LightRanger 7 Click

LightRanger 7 Click is a compact add-on board capable of precise distance measurement and motion tracking. This board features the AFBR-S50, a medium-range 3D multipixel Time-of-Flight (ToF) sensor from Broadcom. Besides a VCSEL-based ToF sensor (Laser Class 1 eye safety), optimized to measure various distances working equally well on white, black, colored, and metallic reflective surfaces, this board also includes a 32-bit MCU, RA4M2 group of Renesas MCU with Arm® Cortex®-M33 core, alongside a 4-pin standard CAN connections compatible with Pixhawk®, a popular general-purpose flight controller.

Click Product page

Click library

• Author : Stefan Filipovic
• Date : Mar 2023.
• Type : UART type

Software Support

We provide a library for the LightRanger 7 Click as well as a demo application (example), developed using MikroElektronika compilers. The demo can run on all the main MikroElektronika development boards.

Package can be downloaded/installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager(recommended way), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on Mikroe github account.

Library Description

This library contains API for LightRanger 7 Click driver.

Standard key functions :

• lightranger7_cfg_setup Config Object Initialization function.

  void lightranger7_cfg_setup ( lightranger7_cfg_t *cfg );

• lightranger7_init Initialization function.

  err_t lightranger7_init ( lightranger7_t *ctx, lightranger7_cfg_t *cfg );

Example key functions :

• lightranger7_reset_device This function resets the device by toggling the rst pin state.

  void lightranger7_reset_device ( lightranger7_t *ctx );

• lightranger7_generic_write This function writes a desired number of data bytes by using UART serial interface.

  err_t lightranger7_generic_write ( lightranger7_t *ctx, uint8_t *data_in, uint16_t len );

• lightranger7_generic_read This function reads a desired number of data bytes by using UART serial interface.

  err_t lightranger7_generic_read ( lightranger7_t *ctx, uint8_t *data_out, uint16_t len );

Example Description

This example demonstrates the use of LightRanger 7 Click board by processing the incoming data and displaying them on the USB UART.

The demo application is composed of two sections :

Application Init

Initializes the driver and performs the Click default configuration.

void application_init ( void )
{
    log_cfg_t log_cfg;  /**< Logger config object. */
    lightranger7_cfg_t lightranger7_cfg;  /**< Click config object. */

    /** 
     * Logger initialization.
     * Default baud rate: 115200
     * Default log level: LOG_LEVEL_DEBUG
     * @note If USB_UART_RX and USB_UART_TX 
     * are defined as HAL_PIN_NC, you will 
     * need to define them manually for log to work. 
     * See @b LOG_MAP_USB_UART macro definition for detailed explanation.
     */
    LOG_MAP_USB_UART( log_cfg );
    log_init( &logger, &log_cfg );
    log_info( &logger, " Application Init " );

    // Click initialization.
    lightranger7_cfg_setup( &lightranger7_cfg );
    LIGHTRANGER7_MAP_MIKROBUS( lightranger7_cfg, MIKROBUS_1 );
    if ( UART_ERROR == lightranger7_init( &lightranger7, &lightranger7_cfg ) ) 
    {
        log_error( &logger, " Communication init." );
        for ( ; ; );
    }
    log_printf( &logger, " Reset device\r\n" );
    lightranger7_reset_device ( &lightranger7 );
    log_info( &logger, " Application Task " );
}

Application Task

Reads and processes all incoming data and displays them on the USB UART.

void application_task ( void )
{
    lightranger7_process( &lightranger7 );
    if ( app_buf_len > 0 ) 
    {
        log_printf( &logger, "%s", app_buf );
        lightranger7_clear_app_buf( );
    }
}

Note

By default, the Click board is programmed with the AFBR_S50_Example_RA4M2 firmware. At the beginning this FW returns API version, chip ID, and module version. After that it starts the measurements and prints the recent measurement results that consists of:

• Time stamp in seconds since the last MCU reset.
• Range in mm (converting the Q9.22 value to mm).
• Amplitude in LSB (converting the UQ12.4 value to LSB).
• Signal Quality in % (100% = good signal).
• Status (0: OK; < 0: Error; > 0: Warning.

For more information refer to the AFBR-S50 GitHub repository.

The full application code, and ready to use projects can be installed directly from NECTO Studio Package Manager(recommended way), downloaded from our LibStock™ or found on Mikroe github account.

Other Mikroe Libraries used in the example:

• MikroSDK.Board
• MikroSDK.Log
• Click.LightRanger7

Additional notes and informations

Depending on the development board you are using, you may need USB UART Click, USB UART 2 Click or RS232 Click to connect to your PC, for development systems with no UART to USB interface available on the board. UART terminal is available in all MikroElektronika compilers.