Benewake TFmini LIDAR works on Ardupilot

Talk to ppoirier.
He has worked out how to do it I believe.

Thank you for answer. As I read the whole thread, here was exact topic I was looking for! Avoidance Experiments with the POC and Benewake TFMINI

Wow, really nice test indeed!

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Glad it was what your looking.
Patrick P, Tridge and Randy are my heros on this site. They have all the answers. lol.

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Yes, they have lot of knowledge about this area. I like this kind of open source point of view to tune different kind of setups. This area of technology is also growing really fast and all the different kind of branches are being tested, so I have to testā€¦ or try to test :slight_smile:

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Does the sparkfun i2c version work on Copter 3.6 out of the box?

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Interesting, that BENEWAKE is now offering this Serial to I2C converter. Yes it should work OK but you need to change the I2c address.

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It has I2C interface right in the module, not as external converter.


There is a 0x10-0x78 address range as per manual, but I didnā€™t found how to change the default.

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OK so the additional module would act as a power supply and I2C driver ?
Anyway you are welcome to test and report.

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Ok, thatā€™s my plan :slight_smile:

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Any luck finding how to setup multiple tfmini units on i2c bus?

No, I didnā€™t investigated how to connect multiple. Anyway I still not received my tfmini.

i see, it`s ok. it always puzzles me why manufacturers do this thing half-way always - the whole point to use i2c bus is to have multiple devices on it, but, in order to do so you need to be able to set them apart by assigning individual addresses. if that would work we could use multiple tfmini units on all axles for object avoidance flight so easy, but, it seems it is again a problem. i just hope as it has a programmable interface, may be there is a command to set it up like w did before into ā€˜pix modeā€™, etc.

that i2c bus - does it work on all tfmini units, ones produces in the spring as well, or is it only on the latest batch/version of it?

ok, i actually bothered to follow the link and read the manual. so, it is an i2c version with no serial connectivity at all. it makes it a bit restrictive, i was hoping it is just an additional feature and there is still a way to connect it to a usual uart, if needed. but, good to know. Please let us know here when you`ll get it if there is any way to alter that default address and keep it set.

According to litterature the slave addres change is permanent , so theorically you set the different addresses , connect on the bus , use the lightware I2C driver to assign device by address and orientation

so, for that we need now new i2c tfmini driver for the arducopter, right?

@Siya Hello Siya , can you confirm that if we change adress of the I2C TFMINI, this change is in permanent memory so it keeps this adrres after power cycle ?

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Hey Patrick. Just trying to catch up. Am I reading it correctly that the TF Mini already has an I2C port.

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Yes there is a new model released with I2C interface

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Ah new modelā€¦I missed that.
Super thanksā€¦now I have to think of what I want to do with my current build. I am in teh process of designing an integrated power board and have connections for a serial FT Mini. Perhaps I should mod the design while I can to add I2C.
Thanks for letting me know, can I find it on the Benewake site. I donā€™t see it there but maybe I am not looking in the right place.

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Most of the info is within this thread, read back to 105 :wink:

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Found it. Thanks
Thanks for the support.

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