VL53L0X vs HC-SR04 range sensor(Part 1)

VL53L0X is an optical range sensor from STMicroelectronics

This is the first part of experiment with optical range sensor from STMicroelectronics VL53L0X. I used popular ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 to compare basic properties.

Communication is done over I2C

Since sensor needs 2.8V power and logic,

breakout board voltage regulator and level shifter.

Let's compare VL53L0X to HC-SR04 ultrasonic range sensor:

VL53L0X

Type: Time-of-Flight - 940nm Laser

Range:

 default:      2-125cm

 long-range: 2-210cm

Size: 10x25x2mm

Measuring Angle: 25 degrees

HC-SR04

Type: Ultrasonic

Range:  2-400cm

Size:  45x20x15mm

Measuring Angle: 30 degrees

Test bench is based on Arduino Mega 2560

For VL53L0X I used Adafruit_VL53L0X library, for HC-SR04 HC_SR04 library

Wiring is rather simple

Laser beam can be seen in IR range better

In IR spectrum it is possible to see how beam looks like

If you expected to see thin laser, then... Surprise!

Beam has ~30 degree slant angle  and light intensity

decreases quickly with range

VL53L0X in default mode has max range 1200mm

In my experiment maximum range was 1272mm

I've stopped experiment on 2300mm

Ultrasonic sensor can measure ranges up to 4m

Measurements were done with step 100mm (10cm)

Main purpose is to see precision of sensors on different ranges

Noise of VL53L0X increases starting from 380mm

But VL53L0X API returns values in mm, while HC-SR04 in cm

Also can be seen that measurement error for VL53L0X

Is rather big even on 900mm  - discrepancy is 30-40mm!

While HC-SR04 showed stable measurements

during all 1000mm

This is where VL53L0X is the best!

Time-of-Flight technology does not critically depend on angle of obstacle

HC-SR04 start failing on 30 degrees from perpendicular to the sensor

Links:
Arduino sketch: https://gist.github.com/WinKILLER/19e0bd651af51ed51a89f65fa6423256
VL53L0X library: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_VL53L0X
HC-SR04 library: https://github.com/jazzycamel/arduino
VL53L0X datasheet: http://www.st.com/content/ccc/resource/technical/document/datasheet/group3/b2/1e/33/77/c6/92/47/6b/DM00279086/files/DM00279086.pdf/jcr:content/translations/en.DM00279086.pdf
HC-SR04 datasheet: http://www.micropik.com/PDF/HCSR04.pdf