VEML6070 ultraviolet (UV) light sensor and ESP32

VEML6070 is an advanced ultraviolet (UV) light sensor with I2C protocol interface and designed by the CMOS process. It is easily operated via a simple I2C command. The active acknowledge (ACK) feature with threshold windows setting allows the UV sensor to send out a UVI alert message.

Under a strong solar UVI condition, the smart ACK signal can be easily implemented by the software programming.

VEML6070 incorporates a photodiode, amplifiers, and analog / digital circuits into a single chip. VEML6070’s adoption of FiltronTM UV technology provides the best spectral sensitivity to cover UV spectrum sensing. It has an
excellent temperature compensation and a robust refresh rate setting that does not use an external RC low pass filter.

VEML6070 has linear sensitivity to solar UV light and is easily adjusted by an external resistor. Software shutdown mode is provided, which reduces power consumption to be less than 1 μA. VEML6070’s operating voltage ranges from 2.7 V to 5.5 V.

Parts Required

Here are the parts I used

you can connect to the sensor using a standard header the classic dupont style jumper wire.

Name	Link
ESP32		Aliexpress link Amazon Ebay
VEML6070		Aliexpress link Ebay link Amazon Link
Connecting cables		Aliexpress link Amazon Ebay

Schematics/Layout

esp32 and VEML6070

Code

Again we use a library and again its an adafruit one – https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_VEML6070

#include <Wire.h>
#include "Adafruit_VEML6070.h"

Adafruit_VEML6070 uv = Adafruit_VEML6070();

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("VEML6070 Test");
uv.begin(VEML6070_1_T); // pass in the integration time constant
}

void loop()
{
Serial.print("UV light level: ");
Serial.println(uv.readUV());
delay(1000);
}

Output

Open the serial monitor – this is what I saw. I was indoors at the time

UV light level: 0
UV light level: 0
UV light level: 0

Links

https://www.vishay.com/docs/84277/veml6070.pdf