Has anyone used the TOF sensors to measure snow depth? Thanks.

[John E KVAM]

Years ago, on a windy hill in Calgary Alberta, I tried this. It didn't work. But I didn't try it for very long. It was really cold.

I have been working on trying to make he ToF sensors see water for quite a while.

Turns out that if you narrow the Field of view, and move that field of view around a bit to find the zone that is exactly perpendicular to the water, you get a good range.

The zone that returns the highest signal rate, is the zone with the best estimate of the distance to the water.

If I were going to try snow again, I'd try it with the field of view significantly narrowed. That would be your only hope of success. And to narrow the FoV you'd need the VL53L1X or VL53L1CB. Both those parts have lenses and you can narrow the FoV.

I live in California and with Covid, I'm not about to travel to somewhere cold. Or I would do this for you.

So buy the Evaluation kit for 56 dollars and give it a shot.

The test is easy enough if you have a snow bank somewhere near.

• john

[MForm.1]

John:

Thank you very much for your response. I am afraid that you confirmed what I had thought the result would be. I already have an eval board but did not want to go down the path where others had gone with bad results. I will go back to the tried and true method of reading a yardstick to measure snow depth. However, I might tweak it a bit by using a camera to read the yardstick rather than going outside with the added plus of it being automated.

I'll bet that Calgary was very cold. 🙂 It should be toasty warm in California by comparison.

Mike