Adafruit VL53L0X Time of Flight Distance Sensor – ~30 to 1000mm

The VL53L0X is a Time of Flight distance sensor like no other you’ve used! The sensor contains a very tiny invisible laser source, and a matching sensor. The VL53L0X can detect the “time of flight”, or how long the light has taken to bounce back to the sensor. Since it uses a very narrow light source, it is good for determining distance of only the surface directly in front of it. Unlike sonars that bounce ultrasonic waves, the ‘cone’ of sensing is very narrow. Unlike IR distance sensors that try to measure the amount of light bounced, the VL53L0x is much more precise and doesn’t have linearity problems or ‘double imaging’ where you can’t tell if an object is very far or very close.

Sensing capabilities:

The sensor can measure approximately 30mm to 1.2 meter in default mode.

In ‘long range’ mode you can detect as far as 1.5 to 2 meters on a nice white reflective surface.

Depending on ambient lighting and distance, you’ll get 3 to 12% ranging accuracy – better lighting and shiny surfaces will give you best results. Some experimentation will be necessary since if the object absorbs the laser light you won’t get good readings.

Product Dimensions: 21.0mm x 18.0mm x 2.8mm / 0.8″ x 0.7″ x 0.1″

Product Weight: 1.3g / 0.0oz