OMS AS7421 User manual

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Sensing is life
26/08/2022
AS7421 Evaluation Kit
Quick Start Guide

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AS7421 Evaluation Kit
Quick Start Guide
AS7421 EVK Contents
AS7421 Sensor Board
Setup
AS7421 PC Software

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Contents of the AS7421 Evaluation Kit
AS7421 Evaluation Kit - Out of the box
Out of the box
1–Flex cable
2–AS7421 Sensor board
3–Unicom Board
4–micro USB to USB cable
5–Reference Target
6–USB Flash Drive
Fig. 1: AS7421 Evaluation Kit content
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Contents of the AS7421 Evaluation Kit
AS7421 Evaluation Kit
The AS7421 Evaluation (Eval) Kit is designed to evaluate all the functions of the AS7421 64-Channel Spectral NIR
sensor.
The Eval Kit contains two boards: theAS7421 sensor board (2 in Fig. 1) and the Unicom microcontroller board (3in
Fig. 1). The sensor board is connected to the Unicom microcontroller board via a flex cable (1in Fig. 1).
The Eval Kit works with a USB connection (4in Fig. 1) to the PC and comes with a Windows GUI, which enables the
user to change measurement settings, perform spectral measurements, and see/export measurement results.
The kit comes with firmware flashed on the STM32 ARM Cortex microcontroller.

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AS7421 Sensor Board
Introduction
Fig. 2: Fig. 3:

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Setup
Getting Started
1. Connect theAS7421 sensor board with the Unicom
microcontroller board via the flex cable provided.
2. To install the “AS7421 Windows Demo GUI” software on
your computer, start the executable “Setup.exe” and follow
the installation instructions1.
3. Then, connect the Unicom microcontroller board to a PC via
the micro USB cable.
4. Both green LEDs on the Unicom microcontroller board will
light up, signaling a correct operation.
5. Finally, start the Windows GUI on your computer.
1 -If you already have an old Demo software version, please go to the Windows settings, add/remove software, then
remove the old version
Fig. 4: Unicom microcontroller board

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AS7421 PC Software
GUI Overview –Main menu areas
Key
1–Settings area
2–Header line area
3–Plotting area
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Fig. 5: AS7421 GUI Overview of the main areas
NOTE: Please refer to the AS7421 User Guide for detailed information on these areas.

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AS7421 PC Software
GUI Overview –Settings Area
Key
1–Connection tab
2–Settings tab
3–Export tab
4–Calibration tab
5–Measurement/Teaching tab
6–Measurement Data tab
7–Status bar
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Fig. 6: AS7421 GUI Overview of the Settings area
NOTE: Please refer to the AS7421 User Guide for detailed information on these tabs.

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AS7421 PC Software
Starting a measurement –connecting the AS7421 Eval board
1. Firstly, connect the evaluation board to your computer
using a micro USB cable according to the procedure
from the previous page –the board will register as a
virtual COM port in Windows.
2. Afterward, select the correct COM port in the
selection box on the upper left corner of the
application and click “Connect”.
3. The ID field under the “Connect” button will show the
unique ID of the AS7421 sensors upon successful
connection.
4. When connecting to the sensor board for the first
time, the software will ask for an appropriate
calibration file. The calibration file is named after the
unique ID and can be found on the USB drive, which
is part of the evaluation kit. If no matching calibration
file is present, please contact ams-OSRAM and
provide the sensor board ID number.
Fig. 7: AS7421 Demo GUI

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AS7421 PC Software
Starting a measurement
5. If the measured data is needed later for evaluation,
choose an export path. This saves the data in CSV
format.
6. Align the sensor board with the measurement target and
choose the desired measurement options, such as
continuous measurement, or stop after a desired
amount of measurements.
7. Then, click “Measurement“ to start the spectral
measurement process.
8. Afterward, the software will show the spectrum of the
measured target.
9. In the lower-left corner it is possible to choose between
different measured spectral data drawings and
calculations.
Fig. 8: AS7421 Demo GUI with a measurement