They're getting smaller, lighter and now also cheaper. The SF10/C, short range (0-25m) laser altimeter for multicopters and small UAVs is now in production. Suitable for low level hovering control, auto landing and collision avoidance, this new member of the no-compromises SF10 family has all the bells and whistles including serial, I2C and analog outputs along with a micro-USB configuration port. Suitable for operation indoors and outside in bright sunlight. Special introductory offer at $325.00.

SF10/A Laser Altimeter - no compromises.

The SF10/A is our latest generation of laser altimeters designed for fixed wing and multicopter UAVs. This uncompromising design has evolved from our high accuracy SF01 series with dramatically lower weight (31g) and excellent performance from 0m to 60m. Designed for serious amateurs or professional UAV operators, the SF10/A has been optimized to give high reliability data during the critical approach and landing phase of a flight as well as high accuracy data for precision hovering of multicopters.

Taking lessons from the popular SF02/F low cost laser altimeter, the SF10/A has analog and serial interfaces along with an I2C bus. In addition, there is a full featured USB port for changing settings such as the I2C address and analog span. 

Size comparison of the SF10/A (above) and the SF02/F (below).

The SF10/A draws 120mA from a 5V power supply and the readings update 15 times a second at a resolution of 1cm. A very high signal-to-noise ratio keeps readings stable and accurate right up to the full range of 60m, even in bright sunlight. This has been achieved through the use of wide aperture, aspherical lenses and narrow band optical filters. In addition, a low noise, high gain APD (avalanche photo diode) detector offers the best signal sensitivity possible.

Other advancements included fully shielded magnetics for low EMI emissions and susceptibility, a high speed, 12bit analog output for easy interfacing, adjustable damping and selectable fail-safe controls.

We are now accepting orders through our online store at Lightware Optoelectronics

I would like to give special thanks to NamPilot for initiating this project and providing his expert guidance and unbounded enthusiasm throughout!

Open Source Laser Range Sensor Converts the Speed of Light into the Speed of Sound

Press Release, February 2014:

In a direct attack on both the laser rangefinder market and the ultrasonic rangefinder market, LightWare Optoelectronics (Pty) Ltd, a South African based manufacturer of laser rangefinders, has begun production of an open source laser sensor (OSLRF-01) that can convert signals traveling at the speed of light into signals traveling at the speed of sound. This sensor has all the benefits of a laser rangefinder, like direct aiming, long range, immunity to noise and wind and high accuracy but non of the headaches associated with the super high speed circuitry normally found inside laser products. Instead, the OSLRF-01 outputs analog signals that look just like those found on an ultrasonic sensor. These speed-of-sound signals can easily interface directly with the ADCs of a microcontroller where conventional ultrasonic signal processing and timing algorithms can be applied to the data.

If the speed of sound is too slow for you, there is a control input on the OSLRF-01 that lets you select what Mach number you want to work with, anywhere from Mach 0.1 up to Mach 5. Running at higher Mach numbers means that the analog signals get faster and the time it takes for the laser/ultrasonic pulse to make a round trip gets shorter. So if your processor can handle the additional speed, you can have a quicker response time.

The OSLRF-01 can be used as the "bare metal" front end in a complete laser or ultrasonic rangefinder, or it can become a conventional distance sensor connected directly to the host processor on small robots, UAVs or UGVs. All the components on the OSLRF-01 circuit board are readily available from the large electronics components suppliers and there is no electronic trickery hidden inside ASICs or FPGAs. The OSLRF-01 doesn't even have a processor, so there's no fancy software to worry about either.

A brief technical description and circuit diagram can be found here: OSLRF-01 description. With input from the open source community, the OSLRF-01 could one day become the foundation of many other sensing devices such as scanning LIDARs, proximity sensors, depth/width/height gauges, obstacle detectors and altimeters.

LightWare is currently selling the OSLRF-01 at US$100.00 excluding shipping and local taxes. For sales enquiries visit: LightWare Optoelectronics (Pty) Ltd