Hi to everyone at DIY Drones!
I don't know much about UAVs, my specialization is the design of laser products. I recently made a laser range finder by accident that might be useful in UAVs.
It started out as a project to design a new kind of chip that can measure events happening at the speed of light. Then, in order to prove that the chip worked properly, I had to make a test bed which turned into a laser range finder.
The chip has programmable performance settings so it can be used for either long range, high resolution or fast update rate measurements or some combination of these factors although not all at the same time. There is no minimum range, it works down to zero meters.
The best programmable settings give:
Best range >100m (to trees and grass)
Best resolution 1cm
Best update rate 100 readings per second
You can see from the attachment that the range finder is quite small. The optics are made from acrylic so the whole thing is very light weight. It has an SPI connection to a host processor or it can have one already attached like in the picture. The laser is Class 1M. The optics are separate from the electronics so that they can be scanned with a servo or mounted on gimbals. It runs from 4.5V to 7.2V batteries and draws less than 200mA.
At the moment I'm looking to see if there is a market for something like this. I might consider producing small quantities for around $450. I'm not based in the USA so there are no export restrictions.
Replies
hi Laser Developer!
Just to congratulate you on this impressive job! Very nicely done! :D
will I be able to build one for my copter? not so elaborated, a max distance of 60 meters is enough for me ;)
JD
Hi Laser!
Nice project! What is the price of the arduino compatible module?
Regards,
AS
Hello,
What is the status of this product?
Regards,
Nick
Cliff,
Why would you need range of 1000m? 100m seems plenty for DIY-drone applications....?
Laser Developer,
Wow, the documentation you provided is excellent, explains how laser rangefinding works. This technology is very interesting.
Couple of more questions:
1) Could this be turned into a simple LIDAR system by attaching it to a motor and having the sensor/laser scan a plane?
2) Can the system you are offering be purchased in a manner that makes it slightly cheaper?? I am thinking a kit of components that one has to solder themself or maybe replace some of the expensive components with lower quality ones?? While I think the rangefinder is a great value for $450, it would be more accessible to the hobby market if it was more in the $100-200 range (at least that's what my budget would allow).
3) I have a EE degree, and am involved in work with lasers, but not really rangefinding. So all of this stuff is very interesting to me. What is toughest part of building a system like this? Let's say I was going to build this with a laser pointer and photodiode, what would be the difficult part of building something like this in my basement?
Super interesting stuff, thanks for posting this!
Laser Developer,
This looks really cool and at $450 it is reaching a point where it can be used for hoppy/amateur applications.
Is this laser rangefinder based on the triangulation or time of flight techniques?
Looks good to me...255g is no problem for my heli to lift.
we might be interested in that, can you pls send your email adrress ?
You mentioned that the best range is greater than 100 meters, what is the longest range? Could it be aimed up to become a ceilometer (cloud height measuring device)? Any idea as to theaccuracy?
that's beautiful. how well does it respond to shock and vibrations? wonder what's the little black thing under this heli's belly http://www.flightschoollist.com/blog/2009/01/power-line-workersheli...
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