ColorPAL documentation

Quick Start (Color Sensing)

1. Hook up your ColorPAL as shown below in the Installation section, using P15 for the signal.

2. Download the color match software zip file from the ColorPAL product page on parallax.com.

3. Load the program ColorPAL_sense.bs2 into your BASIC Stamp and RUN it.

4. Close the DEBUG window.

5. Start the program TCS230_ColorPAL_match.exe on your PC.

6. Follow the instructions included with the color match zip file.

Quicker Start (Color Sensing)

1. Hook up your ColorPAL as shown below in the Installation section, using P15 for the signal.

2. Download the BASIC Stamp program, ColorPAL_mimic.bs2, and RUN it in your BASIC Stamp.

3. Calibrate on black and white subjects, using the “b” and “w” keys.

4. Sample a color using the “s” key, then look at the LED to see that color being mimicked.

Quickest Start (LED Demo)

1. Hook up your ColorPAL as shown below in the Installation section, using P15 for the signal.

2. Download the BASIC Stamp program, ColorPAL_transit.bs2, and RUN it in your BASIC Stamp.

Hold the ColorPAL above a white sheet of paper, and watch as the LED’s colors change, blending

from one to another. CAUTION:

The LED is much too bright and concentrated to stare at

directly. Use the above technique to view the color changes.

Principle of Operation

The ColorPAL uses an RGB LED to illuminate a sample, one color at a time, along with a broad-spectrum

light-to-voltage converter to measure the light reflected back. The amount of light reflected from the

sample under illumination from each red, green, and blue LED can be used to determine the sample’s

color.

The light sensor used in the ColorPAL is a TAOS (www.taosinc.com) TSL13T, which has the following

spectral sensitivity curve (taken from the TSL13T datasheet and superimposed with the LED

wavelengths: