Rangefinders: Lidar Lite V2, Lightware, and others, need recommendations

Posted by Cala on February 11, 2016 at 3:04pm

After near tree months I recived happy the Lidar Lite V2, but now I have a concern because, apparently is discontinued?

something wrong with this thing?

It's a risk to put on my quad? :(

Answer I recived: Lidar was purchased from Garmin, so It's going to re-appear under Garmin name.

Now is in the market Lightware, developing altimeters for Ardu pilot and helping rangefinders users in this forum ( http://www.lightware.co.za/shop/en/4-drone-altimeters. )

I changed the title because this post discussion content look's usefull for other rangefinders too.

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Replies

    • Tony Kenward > Randy February 14, 2016 at 8:07am

      Randy / anybody. . .

          do you have any thoughts on the 'TerraRanger' vs the laser sensors?

      The TR is about $203, with all the cables, shipping, VAT, etc. added in.  It appears that they are in stock now:

          http://www.teraranger.com/products/teraranger-one/

      The SF10 is now up to $269, and only Acroname is carrying it, with a back order until late Feb:

          https://acroname.com/store/r395-sf11-c?sku=R395-SF11-C

      As you point out, the Lidar Lite units are un-available at this date, with SparkFun showing it as 'Retired', but the RobotShop is taking pre-ship orders at $114, with no shipping dates projected:  

          http://www.robotshop.com/en/lidar-lite-2-laser-rangefinder-pulsedli...

      I have a PixFlow sensor that I would like to mount up and use, but the Wiki says that I need to have one of these altitude units, as the sonar is not recognized by AC 3.3.3

    • David Mathias > Tony Kenward February 14, 2016 at 10:03am

      According to PulsedLight, there won't be any more LidarLite v2.  They indicated (via email) that v3 will be out in the 2nd quarter of this year.

      The TeraRanger looks like a nice unit.  The only thing I don't like is that it requires 10-20V power.  I have a 5V BEC powering the Pixhawk rail so I'd prefer a 5V unit to simplify wiring.

      Personally, I'm waiting for the LightWare SF11.  It has 100m range and is priced at $269.  It's listed as available at the end of this month.  

      I usually fly in Guided mode.  Currently, there is no rangefinder support in Guided mode so I'm not in a rush. My fingers are crossed for support in AC 3.4.

    • David Mathias > David Mathias February 15, 2016 at 1:08pm

      Acroname emailed that they will have stock for the SF11/C later this week. I just placed an order.

    • LightWare - Laser Developer > David Mathias February 14, 2016 at 10:13pm

      @David - sorry for the delays in having the SF11/C off-the-shelf. We were totally surprised by the number of orders that we got once we announced the product was available because we didn't know that the LL2 was going to be pulled from the market. We're pushing as hard as possible to catch up with orders and will try to get it back in stock ASAP.

    • David Mathias > LightWare - Laser Developer February 15, 2016 at 5:28am

      @LaserDev  Thanks for your reply.  No need for an apology as far as I'm concerned.  I don't mind waiting a few weeks for a good product.

      Does anyone know if Guided mode rangefinder support is still a possibility in AC 3.4?  I asked elsewhere but didn't get a reply.

    • Doug Walmsley > David Mathias February 17, 2016 at 8:57am

      @ David,

       

      According to Craig Elder's DEV call, Terrain following is being worked up on version Copter 3.4.

    • Justin Ward > Doug Walmsley April 9, 2016 at 6:11am

      I had a look at the arducopter github page, and there is a pull request in there (from Randy) for terrain following using software (the terrain tile method).

      There is also a pull request from someone else that provides I2C support for lightware laser rangefinders.

      I do not see code that can use the rangefinders (sonarrange) in Auto missions.

      We run 3.3.3 on 2 quads. One has a lidar lite 2 and the other a lightware SF10c. They both work in loiter and alt hold, but not in auto missions. Thus terrain following using cm accurate lasers is not available in arducopter yet. This feature would be very useful for surveyors and agricultural surveys.

    • Justin Ward > Justin Ward June 5, 2016 at 7:18am

      Correction. Terrain following using rangefinders is in 3.4rc1

      @Laser Developer - any news on if you will be supporting first and last returns?

      First returns being tree top following, and last returns being terrain following. 

    • LightWare - Laser Developer > Justin Ward June 5, 2016 at 10:49pm

      We've run some preliminary tests but don't have a firm date for incorporating the firmware yet. The addition of a different signal analysis algorithm means that we will need to do run lots of verification tests and these take a long time. Because of this, the project will only be scheduled officially when there is a suitable gap in the development program. So much to do ...

    • David Mathias > Doug Walmsley February 20, 2016 at 8:27pm

      @Doug, thanks.  I hope they have time to include it for 3.4.

This reply was deleted.