Lonely Binary
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The TK57 at an angle: a black board with a gold border, lonely binary up the left edge, a black TCRT5000 housing standing near the top with a blue dome and a black dome side by side on it, small parts below it, two round LEGO holes, ANALOG in a gold box on the right edge, and a right-angle four-pin header.
VR

View it in VR

This board opens in a VR headset: life-size, or big enough to stand beside, with every pin and every part named where it sits. Open this address in the browser on a headset such as Apple Vision Pro or Meta Quest.

learn.lonelybinary.com/vr/tk57
You have this

Reflective Optical Sensor

A Vishay TCRT5000 on a TinkerBlock board: an infrared emitter that is always on and a phototransistor beside it, both looking out of the front. Infrared coming back pulls SIGNAL down from VCC through 4.7 kΩ, so white paper reads low and black tape or open air reads high. Analog only, best at 2.5 mm, and VCC goes to your board's logic voltage: 3V3, or 5V on an Uno.

Sees best at
2.5mm; fades out by about 15 mm
Output
Analoglower as more light comes back
Draws
18mA at 3.3 V, all the time; about 32 at 5 V
VCC
3V3or 5V on an Uno: your board's logic voltage
Start here · 01 The four pinsOpen the board in 3D

Turn it over and see the three holes to wire: GND, VCC and SIGNAL. VCC lights the infrared emitter through 120 Ω and pulls SIGNAL up through 4.7 kΩ; light coming back pulls SIGNAL down.

Product questions & answers ↓

The whole handbook9 articles · 40 minQuick referencePDF · 460 KBReflective Optical Sensor model (GLB)GLB · 989 KBReflective Optical Sensor CAD (STEP)ZIP · 975 KBTCRT5000 datasheetPDF · vishay.comPinout and specsThe pin table, and the questions people ask first
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Product questions

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Reflective Optical Sensor

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Need another

Not on general sale yet. Reply to your order and we will sort out a spare — quote tk57.

Order or missing parts?

Email us or reply to your order, and quote tk57 — that identifies the product. If something is missing from the bag, your order is the record of what shipped.

Take it with you

Point a phone camera at the code and this page opens there. It is the same address as the one printed on your box, so it is also what to show someone you are passing the board to.