Narrowing VL53L0X beam width mechanically?

Support Sensors
1

Hi there,
First post here @ Pololou.

I’m just wondering if anyone has had any luck with physically narrowing the 25* sensor cone angle on the VL53L0X Time-of-Flight Distance Sensor? Is there a good reason why simply covering the receiving aperture with an even smaller hole wouldn’t yield an effectively smaller FOV?
Presumably in this case (yet to be tried) the drop in total received light wouldn’t be enough to register as a bounce?

Has anyone tried lenses on either/both the emitter and receiver?

Looking to collect modding experience before starting my own mods :slight_smile:

Peter

2

Hello, Peter.

We have not heard of anyone doing this yet. This presentation from ST about their FlightSense technology in the VL6180X sensor might be interesting for you.

Your suggestion of narrowing the field of vision seems like a good place to start, though the sensor range will likely be reduced if smaller amounts of light are returned to the sensor. We certainly would be interested in hearing results from your experiments here.

-Nathan