Node-RED VL6180

VL6180X is a Time-of-Flight (ToF) ranging sensor. It is produced by STMicroelectronics: https://www.st.com/en/imaging-and-photonics-solutions/vl6180x.html

The carriers for the sensor can be found here:

1. Adafruit
2. AliExpress

This package contains a Node-RED Node interface for interacting and retrieving the range distance with the VL6180X sensor.

Raspberry PI I2C interface

Communicating to the sensor is done over I2C. I2C must be enabled on the Raspberry PI. See the Raspberry Pi SPI and I2C Tutorial for instructions on how to enable I2C.

Connection on Raspberry PI:

Raspberry PI --> VL6180X

• SDA (GPIO 2) --> SDA
• SCL (GPIO 3) --> SCL
• GND --> GND
• VIN --> 3.3V

Prerequisites

Its based on Adafruit VL6180X Python library so you need to install it.

sudo pip3 install adafruit-circuitpython-vl6180x

Installation

npm install @ondrejmiko/node-red-contrib-vl6180

Node-RED VL6180 Node

The Node-RED VL6180 Node has a few parameters that must be configured:

1. Bus Address: This is the address of the VL6180. The VL6180 has an address of 41 (0x29) by default.
2. Offset: This is the offset from the distance to the target. The default is 0.
3. Name: (optional)

Outputs a msg.payload with a number representing the range in mm.

Value 255 is out of range

Implementation Notes

• The distance in mm is returned as part of the payload.
• Only doing minimal init and running in "default mode" which is good to about 1200 mm.