RPlidar A2M12 cable configuration

[RGSTC]

I am posting this on the discussion forum as a last resort to find a solution for the problem I’m facing with RPlidar A2M12 360 degree laser scanner by slamtec.
I used this sensor for obstacle avoidance with cube orange plus. During a free fall crash (not because of this sensor), The sensor was dislodged from the mount and connecting cable came off from the connector.

The outer side of connecting cable has 5 pins but the inner(lidar) side of the connector has 6 pins with an extra white wire coming from inside of connecting cable. I have searched product documents, manuals and tried internet sources as well but I couldn’t find either the pin configuration or the colour code of the connector. Neither is it inscribed on the PCB inside.

I am requesting if anyone from the community owns this model and could share an image or provide any information regarding this, it would be of great help

I have contacted my vendor (robokits.co.in), slamtec as well for this information and received following replies after a few days of requests and providing images.

Vendor’s reply: “We are reselling this product. And we cannot open the product also so either you have search on internet for the inside images of this product or you can purchase a new product and open it to look inside and then you will have two lidars to use.”
Slamtec’s reply: “You need to find the vendor to solve the after-sales problem for you. We can’t provide you after-sales service. Because you didn’t buy this product directly from our official. We only serve customers who buy products from us. If you still insist, ‘Support@slamtec.com’ Good luck, This is our after-sales email support. Maybe they will help you. But I can’t promise you that they will, You can try.”

Images for reference:

Album — Postimages

Despite the developers stating there is no support for A2M12 model yet on Ardupilot, I was able to use this device for omni directional planar obstacle avoidance by connecting it to serial port and providing a dedicated 5v power supply and shorting the motor and vcc cables.

[mlebret]

@RGSTC

RPlidar A2M12

https://bucket-download.slamtec.com/f65f8e37026796c56ddd512d33c7d4308d9edf94/LD310_SLAMTEC_rplidar_datasheet_A2M12_v1.0_en.pdf

[RGSTC]

Thanks for your reply. As mentioned above and can be seen from images, I need the pin configuration for 6 pin connector of the cable that goes into the lidar. Not the 5 pin connector that can be connected to external devices.

[RGSTC]

I have finally got my lidar working again. I have figured out the configuration of this 6 pin connector with help of a university student working on drones with this lidar and didn’t mind to open his lidar to show me the configuration.
To anyone (Who have purchased this from India) looking for internal information of this specific product, the only options available are to contact the vendors of slamtec to convince them to offer this information (Expect upto 1-2 months wait time) or Buy another lidar and check it for yourself (Not an economic option).

Here’s the information I gathered:
6pin connector type: JST - ZH 1.5mm 6pin Connector Female (ZH and ZHR are different)
Pin configuration (Left to right when you place the lidar upside down) :
Vcc(Red) - TX(Yellow) - RX(Green) - GND(Black) - PWM(Blue) - Grounding neutral(White)

[Ajay_46 (Ajay)]

@RGSTC bro what you selected in the parameters because you said it is officially not supported?

[RGSTC]

Follow the same configuration as provided here RPLidar A2 and S1 360 degree lidar — Copter documentation
Except the SERIAL1_BAUD = “256”
Use a 5V - 3A power supply separately and connect the ground to both the cube and sensor

[amilcarlucas]

RPLidar C1 is supported in ArduCopter 4.6.0-DEV since today.

[MarKC (Marc)]

Hi, my group is also attempting this problem and was wondering why it is necessary to ground the cube to the power supply ground.