How to Distinguish Between TOFL1CX and TOFL1CB After Assembly?

[qqzlqqzlqqzl]

Hello ST team,

Thank you very much for your previous help with debugging TOF. We have now selected the TOFL1CX and TOFL1CB as our distance measurement sensors. However, we have encountered a problem: both TOF models have already been soldered onto the PCB, and we cannot tell which one is TOFL1CX and which one is TOFL1CB. We would like to distinguish the two TOFs by reading their IDs, but for some reason, the IDs read out are identical. Is there any way to distinguish between these two TOF models? Their appearance also seems identical.

At the same time, I am a bit confused: are these two TOFs considered as high-end and low-end versions? According to the datasheet, the main difference is the measurement range, and TOFL1CX does not support multi-target detection (but I found that running TOFL1CB’s code on the TOFL1CX also works and provides multi-target output), whereas TOFL1CB officially supports multi-target.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

Below is the code segment I used to get the ID.

 VL53L1_RdByte(Dev, 0x010F, &byteData);
 printf("VL53L1X Model_ID: %02X\n\r", byteData);
 VL53L1_RdByte(Dev, 0x0110, &byteData);
 printf("VL53L1X Module_Type: %02X\n\r", byteData);
 VL53L1_RdWord(Dev, 0x010F, &wordData);
 printf("VL53L1X: %02X\n\r", wordData);
/*
usart print data:
VL53L1X Model_ID: EA
VL53L1X Module_Type: CC
VL53L1X: EACC
*/

 

[John_Kvam]

I'm a retired employee - so I might be speaking out of turn here. 

You are right, there is no way to tell them apart. 

ST promises the Vl53L1CB will run the more complex Histogram code (Which is where you get the multi-target ability). But it WILL run the easier VL53L1X code as well. So mixing in that direction is not an issue. 

But if you force the VL53L1X parts to run the more complex VL53L1CB code there is NO guarantee they will work as they have not been tested. But oddly most of the L1Xs are plenty good enough to run the L1CB code, but they have not been tested.

I'd assume all your devices are the VL53L1X. That way you cannot go wrong. 

You might have over paid a little bit using the L1CBs as L1X, but it's easier than doing a lot of testing. 

- john

[qqzlqqzlqqzl]

Thank you very much for your help. It's really a big problem that I can't tell them apart. Can I distinguish between the two by measuring distance? For example, if I set up a 6-meter obstacle (a 90% Lambertian reflector), run the VL53L1CB code, and check whether the TOF sensor can detect the 6-meter target, would that help me determine whether the sensor is an L1CB (the datasheet says it can measure up to 8 meters) or an L1CX (which the datasheet says can only measure up to 4 meters)?

Right now, I'm a bit confused about the differences between the VL53L1CB and VL53L1CX. I have a bold guess: the VL53L1CB is a version of the VL53L1 that passed the tests and has excellent ranging performance, while the VL53L1CX is a VL53L1 that also passed the tests but has only average ranging performance. The VL53L1 with excellent ranging performance would be stable in multi-target detection, whereas the one with average performance might not be able to achieve reliable multi-target detection, so it's cut down to only support single-target detection.

Wish you a pleasant life.