Update: 7 October 2015
Thank all of you for your interest and ideas! After the waiting here are the winners for this review:
Congratulations! LMR's team will contact you and arrange the shipping. Please wait for their contact.
For the rest of contestants don´t worry as there are plenty of opportunities coming: two reviews per month means a lot of chances for everybody, keep making robots and participating ;-)
UPDATE: 5 October 2015
Hey there! We´re almost finish for the call for reviewers. This is what is going to happen next:
- Anyone has until end of day Tuesday to apply for the calls to reviewers,
- reviewers will be chosen Thursday,
- and products sent Friday.
Good luck, let´s do our best and LMR! ;-)
Hi dear LMR members!
Could your robot measure the distance like a Google automated car? Well, maybe you can do something similar now. Today we have the chance to give away two nice Pulsed Light Distance Sensors for your reviews.
This sensor offers great value, great range and accuracy. It´s main specs are (full description here):
Faster, more accurate and more powerful than Legacy Lidar-Lite
Compact 51mm x 30mm x 39mm module with 40m measuring range
Signal Processing Improvements offer 5X Faster Measurement Speeds
Range: 0-20 m LED emitter
Range: 0-60 m Laser emitter
Accuracy: +/- 0.025m
Power: 5 VDC, <100 mA
Rep rate: 1-100 Hz
Interface: I2C or PWM
Improved I2C Communications and assignable I2C Addressing
Great for drones, robotics and other demanding applications
It's not complete on its own, so the reviewer will need to integrate it with other products / projects. Maybe a robot you built already or something you are building right now or planned to make. So don’t miss this chance!
If you want to get a chance just tell in a comment:
That you are a member for more than 6 months, with at least 2 publications of enough quality (it is at the discretion of LMR to decide that quality, but it's are fair, just try your best!).
What would you like to do with one of these Pulsed Light Distance Sensors.
It´s not compulsory, but at least that you will consider the “Tips on writing reviews at Let’s Make Robots”, specially videos with LMR intro and end.
Between all contestants LMR will select 2 members who will receive for free and review these nice sensor. Good luck!
I want one please!!!
Dear: Franciscodr
I would love one of those sensors. I have been running into problems using a Kinect sensor for my rover 5. Heck if I had one of those it might solve the problems with my Kinect sensor. I will write the absolute best review I can and make as many videos as I can for the sensor. Can I write the review please?
From: NOah
Let´s see
Thanks Noah! So fast do good!
You are in the list to be on the run for it! Let´s see… 
I was one of the original
I was one of the original backers if the LIDAR Lite. See my earlier forum post on the topic advertising their first version. I have two of them. I really enjoyed following the company. I would love the opportunity to test the latest version and give them a review. I am almost done with the mBot review so this would be a great project to move to next.
Hello Franciscodr,I would be
Hello Franciscodr,
I would be happy to throw my hat in the ring to review this product. I would love to add it to my existing rover project as a sensor on the pan and tilt mast. I would like to use my unused audio channel on my FPV equipment to broadcast the range information to my ground station. I have some decent camera equipment and would enjoy the opportunity to write a review and post some photos of the progress.
Robb
Wait am I going to write a review for it?
Dear: Franciscodr
Am I going to be the one to write a review for it or am I being considered? I’m not getting what you said. Thank you.
From: Noah
Definitely interested in this…
… but unfortunately I’ve always been more of a lurker around here and don’t have many posts. I’m currently working off-and-on with a bot that is basically the base of a wowwee tribot, controlled with a Dagu commotion controller and the main body will be Dagu Service Droid (miss OddBot already!) and possibly a RPi as the brain/image processing. This sensor would be used on that project instead of a hc-sr04. Long story short I don’t think I’m particularly deserving of this but throw my hat in the ring nonetheless. Dickel and/or OrionBot I think would be excellent reviewers.
Let´s see
Hi Noah,
Thanks for your interest. The call for reviewers is not closed yet, so we have to wait to know who will review. Thanks for your patience!
Interesting!
Hey Wilsorob,
Thanks for your interest. Your proposal is very interesting. Let´s see
That´s interesting
Oh thanks OrionBot!
Thanks also for your description and let´s see how it goes
Thanks for your hat
Thank you Smashley for your interest.
The project you explain sounds also very interesting. LMR take note of it and let´s see how it goes.
With the faster processing
With the faster processing speed I’m very curious how well this sensor would perform as a functional scanning LIDAR. A small DIY Scanning LIDAR would be a great advancement over the traditional object avoidance bot. Good luck to anyone who gets a chance to review this they’ll become an expert in type of sensor. That is something I’m finding I like about doing reviews. You may not have a lot of time to work on your personal robot project but agreeing to doing a review makes it serious. If you’re worth your salt you’ll follow through with the agrement and get the benefit of the experience along the way!
Better capabilities
I think you are right OrionBot,
That LIDAR is a great advancement to give a DiY robot much better location/navigation capabilities.
Also reviews are good chances to learn in deep about the product, but also about its surrounding technology and applications. Whoever get the review, I´m looking forward to see the great reviews all our members can do for the sake of LMR and robotics.
I’ll add that I had planned
I’ll add that I had planned to use the previous version of this sensor in my VADER service droid project but haven’t gotten to that step yet. This was a great reminder of that plan and could give me the kick in the pants make progress again. That bot has been sitting on my work desk like an angry gremlin for too long!
That´s good
It´s good to know you have an exact project where you can review this device extensively. I don´t select reviewers personally but as all the others good contestants, you are in the race for it
LIDAR product Review
I’d love to review this device. Just can’t think of a Robotics application. I am scheduled to an Embedded C Programming course and would use it as an example of interfacing to really top shelf I/O device.
The LIDAR would be a great upgrade to my mapping rover
Dear Francisco,
I’m not sure I fulfill the formal requirements, but I’ll try anyway. I’ve built a rover that creates a probabilistic map of its surroundings using cheap sonar sensors. I’ve implemented a simple occupancy grid following the description in Sebastian Thrun’s “Probabilistic Robotics” book: https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/mapping-rover-the-classic-rover-5-with-improved-3d-printed-axis-adaptors
I’m currently in the process of making the rover fully autonomous. I’m using OpenCV image processing algorithms to detect edges & lines in my probabilistic map. The plan is to let my robot move relatively close to the walls to scan them essentially. The imprecise sonar sensors make this necessary.
A Lidar sensor has been on my list of planned upgrades from the beginning. Ideally, I’d mount it on a slip ring and rotate it continuously 360 degrees.
I’m pretty sure I won’t finish the entire rover project for the review 
but I can certainly test out the Lidar Lite and compare the map I can create with it to the probabilistic maps created with the sonar sensors.
Thanks, Sebastian
Ok!
Good ggallant!
Ok, you´re in for the review chances, let´s see how it goes
It sounds interesting
Hi theophil!
Thanks for your interest! t sounds interesting what you propose. You are in for the chances of the review. We´ll see how it goes.
** No rush, just**
No rush, just curious…what is the time frame for deciding on the reviewers? Leaving it open for a fee more weeks?
but I can certainly test out the Lidar Lite and compare the map I can create with it to the probabilistic maps created with the sonar sensors.