Adafruit
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 int...
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)
Jargon buster
Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.
- Bootloader
- Small starter software on a microcontroller that lets new code be uploaded before the main program runs. Knowing how to enter bootloader mode matters when you need to program the board or recover it after a faulty sketch.
- CircuitPython
- A beginner-friendly version of Python designed to run directly on microcontroller boards. If a product supports CircuitPython, you can often program it by copying code files onto the board rather than setting up a more complex toolchain.
- HID
- Human Interface Device is a USB device class used for keyboards, mice, gamepads and similar controls. If a board supports HID over USB, it can act like an input device to a computer without needing a custom driver.
- LED
- A light-emitting diode is a small electronic component that lights up when current flows through it in the correct direction. In this kit, LEDs create the flashing effect, so polarity and correct soldering matter for the project to work.
- microcontroller
- A microcontroller is a small computer on a chip that runs your program and controls connected inputs and outputs. For this product, it is the part that reads buttons and sensors, drives the display and speaker, and communicates over Bluetooth.
- MIDI
- MIDI is a standard way for electronic instruments, controllers, and software to send musical control messages such as notes, velocity, and timing. If a board supports MIDI, it can be triggered from keyboards, drum pads, sequencers, or other music gear rather than only from buttons or code.
- NeoPixel
- A type of addressable LED system where colour data is sent along a single digital data line from one LED or controller to the next. Compatibility matters because the timing and signal format must match for the lights or driver board to respond correctly.
- RAM
- RAM is temporary memory used while a device is running, and its contents are lost when power is removed. A “Run in RAM” mode is useful for testing settings without permanently programming the module, but it may not support every feature.
- RGB
- Short for red, green and blue, usually referring to an LED that can mix those three colours. It matters because controlling an RGB LED teaches how separate outputs combine to create different colours.
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Brands
Microcontrollers
Related Tutorials
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