I2C available for TFMini Plus

Sensors Distance
1

Hello,

I was wondering if the TFMini plus available on your website (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15179) is available with a i2c interface, or only UART? I am reading up on the information related to the two technologies you have provided on your website, but I am also curious about the practical differences between the two (i.e: one is faster than the other or more suited to different applications.)

My end goal is to hook up a TF Mini plus to an Arduino which is connected to a PoE powered Ethernet Shield 2 so that I can have a small, self powered box that sends UDP packets across the network based on the distance of an object from the sensor.

2

Hi paleeddie.

Unfortunately the [TFMini Plus is only available in UART at the moment and I don’t know if a I2C version is coming or not. I2C could theoretically be faster than UART depending on what the bus speed is but you’re also limited by how fast a device can process and output data.](TFMini Plus - Micro LiDAR Module - SEN-15179 - SparkFun Electronics)

3

Actually i2c is supposed to be supported by the TFMini plus. The support documents have been updated to document the i2c support. However I haven’t yet found the time yet to try to build test code yet and haven’t found it on the internet yet.

4

OK, after a bit more research, these do support I2C but we don’t have any documentation on how to use them in I2C mode other than what’s in the data sheet.

From what I’m seeing in the [data sheet, it looks like the sensor defaults to UART and can be switched to I2C by sending a command via serial. Unfortunately the datasheet doesn’t specify if the sensor remembers that it’s in I2C mode between power cycles or not. (I would assume it does.)

I know you’re looking to use this in I2C mode, but if it helps, I found a library for using it in UART. We’ve not tested this to see if it works, but I though I’d share the link in case you find it helpful.

  • [budryerson/TFMini-Plus

    • [/list]](GitHub - budryerson/TFMini-Plus: Arduino library for the Benewake TFMini-Plus and TFMini-S LiDAR distance sensors.)](https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/0/d/8/c/2/SJ-PM-TFmini_Plus_A04_Product_Mannual_EN_updated_4.4.19.pdf)