@Juan: Both versions of the LIDAR-Lite work great to get distance readings with good precision and accuracy. Version 2 as a few new features and can take faster measurements. You can also use multiple sensors on one I2C bus, which can be advantageous in some cases. You can find the library on the manufacturer’s GitHub, available here. Please note that this library is still in beta (but functional) and is being modified regularly. Someone else also posted on our forum about using the LIDAR-Lite v2 with this blog post. You can read more details here.
Thank you Sebastien. My son got the lidar-lite to work with his robot this weekend. He borrowed code from different sources to make a very basic obstacle avoiding rover. so far so good, but he would like to test a bit more. His project involves comparing various types of sensors, so far ultrasonic and lidar. He is betting on lidar btw 
thanks again!
Wondering, if anyone used the Lidar-lite yet for wind speed/direction measurement? Since it would use the small particles’ movement in the air, how would that be isolated and measured from all the reflected data?
@Tom: It’s potentially doable, but not with the sensor as-is. The LIDAR-Lite is built specifically for range finding, not reliably detecting the motion of a mass of particles on a grand scale. This would require different components and signal processing in the device. Basically, a new product!
Sebastien, I am interested in using one LIDAR-Lite to generate a matrix of lasers, is this possible? I want to attach the device to the front of a car and use it to detect potholes in the road and was wondering if you think this is feasible.
Thank you for the quick reply. I believe the sensor has a built-in function for “velocity” as it applies to the target, which I guess is the “ranged object”. I am in the process of dusting off an Arduino Mega (can’t find my Uno:) and was wondering if instead of aiming at a target on the terrain where it gets reflected from a solid object, I could aim in the air without a mass of solid objects present except potential small aerosol particles to reflect from. I guess without trying this I would not know if any of the reflections back could be isolated from the noise. I see your point that the expected reflection signal from a larger solid mass object is probably 10,000 times higher (my guess only) than the “noise” of air particles…
@Bill: This may be very hard to solve this problem using the LIDAR-Lite. At your average city driving speeds, you would be covering over 27 cm (or ~11 inches) in the time required to perform one reading (~20 ms). This means you would have a “blind spot” of nearly a foot between readings. This is probably enough to miss small pot holes. At faster speeds (such as on the highway), of course, the “blind spot” becomes greater (linearly proportional). Since the beam of the LIDAR is very small, if you use only one sensor you would need to rotate it to see ahead for the width of the car, which will add more delay and make the “blind spot” size impractical enough to make this device not helpful for warning of pot holes (it would miss most of them). There may be other more suitable devices available to make such a detection system. We recommend that you post about your idea in our forum and see what the RobotShop community suggests. You can also post about it on Let’s Make Robots.
@Tom: You can certainly use the velocity mode to do this (against a large object). But, with the current signal processing, the product expect a certain “signal strength” to be returned. Small airborne particles probably won’t return enough to meet this requirement. Therefore, the product will return most likely measure a distance of 0, which will prevent proper calculation of the velocity. This may be getting a bit too complicated for a comment on the blog post, so we recommend that you post about your idea on our forum and/or on Let’s Make Robots.
Hello Sebastian
I was thinking of using Lidar-Lite to detect objects in a 3D cone or any 3D plane.
any thoughts on how I can use Lidar Lite to achieve this.
Another question
The Servo motor displayed on this page takes 0.2 sec to cover 60degrees(no load)
what would that speed look like when the Lidar is mounted on the servo?
Thank You in advance
Hi Sebastien,
I have a similar project to @Jorges, needing to store LiDAR data and process it for coordinates to fly to, all onboard the UAV. But there are so many different configurations of Arduino and RaspberryPi boards available, could you recommend one? Also, is it a good idea or completely bonkers, if i had two Arduino boards(possibly of different configuration). One for the LiDAR, one for the UAV rotors, and most likely one RaspberryPi board between the two for processing power. Could i get your feedback on this?
Cheers,
Ryan
@Saad Hayat: Hi Saad. The simplest solution for 3D scans using the LIDAR-Lite would be to use a pan & tilt kit, such as this one. The distance and servomotor angles can be used to determine the spherical coordinates of the objects/surfaces detected. From there, you can create a point cloud and process this data as needed.
Since the entire RB-Pli-01 has a weight of about 16 g, you can expect the servomotor to move at a speed very close to its maximum.
@Ryan: Hi Ryan. Since this is a more advanced design question, we recommend you instead post about it on the forum. This would allow for easier communication and adding diagrams and such to the replies. Having simple boards such as Arduinos to handle low-level, real-time operations such as basic sensor data gathering and motor control is actually a great idea. While the Raspberry Pi has more processing power, it is usually used with a Linux distribution which (in most cases) prevents a complete real-time operation. This can be very important in time-critical steps such as motor control on a UAV.
Hi Sebastien,
I am planning to make this project go wireless using xbee pro. module. Can you please suggest (1) Any suitable shield for BotBoarduino to achieve this (2) High capacity rechargeable battery pack available for this project.
Regards.
Hi Sébastien,
I have seen that the maximum range is 40m. I read @rocky question and your answer, but I would like to know, if it is possible, how I can increase that measuring range. Do I need another module or device to increase it? Could it measure objects up to 60m?
Thanks in advance!
Hi Sebastien, my project is something. But I have a doubt, at the time of capture distances LIDAR-lite that transmits data format?
@Federico: The range of the RB-Pli-03 is 40 m. This range is due to many factors, including hardware placement on the PCB of the product, optics used in the casing and firmware on board. There is no way to change the maximum measuring distance for the end-user. You may be able to increase the distance slightly by using highly reflective surfaces on the targets and ensuring perpendicular targeting, but you will probably not get 60 m and any distance further than 40 m will most likely be unreliable at best.
@A. Hassan: You could use any of the XBee shields we offer. You can see a few here such as RB-Ite-13. You can find all of our battery options here. Simply click a category (battery technology) on the left to browse it. If you need more technical help, we recommend that you post about your project and issues on our forum.
@Angel Eduardo: The LIDAR-Lite is an I2C slave device. You send commands to it as an I2C master (usually using a microcontroller) to setup the device and start taking measurements. The values are obtained by reading a 16-bit register. This value returns the distance measured in cm.
How fast can you get it to rotate? What optimal speed would it be able to achieve?
@Denise Arciniega: The maximum (or optimal) speed of rotation depends on many factors, such as how many measurements you wish to take and how long you expect the measurements to need to complete. In our case, we took measurements every degree over a 180 degree radius. For the measurement duration, it will vary based on the returned signal strength, which depends on many characteristics, such as the LIDAR-Lite registers’ settings, the distance to the objects, the reflectivity of the objects, etc. To ensure proper reading, we assumed a safe duration of 20 ms per reading. Therefore, out fastest speed would be roughly 180 degrees in 3600 ms (3.6 s) = 50 degrees / s. Using the LIDAR-Lite v2, you can also achieve faster speeds than with the v1. We recommend that you experiment with various setups and see what kind of results you obtain.