New LiDAR sensor Benewake TF02-Pro TFmini-S TF-Luna for drones UAV

Take care using all the rangefinder on direct sunlight coz too much light will saturate the reading of the sensors.

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Hi all,

unfortunately it didn’t perform any better than the VL53L1x. In low light it works well, in direct sunlight the behavior was not good, making the quad unstable and I also had to land in an emergency because I didn’t have good control. On the Yappu telemetry the reading seemed correct. Also, I have mounted TF luna on a piece of copper PCB but the GPS doesn’t work well (didn’t see any satellite in over 10 minutes of flight).
I also used the auxiliary function to switch off the lidar, but it doesn’t seem to work.
CH13 OPT 10

https://ardupilot.org/copter/docs/common-auxiliary-functions.html

I attach the flight log if anyone has any suggestions, thanks

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WTaUe8nHfsY8835HbvFl-bqd7JW1axjd/view?usp=sharing

Good day, as suggested never use a rangefinder in direct sunlight coz sensor can saturate.
Usually better power all extra peri periph with an ubec.
About gps module, try shield it with an EMI tape coz if you attach it directly to the frame it can suffer metal interferences due the frame

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It looks to me like the module is working pretty well. It clearly tracks baro altitude. When a module saturates, it reports nonsensical values, typically 0 or max altitude. You see a lot of flat lines when that happens. Your screenshot looks fine as far as the rangefinder goes.

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When the rangefinder disable function is activated it will still read distance it just won’t be used for elevation. The data is still available for Flow and perhaps Landing but not sure about that.

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Hi, I placed the TF on a copper PCB (see photo in the thread) but it seems to be not enough. Can it be useful to connect it to GND? Thanks

Yes the TF luna sensor seems to work fine, however I have had abnormal behavior with unexpected roll. I am attaching a screenshot of the log where we see this dangerous behavior. Without the TF luna connected the behavior is perfectly normal. Could it be an arducopter code problem? Yesterday I also tried indoor and in the loiter I had a similar unexpected behavior but on the pitch (with consequent crash). In all my tests the optical sensor is also connected.

yes the lidar reading remains (also visible on the Yappu telemetry), but even excluding the lidar with the switch the behavior appears anomalous, exactly as if the switch had no effect. The only way to exclude the lidar is to insert RNGFND1 = 0 in the param list

Good day,
i don’t understand connect the sensor to the GND.
GND in electronic it’s the negative mass. while the copper its a layer of a printed circuit board.
As previously said, you can use it as altitude sensor or as landing sensor but not as an obstacle avoidance due the limitations of the range.

Hi, I would like to connect the copper part of the PCB for EMI shielding to GND. :slight_smile: Obviously the TF is already electrically connected to GND. I am using TF LUNA as altitude sensor (see posted log graphs) together with optical sensor, not for obstacle avoidance .

You are making a little bit of confusion.
The tf mini pcb is already GND coz during the design of the pcb they apply through vias a ground plane.
If you want use EMI taper for shield you don’t need create a GND also bcoz tf luna its not an RF module

by PCB I only mean the copper vetronite rectangle (for EMI screen) that I used only as a support for the TF luna not the PCB of the TF Luna.

you cannot define a vetronite as a pcb.
Emi shield is usually use for gps modules…, rf modules etc.

I use this copper “vetronite” to make PCBs.

no need shield. it, but you can try use can bus protocol for it, you need a can node

Can I use multiple TF-Luna for multirotor with pixhawk. If yes the how do I connect them on pixhawk?

Thanks!

well, you can wire it on i2c or UART.
On i2c you cannot use the same i2c address coz will have conflicts, you need assigne different address for each sensor… will be the same procedure if you will interface an Arduino board

Hello sir, I am also using CUAV v5+ with tf-02 pro lidar, the problem is that I have an IIC version and I am unable to connect it to my FC using mission planner, can you please help me out.

I have a question for you, I am using CUAV v5+ with tf-02 pro lidar, the problem is that I have an IIC version and I am unable to connect it to my FC using mission planner, can you please help me out. I have search a lot for tutorials but the available one are with old pixhawk while I have CUAV v5+, any help is very much appreciated.

i2c data of TFmini is quite as TF02 Pro (when looking both user manual).

There is no driver (?) for i2c TF02 Pro but there is one for i2c TFmini. You could try to set RNGFNDx_TYPE to 25 and look at the result.

If no success, ask Benewake support.