SparkFun's LED-Based TFMini-S Micro-LIDAR Module Brings LIDAR-Like Sensing to Smaller Projects
Built with an LED rather than a laser for cost and safety reasons, the TFMini-S offers high-accuracy ranging from 4" up to 40'.
SparkFun has begun stocking the TFMini-S micro-LIDAR module, a not-quite-LIDAR which swaps the laser for an LED but still performs LIDAR-style single-point range-finding with impressive accuracy.
LIDAR systems are used in everything from robotics and self-driving vehicles to 3D scanning systems, but they're not always affordable — and concerns have been raised about their safety in the field, given they work by bouncing laser beams off their surroundings. An increasingly popular option is to swap the laser for an LED, still keeping the core time-of-flight measurement system which marks a true LIDAR but with a safer — and cheaper — light source.
SparkFun's TFMini-S is a compact LED-based "LIDAR" module — that, the company admits, "may be more appropriate to think of [...] as a 'Time-of-Flight Infrared Rangefinder'" — which offers distance measurements as close as 10cm (around 4") and as far as 12m (around 40') with ±6cm accuracy below 6m and ±1% beyond.
"What makes this sensor special is its size," SparkFun claims. "Measuring only 42x15x16mm, the TFMini-S allows you to integrate LiDAR into applications traditionally reserved for smaller sensors."
The TFMini-S micro LIDAR module is now available on SparkFun's shop, priced at $39.95 before volume discounts.