[Dprglist] VL53L sensors

[secretary at dprg.org]

I am a big fan of the Pololu Distance Sensor with Pulse Width output, 130
cm max range, part #4071. They are very easy to use and work well. This
sensor is a breakout board for one of the ST VL5xxxx sensors (do not know
which one) and by changing some 0 ohm resistors around it can be configured
to any sensor in Pololu's offerings at
https://www.pololu.com/category/283/pololu-digital-distance-sensors.

Right now, they are my favorite IR sensor.

Regards,
Doug P.

On Wed, Dec 15, 2021 at 8:38 AM jesse brockmann via DPRGlist <
dprglist at lists.dprg.org> wrote:

> FYI: pololu.com also carries some of these sensors and also many others
> as well.
>
> https://www.pololu.com/category/220/lidar-time-of-flight-range-finders
>
>
> Jesse
>
> On Wed, Dec 15, 2021, 4:13 AM Paul Bouchier via DPRGlist <
> dprglist at lists.dprg.org> wrote:
>
>> We had a discussion about the VL53 family of IR proximity sensors at RBNV
>> last night, and we were unsure of the differences between e.g. VL53L1X,
>> VL53L1 (no X) etc. This st page has a family decoder chart:
>>
>> https://www.st.com/en/imaging-and-photonics-solutions/time-of-flight-sensors.html
>>
>> In a nutshell, it looks like:
>> VL53L0CX is 200cm single zone
>> VL53L1CX is a 400cm single-zone programmable FoV
>> VL53L1CB is 800cm multi-zone/multi-target programmable FoV (looks like
>> best of all - what's the downside?) 27 degree max FoV
>> VL53L3CX is 500cm multi-zone/multi-target with close distance detection
>> VL53L5CX is 400cm multi-zone/multi-target Wide FoV: 64 degrees
>>
>> Sparkfun sells the VL53L3CX, VL53L1X and VL53L5CX, and some have arduino
>> libraries, some don't. They refer to the VL53L1X as "venerable", aka old,
>> single-zone. I only find the VL53L0X and VL53L1X (single-zone) sensors on
>> Amazon.
>>
>> It seems to me the VL53L1CB is also known as VL53L1 (no X). Someone at ST
>> ought to be shot for defining VL53L1 and VL53L1X part numbers that have
>> such different characteristics but only differ in part number by inclusion
>> or not of X.
>>
>> It looked like David had the VL53L1 version, so presumably VL53L1CB. Not
>> sure about Pat.
>>
>>
>> [image: image.png]
>>
>> This diagram is also helpful - it shows that single-zone vs. multi-zone
>> are really for different applications.
>> [image: image.png]
>> Single-zone ranging is good for e.g. liquid levels, but programmable FoV
>> gives flexibility by narrowing the FoV used to report a single zone range,
>> Multi-zone & multi-target give more XYZ detail. Multi-zone refers to
>> multiple regions of interest in the XY plane. Multi-target seems to refer
>> to objects at different depths within a single region of interest - if
>> they're separated in Z by more than 80cm it will report up to 3 of them -
>> it histograms the arrival times and bucket-izes range readings.
>>
>> These are pretty sophisticated sensors! The driver even loads the device
>> firmware into the chip! Hats off to Pat for getting it to do ranging. As
>> illustrated by the discussion last night, there's a lot to learn about
>> these things.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
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