This states a range of 18" to about 60 feet - PERFECT!
They sell this whole thing for under 35 bucks, and presumably they make a profit on each one. OK, keep yer plastic case and LCD display, strip the unit down to ‘ranging essentials’ and charge me 20 bucks, I’d order more than one!
(Sigh…)
There are all sorts of goodies out there, but this one looks do-able, affordable, and super cool. I wish I had the time to do some proper hacking on this unit, but I just may have to get one for , er, ‘destructive testing’…
Unless you could get some of these (on a component level!) in stock at Lynxmotion! Hell, sell this unit with a Hack Kit…
If you look at the description of the other version of the laser range finder, you will notice that the laser is just a pointer and the range finding is is done thru ultrasonics.
I’m looking for the same thing in a yellow Ferrari. There has been info put out on a rumba looking bot with a spinning laser range finder, but it may be somewhat smoke and mirrors.
But what do we really want a laser rangefinder for?
The “cool” factor. OK, I’ll buy this one.
The “accuracy”… I dunno about this one. I really can’t find a ‘need’ for more accuracy than either a sonar or IR unit provides.
The “range”… again, not sure about this. Basically, a few meters is usually enough. And outdoors, a few meters AND a compass pretty well covers it.
The “spoofability”… ah, here’s where it may have an advantage. Sonar dislikes fabrics or soft things, IR too. Are lasers much different?
“Mapping”… OK, got a good one there.
Alright, I think I’ve got it straight now. Since mapping is currently beyond my abilities and budget, I’m left with using lasers for the “cool” factor alone. I’ve got a half-dozen or so red diode lasers, and one green. Blue, orange, violet, and others are too expensive right now. I’m going to mount 3 of the red button lasers in a triad pattern a’la Predator, all mounted on a ‘shoulder mount’ of the bot, it will have its own micro pan-tilt servos independent of the ‘head’ pan-tilt.
Now if they were 5Mw instead of 5 mw…
Conclusion: other than ‘cool’, lasers are only good for weaponry. I don’t have the DoD’s budget, so I’m stuck with ‘cool’.
I looked at making a simple laser based range detector. The idea was to modulate a red visible laser beam at 38khz, then scan for the modulated beam using a modified 38khz IR detector. IR photo transistors are common, but finding a visible light photo transistor seems to be an issue. The mechanical setup was to have the modulated laser and detector mounted ~6" apart and pointed in the same direction. The detector was to look thru a thin slit and be rotated by a servo. The detector would be panned by a sevo, and when the modulated laser spot on an object was detected by the detector, the servo position/angle would be used in a calculation to determine the distance of the modulated laser spot.
These list for from 225 to 300 bucks, as a finished piece. Lets assume the “laser ranger” component (the only piece we’re interested in) is the most expensive piece in the unit, say around 75% of total price. That STILL puts it within the reach of hobbyists, and is a small fraction of the multi-thousand dollar units. And this was a “quick 'n dirty” search.
The above units are for archery, golf, and hunting by big-name optics manufacturers. Strip the case, optics, etc. and we should be left with a small affordable laser, detector, and output chip that goes for $150 or so. That includes profit. It is also the outer end of what I could (and would) pay for a sensor.
Like a bad puppy with an old sock, I just can’t leave this alone. Looking through the toys that have become available to us over the past 3 or 4 years, I conclude it is only a matter of time before we can do lidar mapping like the big boys with the big budgets.
And Lynxmotion should do it first!
(Yes, always thinking of extra things for you to do )
There has been info put out on a rumba looking bot with a spinning laser range finder, but it may be somewhat smoke and mirrors.
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