SparkFun ToF Range Finder Breakout - VL6180

Jargon buster

Plain-language definitions for the technical terms used above.

Ambient light sensor

A sensor that measures the general brightness of light falling on it, similar to how a device can adjust screen brightness automatically. It matters when you want a project to react to room lighting, daylight, shadows, or covered/uncovered conditions.

breakout

A breakout is a small circuit board that makes a tiny or hard-to-solder component easier to connect to with standard pins. It matters because this OLED module can be wired into a microcontroller project without needing to solder directly to the display’s fine contacts.

GPIO

General-purpose input/output pins are microcontroller pins you can set in software to read signals, switch devices on and off, or connect to peripherals. The number of GPIO pins matters because it limits how many buttons, LEDs, sensors, and other parts you can wire directly to the board.

I2C

I2C is a two-wire communication bus used by many sensors and small modules. It matters because several I2C devices can share the same two wires, but each device needs a compatible address and your controller must support I2C.