Hi,
I’m trying to make Lidar Lite V3HP working on 6m I2C cable.
I tried to use [ this I2C extender, but did not help.
Did someone manage to communicate with Lidar Lite with so long cable?
With cable up to 1m it’s working fine.](Overview | Adafruit LTC4311 I2C Extender / Active Terminator | Adafruit Learning System)
I2C was designed for chip to chip communications on a single PCB, and is almost always problematic with long cables or even parallel wires.
A more reliable approach is to have a local MCU control the Lidar Lite and send the data using RS232 TTL serial, RS485 serial or wireless serial.
I2C doesn’t work well with long cables.
You might have a look at the [Qwiic Bus Kit, that would enable you to run I2C over Cat5 cables. You might not be able to run power for the Lidar Lite but those should be able to handle the I2C data.](SparkFun QwiicBus Kit - KIT-17250 - SparkFun Electronics)
Do you think that [Lidar Lite V4 might work on 3m cable without [QWIIC BUS?](SparkFun QwiicBus Kit - KIT-17250 - SparkFun Electronics)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/18009)
No, it still uses I2C and has the same limitations on cable distance.
I2C does not work with long cables. Find another solution.
You will either need something like the Qwiic Bus, or you will need to put a microcontroller close (less than 1 meter) from the Lidar and then convert and transmit it’s data via a protocol that works with longer wires. Serial UART would probably work OK at 3 meters as long as you’re not in an electrically noisy environment. If you run the Lidar in PWM mode rather than I2C, that will be fine with a 3 meter cable as well.
It worked with [SparkFun QwiicBus Kit and 3m cable :)](SparkFun QwiicBus Kit - KIT-17250 - SparkFun Electronics)