Lidar lite questions and calibration

ArduPlane Plane 3.3
1

I just installed the LIDAR Lite unit from pulsedlight and have a few questions.

  1. Which is the prefered method of hookup, i2c or PWM?

I tried I2C but it seemed less stable, however, I was not using the capacitor as specified. I just bought one, but got a resistor as well and decided to test the PWM method. So far it is stable and I like that it can turn off the unit over a certain altitude to save battery since it is on a plane that will be flying higher than it’s limits most the time.

  1. How do you calibrate the PWM values? I adjusted the volts to meter ratio from the specified 1 volt/meter to .8 and on the ground the altitude is dead on now, but, will this cause issues in the air? Is this the proper way to calibrate the sensor?

When using I2C the readings were dead on accurate without calibration, but, it was less stable, at least without the required capacitor.

I still have the I2C connection hooked up as the connectors for the I2C are different than the PWM ones so I can easily switch back if I2C is a better method of using the sensor for any reason.

Thank you

2

I spoke with pulsed lite and they did not know how to do a proper calibration with the pixhawk and recommended I ask the Arduplane community.

3

Did anyone get the auto shut off working with the LIDAR Lite when using PWM? I set it up as the wiki describes but the unit never went to sleep and just reported bad LIDAR health for the entire flight.

Also, how is everyone using this for landing if it bumps the plane every time there is a small tree in the runway path?