New product: VL53L8CX Time-of-Flight 8×8-Zone Distance Sensor Carrier

I’m excited to announce the release of our new VL53L8CX Time-of-Flight 8×8-Zone Distance Sensor Carrier, a multi-zone rangefinder based on ST’s latest VL53L8CX FightSense distance sensor. It uses time-of-flight (TOF) readings of infrared laser light to precisely measure distances of multiple targets across a grid of multiple zones, allowing you to generate a depth map with up to 8×8 resolution and 4 m range. Relative to older similar sensors, such as the VL53L5CX, the VL53L8CX also offers improved performance in ambient light and adds an SPI interface that can significantly speed up initialization and data acquisition. Since it has the same FOV and multi-zone capability, you can think of the VL53L8CX as basically an upgraded version of the VL53L5CX.

Visualization of VL53L8CX and VL53L5CX sensing a person standing against a wall about 2.7 m away. The VL53L8CX gives more accurate measurements with higher confidence (indicated with green).

Compared to sensors that only give a 1D measurement, the VL53L8CX does demand more from a microcontroller to support its operation as a 3D lidar. Initializing the sensor through I²C or SPI and processing its data requires a lot of RAM and program memory, so it is not practical to use the VL53L8CX with most 8-bit MCUs like the Arduino Uno. We found that the Raspberry Pi Pico’s RP2040 microcontroller worked well for interfacing with the VL53L8CX, and other similarly powerful 32-bit controllers like an ESP32 should also work.

With the release of this module, we now have seven pin-compatible carriers for ST’s various FlightSense time-of-flight sensors:

	VL6180X carrier	VL53L0X carrier	VL53L1X carrier	VL53L3CX carrier	VL53L5CX carrier	VL53L7CX carrier	VL53L8CX carrier
Maximum range:(1)	60 cm	200 cm	400 cm	500 cm	400 cm	350 cm	400 cm
Minimum range:	~1 cm	~3 cm	4 cm	1 cm	2 cm	2 cm	2 cm
Field of view:	25°	25°	15° to 27° diagonal, program­mable	25°	65° diagonal, up to 8×8 zones	90° diagonal, up to 8×8 zones	65° diagonal, up to 8×8 zones
Other features:	ambient light sensing, low memory footprint(2)	low memory footprint(2)	low memory footprint(2)	multi-target detection	multi-target detection	multi-target detection	multi-target detection, improved performance in ambient light
Maximum update rate:(1)	~150 Hz	50 Hz	100 Hz	125 Hz	60 Hz	60 Hz	60 Hz
Operating voltage range:	2.6 V to 5.5 V				2.5 V to 5.5 V		3.2 V to 5.5 V
Regulator voltage:	2.8 V				3.3 V		1.8 V and 3.3 V
Typical active-ranging supply current:	25 mA	20 mA	20 mA	20 mA	100 mA	100 mA	100 mA
Peak supply current:	40 mA	40 mA	40 mA	40 mA	150 mA	150 mA	150 mA
Interface:	I²C						I²C, SPI
Dimensions:	0.5″ × 0.7″						0.5″ × 0.9″
1-piece price:	$18.95	$19.95	$22.95	$19.95	$19.95	$19.95	$24.95
1 Effective range and update rate depend on configuration, target, and environment. 2 Suitable for use with typical 8-bit MCUs.

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VL53L8CX Time-of-Flight 8×8-Zone Distance Sensor Carrier with Voltage Regulators, 400cm Max