Your electronics can now see in dazzling color with this lovely color light sensor. Adafruit found one of the best color sensors on the market, the TCS34725, which has RGB and Clear light sensing elements. An IR blocking filter, integrated on-chip and localized to the color sensing photodiodes, minimizes the IR spectral component of the incoming light and allows color measurements to be made accurately. The filter means you’ll get much truer color than most sensors, since humans don’t see IR. The sensor also has an incredible 3,800,000:1 dynamic range with adjustable integration time and gain so it is suited for use behind darkened glass or fabric.

To make sure you get consistent color, Adafruit specified a nice neutral 4150°K temperature LED with a MOSFET driver onboard to illuminate what you’re trying to sense. The LED can be easily turned on during sensing and turned off afterwards to save power.

Connect to any microcontroller or single board computer via I2C and you can start reading data. While the board is designed for conductive thread, it will also work with conventional soldered wires. Adafruit provides Arduino and Python libraries to have you up and running in no time!