Arduino based digital luxmeter for didactical laboratory use

Abstract

This work aimed the construction of a luxmeter using a photodetector/light to frequency converter (LTF) and Arduino platform. The execution steps consisted on developing the communication and control programming code between photodetector and Arduino, manufacturing a homemade printed circuit board and finishing the assembled luxmeter with the insertion of buttons, display and all other electronic components in a Patola^® box. The built luxmeter was used in three didactic experiments carried out in the undergraduate laboratory discipline of Physics and Engineering courses whose studied topic is Optics. The performed measurements demonstrated that the luxmeter meets the laboratory’s needs when replacing commercial equipments that are currently in use.

Keywords
Optics; single slit diffraction; luxmeter; Arduino