The LTR390 is one of the few low-cost UV sensors available, and it's a pretty nice one! With both ambient light and UVA sensing with a peak spectral response between 300 and 350nm. You can use it for measuring  how much sun you can get before needing to covering up.

Unlike sensors that estimate UV Index readings from visible and IR light levels such as the Si1145, the LTR390 incorporates two sensors, one for visible and another specifically designed to measure UV light levels. The sensor's CircuitPython library includes routines to derive the UV Index value from raw UV measurements as well as calculating the ambient light Lux level.

The LTR390 also has a much much simpler I2C interface so you can run it on the Arduino or Python microcontrollers/microcomputers with ease. Unlike the GUVA analog sensor, the biasing and ADC is all internal so you don't need an ADC.

To make using it as easy as possible, we’ve put the LTR390 on a breakout PCB  in our Stemma QT form factor with a sprinkle of support circuitry to give you options when testing. You can either use a breadboard or the SparkFun qwiic compatible STEMMA QT connectors, and compatibility with 5V voltage levels as commonly found on Arduinos, as well as 3.3V logic used by many other boards like the Raspberry Pi or our Feathers. QT Cable is not included, but we have a variety in the shop for quick plug-and-play support

This guide was first published on Dec 29, 2020. It was last updated on Mar 28, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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