Adafruit Proximity Trinkey - USB APDS9960 Sensor Dev Board

The Adafruit Proximity Trinkey is a tiny USB-A development board built around the APDS9960 multi-function sensor and an ATSAMD21 microcontroller. Plug it into any USB port and you instantly have proximity, colour, ambient light, and gesture sensing — plus two NeoPixel LEDs and two capacitive touch pads — all programmable with CircuitPython or Arduino.

Over USB, the Trinkey can act as a serial console, MIDI device, HID keyboard/mouse, or a small disk drive for storing Python scripts. It's ideal for projects that use motion or light sensing as intuitive input — wave your hand to trigger actions, detect object colour, or sense ambient brightness.

Key Features

• APDS9960 Sensor – Proximity (up to ~15 cm), RGB colour sensing, ambient light sensing, and basic gesture detection via integrated IR LED and photodiodes
• ATSAMD21E18 Processor – 48 MHz 32-bit Cortex M0+ with 256 KB Flash and 32 KB RAM
• USB-A Plug – Plugs directly into any USB port; appears as serial, MIDI, HID, or disk drive
• 2 RGB NeoPixel LEDs – Customisable glow for status feedback or ambiance
• 2 Capacitive Touch Pads – Left and right touch inputs on the slotted end
• Reset Button – Enter bootloader mode or restart code
• CircuitPython and Arduino Support – Libraries available for APDS9960, NeoPixel, and FreeTouch

APDS9960 Sensing Capabilities

• Proximity – Detects objects up to ~15 cm away using reflected IR light
• RGB Colour – Identifies colours of bright, reflective objects
• Ambient Light – Measures room brightness
• Gesture – Basic 4-directional gesture recognition using cardinal photodiodes
• Configurable Interrupt – Fires when proximity or colour thresholds are crossed

Ideal For

• Gesture-controlled computer interfaces
• Colour detection and sorting projects
• Ambient light-responsive desktop lighting
• Simple HID input devices triggered by proximity or touch

Package Contents

• 1× Adafruit Proximity Trinkey (assembled)