connected to the EVM controller board. If
“Cannot connect to EVM board” appears, verify the USB cable is connected. When the EVM
controller board is connected to the USB, a green LED on the board flashes once on power up to
indicate the USB cable is connected and providing power to the system.

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If the EVM board is disconnected from the USB bus while the program is running it displays an error
message and then terminates. Reconnect the EVM board and restart the program.
4.2 System Menus
At the top of the window there are pull-down menus labeled “File”, “Log”, and “Help”. The File menu
provides basic application-level control. The Log menu is used to control the logging function, and
the Help menu provides version and copyright information for the application.
4.2.1 File Menu
The File menu contains the following functions:
Figure 4. File Menu
The Reread Registers function forces the program to re-read all of the control registers from the
device and display them on the screen. This does not read the output data, because those
registers are continually read while the program is running.
The Lux Coefficients menu allows the user to Display, Load or Save the lux coefficients used to
calculate lux. See ALS Lux Coefficients section for more details.
Click on the Exit command to close the main window and terminate the application. Any unsaved
log data is cleared from memory. The application can also be close by clicking the red “X” in the
upper right hand corner.
4.2.2 Log Menu
The Log menu is used to control the logging function and to save the log data to a file. Log data is
accumulated in memory until it is discarded or written to a data file.
Figure 5. Log Menu
Click Start Logging to start the logging function. Each time the program polls the output information
from the device, it creates a new log entry showing the raw data values, the values of various
control registers, and the values entered by the user into the text fields near the bottom right corner
of the window.
Click Stop Logging to stop the logging function. Once logging is stopped, the data can be written to
a file, or the user can continue collecting additional data by clicking Start Logging again.
The Log a Single Entry command causes logging to start, collect one single entry, and
immediately stop again. This function is not available when logging is already running.