Vl53L1X sensor for outdoor applications - I understand direct sunlight is an issue. But what about other environmental considerations such as rain or snowfall?

[John E KVAM]

I went to Calgary one snowy day and tried to measure the depth of snow. Oddly the sensor saw right through 2 feet of snow and ranged on the tarmac below it.

While doing tests on the auto focus I created my own mini rain forest. Rain did not seem to affect the measurement at all.

But one customer wanted to use the sensor in a shower. Turned out that a really heavy shower stream combined with steam did affect the sensor.

But sunlight is a big issue. Oddly the sensor works just fine in the shade of a building on a bright sunny day. So if you have the ability to guarantee some shade the sensor will work.

[chipmc]

Thank you John. I am going to test this implementation that includes a lens cover from Hornix and a bit of an indent that should provide some shade. The application here is people counting in outdoor environments (likely to be shaded as they are in the woods).

I will start a separate thread but, I am running into issues using the Particle library as it is based on a Sparkfun implementation that does not include all the API calls needed for range interrupts. As you can see from the issues raised on this library, I am not the only one.

https://github.com/sparkfun/SparkFun_VL53L1X_Arduino_Library

Any chance ST can help here?