TOF sensors VL53 ranging limitations with ambient light

[AlexCloned]

Hi. We are starting a new automation project that needs to detect distance to objects as small as 5 cm by 5 cm, at a distance from 5 cm up to 200 cm. I have been testing VL53L3CX, and VL53L1 through Satel eval. boards. Connected to a proprietary hardware with STM32F407 micro. All the set up is done using STM32cubeIDE.

As our application is intended to be an indoor device we didn't worry about ambient light at first. But I observed that using the device next to a window, no direct sunlight, max. ranging distance degrades severely to a maximum of 60 cm or less depending on target surface and size. I see max distance will be a challenge for our project. I assume we have a laser power and or sensitivity issue here. I would like to know if you have some advice in order to enable VL53 line of tof sensor to be used here.

Any comments will be appreciated.

Regards

Adele.1

[AlexCloned]

Update. Since some days had gone from the original post I want to keep this subject alive. I see John E KVAM(ST Employee) has been answering some question about ToF sensors.

I know ambient light is an issue but at this point I feel a bit stranded with the direction of this project. We must see it as an outdoor application or not.

Thanks.

[AlexCloned]

An advice from ST is needed here.

I have noted max distance has improved when using short-range option, working next to a window. At this point we have abandoned requirement of sensing 200 cm as stated in the original post. However these tof sensors accomplish very very well to other requirements such as space, energy consuming, and cost. Then I am trying to get the most of them. Working indoor, but we need a reliable behavior when we are next to a window. No direct sun light.

[王磊.1 · Accepted solution]

Maybe you can try VL53L1CB, it can range to 8M. That means it has high SNR than VL53L3CX.