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Lesson 21: Time of Flight Micro-LIDAR Distance Sensor (VL53L0X)

In this lesson, you will learn how to use the Adafruit VL53L0X Time of Flight Distance Sensor with an ESP32 Development Board. We’ll cover initializing the sensor, reading distance measurements, and displaying them in millimeters on the serial monitor.

Required Components

In this project, we need the following components.

It’s definitely convenient to buy a whole kit, here’s the link:

Name	ITEMS IN THIS KIT	LINK
Universal Maker Sensor Kit	94	Universal Maker Sensor Kit

You can also buy them separately from the links below.

Component Introduction	Purchase Link
ESP32 & Development Board (ESP32 Board)	BUY
Time of Flight Micro-LIDAR Distance Sensor (VL53L0X)	BUY
Breadboard	BUY

Wiring

Code

Note

To install the library, use the Arduino Library Manager and search for “Adafruit_VL53L0X” and install it.

Code Analysis

1. Including the necessary library and initializing the sensor object. We start by including the library for the VL53L0X sensor and creating an instance of the Adafruit_VL53L0X class.

   Note

   To install the library, use the Arduino Library Manager and search for “Adafruit_VL53L0X” and install it.

   #include <Adafruit_VL53L0X.h>
   Adafruit_VL53L0X lox = Adafruit_VL53L0X();
   

2. Initialization in the setup() function. Here, we set up serial communication and initialize the distance sensor. If the sensor can’t be initialized, the program halts.

   void setup() {
     Serial.begin(115200);
     while (!Serial) {
       delay(1);
     }
     Serial.println("Adafruit VL53L0X test");
     if (!lox.begin()) {
       Serial.println(F("Failed to boot VL53L0X"));
       while (1)
         ;
     }
     Serial.println(F("VL53L0X API Simple Ranging example\n\n"));
   }
   

3. Capturing and displaying the measurements in the loop() function. Continuously, the ESP32 Development Board captures a distance measurement using the rangingTest() method. If the measurement is valid, it’s printed to the serial monitor.

   void loop() {
     VL53L0X_RangingMeasurementData_t measure;
     Serial.print("Reading a measurement... ");
     lox.rangingTest(&measure, false);
     if (measure.RangeStatus != 4) {
       Serial.print("Distance (mm): ");
       Serial.println(measure.RangeMilliMeter);
     } else {
       Serial.println(" out of range ");
     }
     delay(100);
   }