MakerFocus TF-Luna LiDAR Range Finder Sensor Module, Single-Point Micro Ranging Module 0.2 to 8m Compatible with Pixhawk, Arduino and Raspberry Pi with UART / I2C Communication Interface

I bought this to build a LiDAR sensor to trigger Halloween animatronics. Every year I buy something new and every year it's great but not perfect. This finally broke that cycle. This was the best thing I have ever bought for this purpose.I can set a minimum and maximum range in my code, and this will let me only trigger props when people are exactly in between the ranges.Using the sample code for this it gives you distance in millimeters. It is extremely accurate and polls extremely fast. I did notice that once and a blue moon it would reflect the light weird and throw a crazy reading. My solution for this since I was triggering a command was to just check 2 pollings in a row. If 1 was in scope immediately check the next polling and trigger only if it is also in scope. Since these anomalies only every happen by themselves this prevents a false positive.

Wiring was easy. Was plug and play and the screw width is exactly the width of my flight controller board, making it easy to mount. Also not terribly expensive.

There is an excellent review already posted, with pinout. I would add the following (all from the TF-Luna spec sheet, just google "tf-luna pins")...-wire 5 is not just ground. it must be grounded to use I2C (won't work if floating)-wire 6 does... something (I'm still not sure what, but it's described in the specs)-wire 1 must be >3.7v per specs, so 5v-logic can be 3.3 volts... works fineaccuracy seems very good, speed of measurement is great, range is better than cheaper IR TOF sensors. I haven't tested the max reported (8m)... but works at 6m

TF Luna is a very neat device for $19.95. Works much better than any sonars on my hobby robots. I originally tried a TF Mini. The only thing I didn't like was that, no matter what I did I couldn't get the thing to respond to commands. Also, it samples continually (I assume Luna does likewise), so I built a pMOSFET switch to turn off power except when I actually need the device.

i never hooked this up. but boy does it look good in my bin of parts. i can flex on any nerd that comes over.one day i'll get inspired and finish my robot. one day. at least that's what i keep telling myself.

I have two of these -- I have one on my home-made drone and the other on a small mobile robot. These sensors are fast and extremely accurate. The Arduio libraries that can be found from within the Arduio IDE library manaager made using these sensor very easy.

This TOF TF-Luna module works with 3v3 devices like ESP32 without logic level shifting (see data sheet). Connect Red(1) = 5v; Blue(2) = SDA; Blue(3) = SCL; Black(4) = GND; Blue(5) = GND; Blue (6) = no connection. Data sheet shows From Github search for TFLI2C library and examples. Note the default I2C address of 0x10. Compile and upload to ESP32. Below is the developers example code and it works./* File Name: TFLI2C_simple.inoDeveloper: Bud RyersonDate: 25 SEP 2020Version: 0.1.0Described: Simplified Arduino example sketch for the BenewakeTF-Luna Lidar sensor configured for the I2C interface*/#include <Arduino.h> // Every sketch needs this#include <Wire.h> // Instantiate the Wire library#include <TFLI2C.h> // TFLuna-I2C Library v.0.1.0TFLI2C tflI2C;int16_t tfDist; // distance in centimetersint16_t tfAddr = 0x10; // Default I2C address// Set variable to your valuevoid setup(){Serial.begin( 115200); // Initalize serial portWire.begin(); // Initalize Wire librarySerial.println( "TFLI2C example code simplified"); // Say "Hello!"Serial.println( "25 Sep 2020"); // and the date.}void loop(){if ( tflI2C.getData( tfDist, tfAddr)) // If read okay...{Serial.print("Dist: ");Serial.println(tfDist); // print the data...}else tflI2C.printStatus(); // else, print error.delay( 50);}

This worked right out of the box. I have this working in Home Assistant via EspHome. Reach out to me if you have questions or need consultation in that application.