Testing A Portable UV Index Meter
TAGS: electronics; Software; Arduino; Nano; GUVA-S12SD UV Sensor
Why I Did This
I bought the cheap GUVA-S12SD (Ultra Violet) UV sensor because I figured it could be a useful sensor for a myriad of solar projects (weather station; garden solar quality measurement; solar panel monitors; UV research projects) so I wanted to test out its measuring qualities with a simple portable meter.
Nano, 9V terminal, OLED display, and UV sensor.
Design Walkthrough
Parts: Arduino microcontroller (nano); GUVA-S12SD UV sensor; OLED display; 9V battery
I followed the directions of the Abid Hossain’s UV index meter tutorial to setup some basic Arduino code for produce UV range values (0-10 UV index). By combining all the parts I was able to produce the portable testable product.
Readings in darkness.
Readings in sunlight behind a window.
Readings in direct sunlight.
Lessons Learned and Future Changes
It works, enough said. It works well and was easy to set up. I appreciate how the sensor and code was set up without the need of a sensor specific library and only required a few lines of math code (to convert the analog signal to a UV index value).Compares with photoresistor? This UV sensor works similarly to a photoresistor where it produces an analog value corresponding to intensity, but they are different technologies; this sensor captures the ‘240-370nm range of light which covers UVB and most of UVA spectrum’; the photoresistor typically works within the visible light wavelength range (peaking near 540nm). I wonder how they would fare side by side in supplementing a solar system with useful data or control?
References
GUVA-S12SD UV sensor purchase website:
https://thepihut.com/products/adafruit-analog-uv-light-sensor-breakout-guva-s12sd
Abid Hossain’s UV index meter tutorial:
https://www.hackster.io/abid_hossain/arduino-uv-index-meter-f03b4e
0.91in OLED display tutorial:
https://www.aranacorp.com/en/using-a-0-91in-oled-display-with-arduino/
GM55 photoresistor data sheet: https://www.sparkinter.com/pdf/120300-0056590.pdf