Detect RGB Color With Raspberry Pi Pico

Introduction

In this tutorial we shall see how to detect the RGB color using Raspberry Pi Pico and APDS 9960 sensor. The result is then displayed on the Sparkfun RGB lcd. Basically the sensor is capable of detecting gesture, proximity, light and RGB. For this tutorial we focus on detecting the color using the Raspberry Pi Pico. Also for the Raspberry Pi Pico casing i have 3D printed a casing.

Video

Hardware Setup

This are the devices used in this tutorial

The connection between the devices are done as shown in the figure below

Coding

Below is the code in this tutorial

#include 
#include 
#include  

SerLCD lcd; // Initialize the library with default I2C address 0x72

SparkFun_APDS9960 apds = SparkFun_APDS9960();
uint16_t ambient_light = 0;
uint16_t red_light = 0;
uint16_t green_light = 0;
uint16_t blue_light = 0;
uint8_t proximity_data = 0;

void setup() {
  Wire.begin();
  Serial.begin(9600);
  lcd.begin(Wire); //Set up the LCD for I2C communication

  lcd.setBacklight(255, 255, 255); //Set backlight to bright white
  lcd.setContrast(5); //Set contrast. Lower to 0 for higher contrast.

  Wire.setClock(400000);

  lcd.clear(); //Clear the display - this moves the cursor to home position as well
  lcd.setCursor(0,0);
  lcd.print("    RPi PICO  ");
  lcd.setCursor(0,1);
  lcd.print("  Color Sensor  ");
  delay(3000);

  // Initialize APDS-9960 (configure I2C and initial values)
  if ( apds.init() ) {
    Serial.println(F("APDS-9960 initialization complete"));
  } else {
    Serial.println(F("Something went wrong during APDS-9960 init!"));
  }
  
  // Start running the APDS-9960 light sensor (no interrupts)
  if ( apds.enableLightSensor(false) ) {
    Serial.println(F("Light sensor is now running"));
  } else {
    Serial.println(F("Something went wrong during light sensor init!"));
  }

  // Adjust the Proximity sensor gain
  if ( !apds.setProximityGain(PGAIN_2X) ) {
    Serial.println(F("Something went wrong trying to set PGAIN"));
  }
  
  // Start running the APDS-9960 proximity sensor (no interrupts)
  if ( apds.enableProximitySensor(false) ) {
    Serial.println(F("Proximity sensor is now running"));
  } else {
    Serial.println(F("Something went wrong during sensor init!"));
  }
  
  // Wait for initialization and calibration to finish
  delay(1000);
}


void loop() {

   // lcd.clear();

      // Read the light levels (ambient, red, green, blue)
  if (  !apds.readAmbientLight(ambient_light) ||
        !apds.readRedLight(red_light) ||
        !apds.readGreenLight(green_light) ||
        !apds.readBlueLight(blue_light) ) {
    Serial.println("Error reading light values");
  } else {
    Serial.print("Ambient: ");
    Serial.print(ambient_light);
    Serial.print(" Red: ");
    Serial.print(red_light);
    Serial.print(" Green: ");
    Serial.print(green_light);
    Serial.print(" Blue: ");
    Serial.println(blue_light);
  }

  // Read the proximity value
  if ( !apds.readProximity(proximity_data) ) {
    Serial.println("Error reading proximity value");
  } else {
    Serial.print("Proximity: ");
    Serial.println(proximity_data);
  }
  
  // Wait 1 second before next reading
  delay(100);

  if(proximity_data > 200){
    
    if(( red_light > green_light )&&( red_light > blue_light )){
    lcd.setBacklight(255, 0, 0); //bright red
    lcd.clear();
    lcd.print("Red");
    delay(3000);
    }

    else if(( green_light > red_light )&&( green_light > blue_light )){
    lcd.setBacklight(0, 255, 0); //bright green
    lcd.clear();
    lcd.print("Green");
    delay(3000);
    }

    else if(( blue_light > red_light )&&( blue_light > green_light )){
     lcd.setBacklight(0, 0, 255); //bright blue
     lcd.clear();
     lcd.print("Blue");
     delay(3000);
    }

    else if( green_light > 50 ){
     lcd.setBacklight(255, 255, 255); //Set backlight to bright white
    lcd.clear();
    lcd.print("No Color Detect");
    delay(3000);
    }
  }
    else
    {
    lcd.setBacklight(255, 255, 255); //Set backlight to bright white
    lcd.clear();
    lcd.print("No Color Detect");
    delay(3000);
    }
    
}

3D Printing

The casing for the Raspberry Pi Pico is obtained from Thingiverse.

Resources

• https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/microcontrollers/
• For the 3D printed casing https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4808999

Thank You

Thanks for reading this tutorial. If you have any technical inquiries, please post at Cytron Technical Forum.

"Please be reminded, this tutorial is prepared for you to try and learn.
You are encouraged to improve the code for a better application."