Grove-TF Mini LiDAR

Introduction

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This product is based on ToF (Time of Flight) principle and integrated with unique optical and electrical designs, so as to achieve stable, precise, high sensitivity and high-speed distance detection.

ToF is the abbreviation of Time of Flight technology, and its operating principle is as follows: a modulated near-infrared light is sent from the sensor and reflected by an object; the distance to the object to be shot can be converted with the sensor by calculating the time difference or phase difference between the light sending and the light reflection, so as to produce the depth information.

Version

Product Version	Changes	Released Date
Grove-TF Mini LiDAR V1.0	Initial	Nov 2017

Specification

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Product Name	TFmini
Operating range	0.3m-12m
Maximum operating range at 10% reflectivity	5m
Average power consumption	0.6W
Applicable voltage range	4.5V-6V
Acceptance angle	2.3°
Minimum resolution ratio	1cm
Frequency	100Hz
Accuracy	1% (less than 6m), 2% (6m-12m)
Distance detection unit	cm
Wavelength	850nm
Size	42mm×15mm×16mm
Operating temperature	-20℃-60℃
Light sensitivity	70,000lux
Weight	4.7g
Communication interface	UART 115200
LED peak current	800ma
Serial port TTL voltage level	3.3V
Electromagnetic Compatibility(EMC)	EN 55032 Class B

Platforms Supported

Getting Started

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Play With Arduino

Hardware

• Step 1. Prepare the below stuffs:

Seeeduino Lite	Grove-TF-Mini-LiDAR
Get ONE Now	Get ONE Now

• Step 2. Connect Grove-TF-Mini-LiDAR to UART port of Seeeduino Lite.
• Step 3. Connect Seeeduino to PC through a USB cable.

Software

• Step 1. The Grove-TF Mini LiDAR is a hexadecimal output data. Each frame data is encoded with 9 bytes, including 1 distance data (Dist). Each distance data has corresponding signal strength information (Strength). The frame end is the data parity bit.

Byte	Data encoding interpretation
Byte1	0x59, frame header, all frames are the same
Byte2	0x59, frame header, all frames are the same
Byte3	Dist_L distance value is a low 8-bit.
Byte4	Dist_H distance value is a high 8-bit.
Byte5	Strength_L is a low 8-bit.
Byte6	Strength_H is a high 8-bit.
Byte7	Integration time.
Byte8	Reserved bytes.
Byte9	Checksum parity.

• Step 2. Copy the code into Arduino IDE and upload.

unsigned char dta[100];
unsigned char len = 0;

void setup()
{
    Serial1.begin(115200);
    Serial.begin(115200);
}

void loop()
{
    while(Serial1.available()>=9)
    {
        if((0x59 == Serial1.read()) && (0x59 == Serial1.read())) //Byte1 & Byte2
        {
            unsigned int t1 = Serial1.read(); //Byte3
            unsigned int t2 = Serial1.read(); //Byte4

            t2 <<= 8;
            t2 += t1;
            Serial.print(t2);
            Serial.print('\t');

            t1 = Serial1.read(); //Byte5
            t2 = Serial1.read(); //Byte6

            t2 <<= 8;
            t2 += t1;
            Serial.println(t2);

            for(int i=0; i<3; i++) 
            { 
                Serial1.read(); ////Byte7,8,9
            }
        }
    }
}

• Step 3. We will see the distance display on terminal. The blue curve is the distance and the red is Strength.

• Step 4. We also can connect the sensor to PC USB port directly through Serial to USB convertor. We can use the Grove-TF-Mini-LiDAR Master Computer Software to monitor the distance and strength.

Resources

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• [Datasheet] Grove-TF-Mini-LiDAR
• [Software] Grove-TF-Mini-LiDAR Master Computer Software

Help us make it better

Welcome to the new documentation system of Seeed Studio. We have made a lot of progress comparing to the old wiki system and will continue to improve it to make it more user friendly and helpful. The improvement can't be done without your kindly feedback. If you have any suggestions or findings, you are most welcome to submit the amended version as our contributor via Github or give us suggestions in the survey below, it would be more appreciated if you could leave your email so that we can reply to you. Happy Hacking!