VL53L1CB Low Ranging Performance and Flickering

[dlux]

Hi,

I designed a sensor array containing multiple VL53L1CB sensors. They are configured to scan a 3x3 grid inside its view with multizone scanning. That works great at small distances but suffer a distances above ~1,5m.

Experimentation shows that the sensor never yield reliable results (even with 16x16 zone, 550ms budget, completely dark room with covers down, target is a white wall which should cover the entire FoV) above 2m.

Another issue is the flickering of datapoints. The video shows the issue: VL53L1CB Flickering issue - YouTube

Points in green are valid ranging results (RangeStatus = 0), cyan means RangeStatus = 14 and black is RangeStatus = 7.

The issue is that ranging results cycle through "Not Present", "VL53L1_RANGESTATUS_WRAP_TARGET_FAIL" and "VL53L1_RANGESTATUS_RANGE_INVALID"

even though the RANGE_INVALID is not realy invalid. It is exactly where i think it should measure.

I hope that someone can help me with that issue.

Sincerely

Daniel

[John E KVAM]

To get samples of parts before they are released, you have to go through your ST sales or distribution. The launch date is supposed to be July 1, but we may have a bit of trouble with that date due to a non-ST part with a long lead time.

We should be close though.

Given that you are allocaing 500ms to each range, I think you would be better off taking several measurements and merging them together. If you took multiple measurements you could compare status results and ranges to establish which are legit and average them together. That might be a fairly robust strategy.