DIY LED Camera

The process mentioned below shows how we can convert the LEDs to the light sensors so that it can be used for many other purposes also. Read on to know more about this.As the Blinkenlight Shield has 20 of them, 20 pixel camera can be developed by it. After performing the experiment, it is recommended to reset the jumper setting to default. LED or Light Emitting diodes usually act as the photo diodes and are optimized to produce the light.

LEDs can be used to make the light detectors that can be helpful in various conditions. The idea behind this is to reverse bias the diodes by turning the IO pins to output low so that the LEDs used will act as capacitors and will not be conducted. The current produced due to the LED is very small, and the photo current produced discharges the LED capacitors. After charging, the IO pins have to be switched to high Z so as to generate the light. The light produced and the current are directly proportional to each other.

After the discharging of capacitors, the pin will move towards high from low. By measuring the time taken for discharge, the amount of light reached by the LED can be calculated. After processing all the LEDs, they can be used in a serial line but it should be taken care of that this is done in a separate step to avoid any mistake in measuring the discharge time.