Imaging (sensors)

We are beginning to migrate from the L1 to the L4.  Wondering if there is a way to auto-detect which sensor is on the board? I would like to build one fw version which abstracts away which sensor is in use (albeit taking advantage of diff features) but all I see is SWVersion API which only returns version not type.  Both appear to be same address on I2C for us. Thanks, Will  

In the search for a distance senor which can sample at highest rate. Given the constraint of a measurement range <1m and accuracy of relative distance changes in the low mm range. Ideally we could get a sampling rate of 1kHz.The VL53L4 sensors would be priced quite reasonable, but I am afraid the sampling rate will not be sufficient to track the movement of our object.Also, is my understanding correct that at he the same accuracy the VL53L4CX should result at twice the rate of returned distance measurements compared to the VL53L4CD. Due to the way how the A/B measurement results are combined. I.e. only one new A(or B) measurement taken and the other value used from before. The VL53L4xD directly returns the distance so I assume it can't be configured in a similar way or could it? I have found a non ST part that could match our requirements, so I'm wondering if ST has any upcoming part with a higher sampling rate in the pipeline as well. 

Hi,   typedef struct { uint8_t Status; /*!< ResultStatus */ uint16_t Distance; /*!< ResultDistance */ uint16_t Ambient; /*!< ResultAmbient */ uint16_t SigPerSPAD;/*!< ResultSignalPerSPAD */ uint16_t NumSPADs; /*!< ResultNumSPADs */ } VL53L1X_Result_t; We have cases when the Sensor Status result is non zero.  When it is it is usually a 3 or 255: #define RANGE_ERROR_DISTANCE_BELOW_DETECTION_THRESHOLD 0x03#define RANGE_ERROR_OTHER 0xFF I asked about these in a different post but now I have a somewhat different perhaps more general question.  If the Status returns a non zero in any case should the Distance be disregarded -- in all cases? Or,  are there certain non zero Status conditions where we should "trust" the Distance versus not "trust" the Distance (reading) returned? As usual thank you, Will    

What is the Hex code to enable extended mode for the VL53L4CX please ??

Hi ST team,I'm developing the device which is using VL6180. Sometimes ToF(VL6180) is not recognized the object. And sometimes it is not recognized first and then becomes recognized again. But I don't know why this happened. I'm trying to find the reason but kept failing.My question's are..1. Could this phenomenon(1. not recognized 2. not recognized first and then becomes recognized again) occur when repeatedly recognizing a very short distance (<10mm) due to drift? According to the datasheet, drift is affected by temperature and voltage. But there is no mention about repeated recognizing. That's why I'm asking.2. Or is there something suspicious that could be causing this phenomenon?- In terms of hardware, software, and mechanical aspects Thank you

Hello,I am trying to use the VL53L7CX on a robotic project with the provided driver, but it fails at Init.The sensor is detected as alive ("isAlive" is true), the I2C speed is set to 1Mhz (even if I tried lower speeds as well), and it fails exacly at this line of the Init function:status |= _vl53l7cx_poll_for_answer(p_dev, 4, 0, VL53L7CX_UI_CMD_STATUS, 0xff, 2);The status byte is 0 just before that and it goes to 66 (MCU failure) just after the above line.And if I put 2 instead of 4 in the second argument, it doesn't fail at this line, but 2 lines after:status |= _vl53l7cx_send_offset_data(p_dev, VL53L7CX_RESOLUTION_4X4); For info, when I don't stop the init after these errors (forcing the following lines to be executed), I am able to "see" (with a smartphone camera) the infrared light from the sensor when starting ranging in my ranging function, but without any result, nothing detected. Does it mean that at least the firmware is downloaded?Any help would be apreciated!Thanks.

I am using the VL53L8CX sensor to measure distances, and I am getting correct values. After some time, the data starts to be sometimes incorrect, while slowly increasing the ratio of incorrect vs correct, until eventually all of the readings are incorrect.I've noticed that the time it takes for the data to start being incorrect is linearly related to the ranging frequency.The resolution I am using is 4x4.When using ranging frequency = 5, it takes 4 minutes for the first incorrect data.When using ranging frequency = 10, it takes 2 minutes for the first incorrect data.When using ranging frequency = 20, it takes 1 minute for the first incorrect data. When using ranging frequency = 60, it takes 20 seconds for the first incorrect data. Regarding the "correctness" of the data - the sensor is roughly 200 mm from the surface, and the readings I get at the beginning are as follows:Zone 0: ambient/spad = 2 | nb_spads_enable = 5632 | signal/spad = 1394 | distance_mm = 210 | range_s

I’ve been using the "vl53l8cx" sensor to measure distances through I2C, and I noticed that when I measure distances (between 10cm and 50cm), the values reported by the sensor are consistently half of the actual distance. For example, when the actual distance is 100mm, the sensor reports around 50mm, and similarly for other distances.I used the example code ST provided.I set 8*8 resolution and 15Hz frequency.I think problem occurs here. I got "target status : 6"  Could you please explain the reason for this issue and how to fix it?  

Currently I'm using some of the vl53l5cx api functions along with some custom code. I plan to have multiple ToFs used and noted, via o-scope, that the initialization function vl53l5cx_init (looks to be blocking code?? correct me if I'm wrong) takes about 2.5 seconds to complete (at 400Kbps I2C) to configure a single ToF. This means with the current initialization it would take more than 10 seconds alone for initialization to complete. Unfortunately, I am working in constraints that prevent me from accessing the watchdog to circumvent the issue. Are you aware of any ways of overcoming this? I wasn't sure of the initialization sequence was one that could be split.

Hi I have an application inquiry...'m looking into remote mounting a ToF sensor (i.e. VL53L4EDV0DH/1) in order to observe the environmental limitations of the sensor in a more difficult envorment...are there any guidelines or application history for this kind of optical adaptation?  (not as straightforward as a simple cover glass)   thanks, Jason

To begin, I am using the vl53l8cx breakout board from Pololu with a Nucleo-F446RE and PlatformIO. I have been having trouble getting the VL53L8CX to start ranging using the SPI2 interface. I get successful responses from the `_is_alive()` and `_init()` methods, but find that I get an error status of 1 from the call to `vl53l8cx_dci_read_data()` within the `_start_ranging()` method. Subsequently, a few lines down, `_start_ranging()` errors out with VL53L8CX_STATUS_ERROR.I tried following @RJRP 's solution here, but it didn't solve my problem.I have jumper wires from the Nucleo-F446RE to a breadboard. The wires are possibly too long, ~12cm in length.For clarity, the lines in question:/* Read ui range data content and compare if data size is the correct one */// This gives status = 1status |= vl53l8cx_dci_read_data(p_dev, (uint8_t*)p_dev->temp_buffer, 0x5440, 12);// This gives status = 255(void)memcpy(&tmp, &(p_dev->temp_buffer[0x8]), sizeof(tmp));if(tmp != p_dev->data_re

How do you turn the VL53L4CX extended mode on in python3 ??

Currently, I'm working on a project to detect human height, but the measured height appears shorter under strong ambient light. I would like to know if the ambient light affects the distance measurements

We placed two VL53L1X sensors at 18.6" in our temperature chamber. Over a 50C swing we saw up to 1.15" of variability. In the images bellow the chamber temperature stabilized around 30 minutes. The target was a large 24x24 sheet of white nylon 0.5" thickThe sensors were left on the entire time, polled every 10 seconds.SPAD ARRAY size 8x8Is there any way to improve this? Is it possible to access the temperature registers on the VL53L1x so we can create a variable to compensate for the temperature induced error?  

Hi, I am trying to integrate the VL53L8CX ULD driver with a project that utilizes chibios on an F4 based board.The TOF sensor firmware seems to be about 86KB. For a transfer of this size, the device fails to setup and use DMA-safe bouncebuffers. I cannot get it to transfer more than 9865 bytes at once. Can the VL53L8CX_WrMulti(...) calls be broken down into smaller chunks as a work around? If I understand correctly, this is using the auto increment feature of the I2C bus. So to further break the VL53L8CX_WrMulti(...) calls, I will have to ensure the address for each call is sent appropriately. So will this work?//in vl53l8cx_init(...)status |= VL53L8CX_WrMulti(&(p_dev->platform),0,(uint8_t*)&VL53L8CX_FIRMWARE[0],0x2000);status |= VL53L8CX_WrMulti(&(p_dev->platform),0x2000,(uint8_t*)&VL53L8CX_FIRMWARE[0x2000],0x2000);status |= VL53L8CX_WrMulti(&(p_dev->platform),0x4000,(uint8_t*)&VL53L8CX_FIRMWARE[0x4000],0x2000);status |= VL53L8CX_WrMulti(&(p_dev-&g

#define RANGE_ERROR_DISTANCE_BELOW_DETECTION_THRESHOLD 0x03#define RANGE_ERROR_OTHER 0xFFHi ST,Some of our production devices are receiving the above errors.  Can someone help me with understanding what might cause these errors?Thanks,Will 

hi i want to confirm can i use single vl53l3cx for depth mapping, i know that i should use l5,l7 or l8 but these not available in my country? and also since vl53l0cx the cheapest can i multiple of those too for the same?

There are three modes: LONG, MEDIUM, and SHORT. The names suggest that LONG allows measuring the greatest distances. In document UM2923 (section 5.2), there is information that the maximum distance can be achieved with the MEDIUM setting. What setting should I ultimately choose to measure the greatest distances?

Hi everyone, I have STM Nucleo-F401RE and X-Nucleo-53L7A1. I downloaded the SDK en.X-TOF1. When I check the pin configuration, I saw that X-Nucleo-53L7A1 I2C_RST (PB3) pin is SWO pin on F401RE board at the same time. I needed to delete PB3 pin configuration to connect F401RE board.  However, disconnecting PB3 did not allow me to communicate with ToF camera but I recognized that when I connect PWR_EN (PB0) pin and run the code I also lost debugger connection. When I disconnect the PB0 PWR_EN pin, the code runs but ToF sensor cannot be initialized. I am not sure if it is because Power consumption or not. Should I change pin configuration of SDK? What should I do to understand and solve the problem?

I have an STM32 Nucleo F401RE plus X-Nucleo-53L3A2 board.IDE and the rest of the toolchain installed, including the STSW-IMG016 P-NUCLEO-53L3A2 pack graphical user interface.The data brief of the GUI states "I2C transaction recording" which is of my major interest.How do I start this transaction recording? In the GUI software I did not find any option. The datalogging feature only logs sensor output, not I2C transactions. The reason is that I need to extract the I2C command sequence and parameters in order to initialize a VL53L3 sensor using a very tiny low cost microcontroller. Loading the full API is not possible for that processor.Any help getting the I2C transactions recorded and downloaded would be greatly appreciated.

I'm using the VL53L1X ULD API to drive 4 sensors and, sometimes, the function VL53L1X_SensorInit returns error VL53L1_ERROR_CONTROL_INTERFACE while initializing the third or four sensor (the first two are always initialized correctly).The sensor boot up correctly and returns correct measurements, tho.What's the best practice to manage this error? Is it correct to use something likestatusRadar = VL53L1X_SensorInit(dev_address); while(statusRadar) { statusRadar = VL53L1X_SensorInit(dev_address); }My init function is likestatic void VL53L1_init(void) { uint16_t ToFAddresses[4] = {0x54, 0x56, 0x58, 0x5A}; uint16_t dev_address = 0x52; uint8_t byteData, sensorState=0; // Reset the 4 ToF sensors on the expansion board for (ToFSensor = 0; ToFSensor < NUMERO_RADAR; ToFSensor++) { statusRadar = XNUCLEO53L1A1_ResetId(ToFSensor, 0); } // Bring the sensors out of the reset stage one by one and set the new I2C address for (ToFSensor = 0; ToFSensor < NUMERO_RADAR

We currently use the VL53L1x and have struggled with precise measurements to close objects. Our application needs precise measurements between 1mm and 400mm.  Reviewing the available sensors ST has it appears to us that the VL53L4CD is the best possible sensor given our needs.Would you agree? Thanks,Will  

Hello.I am designing a product using the VL53L7CH model.I am using a 3.3V MCU.So I'm trying to use 3.3V for both IOVDD and AVDD's voltage level.Is there no problem if I use the same line without distinguishing IOVDD and AVDD? Regards,KORM

I have added all the drivers for the VL53L0X API, but I still encounter this error. Why is that?

Hi,I am using the VL53l8 sensor. i need to change the ranging frequency. im using the Xcube tof code. I see in the app tof code that #define RANGING_FREQUENCY (10U). so if i change 10u to 15. Willi get ranging frequency to 15 hz.? Thank u