ST VL53L0X / VL53L1X Lidar

The VL53L0X lidar is a very small, affordable but relatively short range (2m range) time-of-flight lidar

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images courtesy of Pololu.com

Note

Support for this lidar was first made available in available in Copter-3.6, Rover-3.3, and Plane-3.9. Support the 4m ST VL53L1X will be released with Copter-3.7.

Where to Buy

Connecting to the Flight Controller

Connect the VCC, GND, SDA ans SCL lines of the lidar to the I2C port on the flight controller as shown below.

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Please set the rangefinder parameters as shown below (this can be done using the Mission Planner Config/Tuning | Full Parameter List page):

  • RNGFND_TYPE = 16 (VL53L0X)
  • RNGFND_ADDR = 41 (I2C Address of lidar in decimal). The sensor’s default I2C address is 0x29 hexademical which is 41 in decimal.
  • RNGFND_SCALING = 1
  • RNGFND_MIN_CM = 5
  • RNGFND_MAX_CM = 120 for the VL53L0X, 360 for the VL53L1X. This is the distance in cm that the rangefinder can reliably read.
  • RNGFND_GNDCLEAR = 10 or more accurately the distance in cm from the range finder to the ground when the vehicle is landed. This value depends on how you have mounted the rangefinder.

Testing the sensor

Distances read by the sensor can be seen in the Mission Planner’s Flight Data screen’s Status tab. Look closely for “sonarrange”.(The value of this image is not a real value.)

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