Development of a Simple Instrument for Measuring Turbidity and Watercolor using the TCS3200 Color Sensor Modules Saumi Syahreza (a*), Raihan(a), Irhamni (a)
a) Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh 23111, Aceh, Indonesia
*ssyahreza[at]usk.ac.id
Abstract
Turbidity and color are physical/optical properties of water that are determined based on the amount of light absorbed and emitted by the materials contained in the water. This study aimed to develop a simple and inexpensive turbidity and color-measuring instrument. The instrument utilizes the principle of light reflection from the particles suspended in water. In this study, the TCS3200 color sensor module was used to detect light reflection which is this sensor integrated LED and photodiode as a light source and sensor. The intensity of the reflected light will be detected by the sensor and further into a current-to-frequency converted proportional to the magnitude of the current. The Arduino-Uno microcontroller was used to read input from the sensor, process, and then produce output/measurement results displayed on the LCD screen. In this study, yellow, green, and red-colored substances were made from a mixture of clay, spirulina, iron oxide, and distilled water determined in content for each (10 - 100 mg / l) used as samples in testing the instrument. The results showed that the output frequency of the designed equipment had a strong and significant relationship with turbidity (NTU) and reflectance at each wavelength. The output frequency increased as turbidity and reflectance increased. The results also demonstrated that the accuracy of turbidity and color measurements of the designed instrument were able to reach about 86,7 % to 88.80%. This designed equipment can measure water quality <5 NTU (clear) to > 25 NTU (cloudy) and at the same time distinguish four different types of water / liquid color (colorless/clear, yellow, green, and red)
Keywords: Simple instrument, Turbidity, Water-color, Arduino-uno, TCS230 Color Sensor Module
