bh1750fvi-driver is a java library that operates ambient light sensor called BH1750FVI to connect BH1750FVI to GPIO terminal of Raspberry Pi 3B and make it for use in java. I releases this in the form of the Eclipse plug-in project. You need Java 8.

I use Pi4J for gpio communication in java and have confirmed that it works in Raspberry Pi 3B (Raspbian Buster Lite OS (2019-07-10)).

Note. To use Pi4J 1.2's I2C functionality, sun.misc.SharedSecrets.class is required, but this class can only be used up to Java 8 and cannot be used since Java 9. Therefore, Java 8 is required to use this library.

• Pins of BH1750FVI
  • Vin (3.3V)
  • GND
  • SDA
  • SCL
  • AD0 --> I2C address is 0x23 when connected to GND or left open, and 0x5c when connected to Vin.
• GPIO of Raspberry Pi 3B
  • Vin --> (1) or (17) / 3.3V
  • GND --> (6), (9), (14), (20), (25), (30), (34) or (39)
  • SDA --> (3) GPIO2 / I2C bus 1, (27) GPIO0 / I2C bus 0
  • SCL --> (5) GPIO3 / I2C bus 1, (28) GPIO1 / I2C bus 0

The connection terminals for SDA and SCL vary depending on the I2C bus number (1 or 0). For reference, it seems that some BH1750FVI products are also compatible with 5V due to the voltage regulator.

The reason for using this version is that it is the latest as of July 2019 and BlueZ 5.50 is included from the beginning, and use Bluetooth and serial communication simultaneously.

• Edit /boot/cmdline.txt

console=serial0,115200 --> removed

• Edit /boot/config.txt

@@ -43,9 +43,10 @@
 #arm_freq=800
 
 # Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces
-#dtparam=i2c_arm=on
+dtparam=i2c_arm=on
+dtparam=i2c_vc=on
 #dtparam=i2s=on
-#dtparam=spi=on
+dtparam=spi=on
 
 # Uncomment this to enable the lirc-rpi module
 #dtoverlay=lirc-rpi
@@ -55,6 +56,10 @@
 # Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
 dtparam=audio=on
 
+enable_uart=1
+dtoverlay=pi3-miniuart-bt
+core_freq=250
+
 [pi4]
 # Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack
 dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

• Edit /etc/modules

i2c-dev <-- added

When editing is complete, reboot.

Pi4J depends on the WiringPi native library by Gordon Henderson. The Pi4J native library is dynamically linked to WiringPi.

# apt-get update
# apt-get install wiringpi

When using with Raspberry Pi 4B, install the latest version as follows. Please refer to here.

# wget https://project-downloads.drogon.net/wiringpi-latest.deb
# dpkg -i wiringpi-latest.deb

Please make sure it’s version 2.52.

# gpio -v
gpio version: 2.52

Note. In October 2019, I have not confirmed the official information that can use Raspberry Pi 4B with Pi4J and WiringPi. I've simply checked that it works, but some problems may occur.

For example, the installation of OpenJDK 8 is shown below.

# apt-get update
# apt-get install openjdk-8-jdk

If git is not included, please install it.

# apt-get install git

Install i2c-tools to use i2cdetect command.

# apt-get install i2c-tools

If BH1750FVI is connected to I2C bus 1, the i2cdetect command displays the following.

# i2cdetect -y 1
     0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  a  b  c  d  e  f
00:          -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
10: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
20: -- -- -- 23 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
30: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
40: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
50: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
60: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 
70: -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --   

• SLF4J 1.7.26
• Pi4J 1.2 (pi4j-core.jar)

I would like to thank the authors of these very useful codes, and all the contributors.

The following sample code will be helpful. A strange value may be returned at the first time, but I think that the normal values will be obtained after the second time.

import com.pi4j.io.i2c.I2CBus;

import io.github.s5uishida.iot.device.bh1750fvi.driver.BH1750FVIDriver;

public class MyBH1750FVI {
    private static final Logger LOG = LoggerFactory.getLogger(MyBH1750FVI.class);
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        BH1750FVIDriver bh1750fvi = null;
        try {
            bh1750fvi = BH1750FVIDriver.getInstance(I2CBus.BUS_1, BH1750FVIDriver.I2C_ADDRESS_23);
            bh1750fvi.open();
                
            while (true) {
                float value = bh1750fvi.getOptical();
                LOG.info("optical:" + value);
                    
                Thread.sleep(10000);
            }
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            LOG.warn("caught - {}", e.toString());
        } catch (IOException e) {
            LOG.warn("caught - {}", e.toString());
        } finally {
            if (bh1750fvi != null) {
                bh1750fvi.close();
            }
        }
    }
}