Developers, makers and hobbyists building projects requiring distance sensors may be interested to know that the new Garmin’s LIDAR-Lite V3 is now available to purchase from online stores such as Adafruit priced at $130.
The Garmin LIDAR-Lite sensor offers a compact, lightweight low power consuming sensor that is capable of communicating via I2C and PWM to provide true laser distance measurements. With example library code available Arduino (C/C++) and CircuitPython/Python. Watch the video below to learn more about its uses, set up in functionality. Adafruit explains more.
“This LIDAR doesn’t rotate around, it’s just for measuring ‘straight ahead’, but it’s really light and compact in comparison so when you don’t need something that spins around this is a superior LIDAR.
You will need a microcontroller or microcomputer to connect to the I2C pins to read the distance values. In theory Garmin says you can take measurements at up to 500 Hz but that depends on how accurate you want the measurements. We got ~150Hz for most of our use cases.”
Specifications :
– Unit size (HxWxD): 40 x 48 x 20mm / 1.6″ x 1.9″ x 0.8″
– Weight: 22g / 0.77oz
– Resolution: 1cm
– Accuracy: +/- 2.5cm at distances greater than 1 meter. Refer to manual for complete operating specifications.
– Range: 5 cm to 40 meters
– Update rate: up to 500 Hz
– Interface: I2C or PWM
– Power (operating voltage): 4.75-5 VDC; 6 V Max
– Current consumption: 105ma, idle; 130ma, continuous
– Operating temperature: -20 to 60° C
– Laser wave length/Peak power: 905 nm/1.3 watts
– Beam divergence: 8m Radian
– Optical aperture: 12.5mm
Source: Adafruit