The Adafruit TSL2585 Digital UVA and Ambient Light Sensor is a great "three-in-one" light sensor that has ambient light sensing, Infrared channel and UVA (315nm-400nm). In particular its not that common to get UVA narrow-band sensing on an I2C sensor, so this is great for outdoor light monitoring. It can also be used to measure curing lights, blacklights and reptile lamps!

Please Note: this sensor will give 'counts' for the ambient light sensor, and is not lux calibrated, so you can use it for measurements but it wont convert to Lux. The UVA sensor does have a calibration byte, but only for 'factory corrected' counts, not µW/cm².

The sensor has an auto-gain system with up to x4096 gain, plus adjustable integration time, so it can detect down to 1 millilux.

This chip is tiny and normally uses 1.8V power and logic so we've wrapped it into a tasty Stemma QT breakout board with SparkFun qwiic compatible STEMMA QT connectors for the I2C bus so you don't even need to solder. Just wire up to your favorite micro with a plug-and-play cable to get data ASAP. For a no-solder experience, just wire up to your favorite micro using a STEMMA QT adapter cable. The Stemma QT connectors also mean the TSL2585 can be used with our various associated accessories. QT Cable is not included, but we have a variety in the shop

Communicating to the sensor is done over I2C, check out our Arduino and CircuitPython/Python code to get started fast and read data over I2C in a jiffy.

TSL2585 Sensor Specifications:

Sensor itself is low profile (0.35mm) and mini size L2.0mm x W1.0mm x H0.35mm
An ideal 315nm-400nm UVA channel, a human eye response, photopic channel and an IR channel
With an ultra-low noise analog front-end, up to 4096x gain and 20-bit resolution offer high sensitivity ALS detection
Special edge-located photodiode placement which allows for a narrow bezel design down to 0.4mm width
Equipped with 3 modulators with up to 14kHz fast sampling rate offer fast and accurate ambient light illuminance and flicker information
Function: ambient light sensing and flicker detection
Interface: Input I2C 1MHz
Operating Ambient Temperature: Min. -30 °C / Max. 85 °C
Product Dimensions: 25.5mm x 18.0mm x 5.0mm / 1.0" x 0.7" x 0.2"
Product Weight: 3.6g / 0.1oz