1. Introduction

Automated sorting machines on factory lines, separating objects by colour, and paint-matching tools used in hardware stores both rely on exactly this kind of sensor to identify colour precisely and repeatably. In this experiment, a TCS3200 color sensor module is wired to the STM32F070RB, and the microcontroller measures the relative intensity of red, green, and blue light reflecting off a nearby object, printing the results over UART.

2. Scope

This experiment covers understanding how the TCS3200 converts light intensity into a frequency rather than a voltage or digital register value, selecting between its red, green, and blue filtered photodiode groups, and measuring output frequency by counting pulses over a fixed time window. This introduces frequency-based sensing, a genuinely different measurement technique from anything else in this series.

3. Prerequisite

3.1 Hardware

• STM32 Nucleo-F070RB development board

• TCS3200 or TCS230 color sensor module

• Breadboard and jumper wires

• Micro-USB cable

• PC with PuTTY

• A few brightly and distinctly coloured objects for testing

3.2 Software

• STM32CubeMX (standalone)

• STM32CubeIDE

• ST-LINK USB driver

• PuTTY, or an equivalent serial terminal application