- Faster, more accurate and more powerful than Legacy Lidar-Lite
- Compact 48mm x 40mm x 20mm module with 40m measuring range
- Signal Processing Improvements offer 5X Faster Measurement Speeds
- Improved I2C Communications ans assignable I2C Addressing
- Great for drones, robotics and other demanding applications
The LIDAR-Lite 2 Laser Rangefinder by PulsedLight is an essential, powerful, scalable and economical laser based measurement solution supporting a wide variety of applications (ex. drones, general robotics, industrial sensing and more). Measures distance, velocity and signal strength of cooperative and non cooperative targets at distances from zero to more than 40 meters. Offering the highest performance available in a single beam ranging sensor in its class.
The new LIDAR-Lite has all of the same specifications as the legacy sensor: Up to 40-meter range capability with 1cm resolution, small size, low power consumption and light weight. There have been a number of upgrades:
Signal Processing Improvements offer 5X Faster Measurement Speeds
- With the implementation of a new signal processing architecture, LIDAR-Lite will now operate at measurement speeds of up to 500 readings per second offering greater resolution for scanning applications.
Improved I2C Communications
- LIDAR-Lite I2C communication will now operate at 100kbits/s or 400kbits/s.
- Now broadly compatible with the most basic of I2C drivers and most micro-controller boards. Instead of “ack” and “nack” responses when the sensor is available or busy, a status register (0x01) can be queried to indicate sensor status.
- The previous measurement value can be read anytime during an acquisition until it is overwritten by a new value. No need to wait for the sensor to become available to read data. Just fire it up and let it rip!
User Assignable I2C Addressing
- Individual sensors can have a unique I2C address.
- The base address of 0x62 can be used as the default in single sensor applications and it will also be available in multi-sensor applications as a broadcast address to initiate a command to all the LIDAR-Lites on the I2C bus.
Compatible with the Legacy Sensor in all primary functions
- Compatibility will extend into future versions and product variants, i.e. LED based sensor, long range or high rep rate products.
Expanded Support and Documentation Team
- Application code improved and updated. Many projects ready to run with only an Arduino and the sensor right out of the box.
- Documentation expanded to support new functions
The combination of attributes found in the LIDAR-Lite - high performance, low cost, small size, light-weight, low power consumption, and dynamic configurability along with I2C communications and addressing - means that it becomes practical to install multiple sensors on a project with minimal weight and power penalties. The beam width of the LIDAR-Lite as delivered is .5°. This narrow beam provides long-range performance and also enables better target selectivity than an ultrasonic sensor.
The laser version of the PulsedLight LIDAR-Lite uses an edge emitting, 905nm, single stripe laser. This Laser Product is designated as Class 1 during all procedures of operation, however operating the sensor without its optics or housing or making modifications to the housing can result in direct exposure to laser radiation and the risk of permanent eye damage. Operating from a 5VDC power source and drawing only 100 milliamps peak power when taking a measurement and under 10 milliamps when idle, the LIDAR-Lite is ideally suited for projects running from battery sources where low power consumption is critical.
Unique, Accurate, Lightweight & Economical
Great for drones, robotics and other demanding applications. The technology allows to use smaller, cheaper and more efficient components while still achieving comparable or better performance than existing technologies, empowering incredible application design flexibility at a low cost.
The applications are virtually unlimited
Automotive blind-spot sensing, smart city traffic monitoring , 3-D image scanning, collision avoidance, industrial fluid/grain/solids level measurement, security system components, musical instruments, medical imaging, aerospace, and so so much more.
Technology innovations
- The use of a signature matching technique (known as signal correlation) that estimates time delay by electronically sliding a stored transmit reference over the received signal in order to find the best match.
- Operation of the infrared LED or laser in short bursts allowing a 100:1 advantage in peak output power over measurement systems using a continuous beam.
- A novel current driver technology with nanosecond signal transition times at high peak currents to produce high power transmit burst sequences.
- A signal processing approach implementable in a single programmable logic chip.
- 1x LIDAR-Lite Laser Rangefinder
- 1x Cable (one end with connector, the other end bare wires)
Performance
- Accuracy: +/- 0.025m
- Power: 5VDC, <100ma
- Rep rate: 1-500Hz
- Interface: I2C or PWM
Configuration
- Laser/PIN diode 14mm optics (class 1 laser product)
Laser sensor PCB
- NEP (PIN detector): 12nW rms, 1.5pF detector capacitance, 1mm virtual detector size
- Min detectable signal: 1nW - 256 integrated bursts (maximum integration time)
- Transmit power (laser): 1.5Watts peak 14mm @ 3amps drive, 75um single stripe laser junction
- Transmit power (LED): 200mW within +/- 3 degree beam @ 1amp
- Module size: 20 x 48 x 40 mm
- PCB size: 44.5mm x 16.5mm
- Module weight: 16g (with optics and housing)
- PCB weight: 4.5g
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LIDAR-Lite 2 Laser Rangefinder (PulsedLight)
USD $149.99 -
Slip Ring with 22mm Flange
USD $14.95 -
LIDAR-Lite V3 Cable
USD $4.99 -
Arduino Uno R3 USB Microcontroller
USD $22.39 -
RPLIDAR 360° Laser Scanner
USD $398.90
Write Your Own Review
Customer Reviews
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Works great with Raspberry Pi
Review by Holger -
General The V3 works great with Raspberry Pi. Only one additional capacitor to support the +5V a little. This is mentioned in the application notes so I did it. Have not tested if really required.
Documentation and Arduiono sample code was enough to hack some lines in C to read it at the Pi.
Good product.
(Posted on 11/10/16)
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Small & cheap but has serious issues
Review by Partha -
General We are using these V2 sensors for last 6 months.
We have 35-40 pcs of these sensors and tested all of them thoroughly.
The biggest problem these V2 sensors have is false data. when we face the sensors towards the sky or open lands, they give false data at a frequency of 5-10 seconds mostly within 20cm to 15m range.
2-3 sensors are much erroneous and hang after 5-10 minutes of continuous running. That time these give same distance data continuously although there is nothing in front of them.
The detection capability is also poor at 15-25m. Sometimes they are unable to detect human beings at a distance say 18 to 25m (we have not tested beyond).
We hope Garmin has also recognized and already resolved the issues in V3.
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Message from Customer service: Garmin and Pulsed light are currently working on a new and improve version of the Lidare Lite. The newer model, LIDAR-Lite v3, will be using a different chip for the signal processing and interface. This is mostly due to the many issues the previous chip had related to I2C bus handling and other less noticeable problems.
We do not have the full specs at this time, but we can at least confirm that the newer model should be roughly the same form factor, but with a better signal processing and I2C communications. Other details will come in later this Summer as production starts.
Kind Regards,(Posted on 6/13/16)
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Almost perfect product (if you can buy it)
Review by Skye -
General I am very happy with the unit, but it is far from perfect. Here are some issues.
First of all the Lidar-Lite is not a LIDAR. It is in fact a laser range finder (LRF). By itself it does not sweep in azimuth or elevation to give you a map. It give you a range along a pencil beam.
Second, the manufacturer was purchased by Garmin (the GPS people) and has disappear of the face of the earth. I assume that Garmin is trying to get into the automated car business and buying an LRF company gives them a car detection sensor. Will the cheap sensor become available again to hobbyist is unknown.
The documentation is a mixture of amazing and horrible. They give you pages of somewhat detailed operation descriptions, but then don't tie that information back very well to the register settings. The caveat that looking at the sample code should be your true guide is accurate. There are way too many issues with the online documents.
As an I2C slave, the device should NOT include pullup resistors. I understand for the average hobbyist the inclusion is nice, but as a more sophisticated user with several other devices on my bus, having built in pullups is a pain. This practice should be outlawed.
I wish there was a definitive description of voltage levels for the power and the I2C bus. There seems to be lots of confusion in this arena. Is it 5V0 or 3V3?
Also one should be warned that there are reports that this unit generates harmonics of the GPS frequencies. It may be that the use of the LRF may jam your GPS unless you take precautions and put an RF shield around the LRF. Don't shield the GPS!
With all those negatives, why did I rate the unit so high? Because the thing works. I work with LRF's as part of my day job. For the price this thing is gold. Good solid accurate and precise ranges. Low power consumption (of course it only ranges out to 50 meters).
(Posted on 5/11/16)
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Great
Review by heokon784 -
General Great product. I am gonna buy another!!!!!!!!!
(Posted on 2/24/16)
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awesome
Review by aprilvista -
General awesome device i am grinning with joy. Thanks
(Posted on 2/24/16)
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Wow!
Review by kansasjayhawk76 -
General Excellent product with great range! Thank you!
(Posted on 2/24/16)
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Awesome
Review by kayroann -
General Awesome
(Posted on 2/24/16)
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robust
Review by mehran -
General Used for a path finding robot. Is a precise and robust sensor!
(Posted on 1/26/16)
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Solid
Review by Richard -
General I used it for altitude estimation on quadcopter using Ardupilot firmware over I2C. It works really well, I've been getting really solid altitude hold performance. So much more precise and reliable than sonar.
I'm very tempted to get a few more and build a scanning lidar for SLAM on ground vehicles as the results I've seen look pretty good!(Posted on 1/11/16)
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Still going strong
Review by Minh -
General Simple and robust
(Posted on 12/31/15)
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Great thing!
Review by Ulf -
General Very interesting range sensor. Produces real stable results. Recommended!
(Posted on 12/30/15)
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Excellent
Review by Artem -
General Works cool, tested the measurements up to 20m. When closed, shows 1cm distance (which is fair, since the lens are a bit sinked in). Really fast for on-demand measurements (haven't tried continuous yet), I2C makes it incredibly simple to communicate to.
(Posted on 12/7/15)
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Impressive!
Review by ericjwin -
General Excellent product! I'm using it for ranging on a four wheeled robot. Very pleased with RobotShop; will order again.
(Posted on 10/22/15)
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Works nicely on the Pi
Review by Shipmodeller -
General Bought it to do some scanning, attached the I2C bus on my RaspberryPi, driving it with Java, PI4J ..
Produced good results ranging from 6 inches to 30 feet. Haven't tested it out past that point.
I have it set for continuous polls at about 10 per second, enough for what I need to do with it. Fairly accurate, a tad bit of drift, but compensation easy to do. Very happy with the product. I have an 20001 error periodically, but it is probably a programming anomaly that I have to work out yet.(Posted on 8/20/15)
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Lidar-lite blue label V2
Review by Larry -
General I intended to use on autopilot (pixhawk).What I found out was Pulsedlight told me not to use on pixhawks I2c port due to driver updates that need to be implemented.But, works as advertised on PWM as per the Copter wiki.In conclusion,this is a great improvement over V1 and I highly recommend purchasing from Robotshop.They have very good customer service.
(Posted on 8/13/15)
