Problem with lecture VL6180X + ATMEGA328PB

Robotics and electronics discussion Electronics
1

HI!, I am currently working with the VL6180X sensors and in this case, I have been using them with the ESP32 and it works correctly for the application that I am designing. It reads accurately, sets up interrupts well, and the proposed configurations are working properly. But now I want to do the same thing but with an ATmega328PB integrated circuit using the Pololu AVR programmer, but in this case, it does not read the sensor. Therefore, I opted to read the sensor directly using the Wire.h library for AVR. I can read all the registers correctly, but the only thing I cannot do is to correctly read the registers related to distance and ambient light, as it always returns 0. I have checked the sensor and swapped it out for new ones several times, checked the power supply and everything is in order, but reading those registers does not work. I activated the register for continuous reading and it still did not work, so I would like to know what could be causing this issue.

Reviewing, although it works with the ESP32, I have noticed that several libraries including the Pololu library for the VL6180X configure the following registers, which are not specified in the provider’s datasheet. Therefore, I would like to know what each one refers to and how I can understand this configuration. Thank you very much, and I am attentive to any solution or contribution.

if (readReg(SYSTEM__FRESH_OUT_OF_RESET) == 1)
{
scaling = 1;

writeReg(0x207, 0x01);
writeReg(0x208, 0x01);
writeReg(0x096, 0x00);
writeReg(0x097, 0xFD); 
writeReg(0x0E3, 0x01);
writeReg(0x0E4, 0x03);
writeReg(0x0E5, 0x02);
writeReg(0x0E6, 0x01);
writeReg(0x0E7, 0x03);
writeReg(0x0F5, 0x02);
writeReg(0x0D9, 0x05);
writeReg(0x0DB, 0xCE);
writeReg(0x0DC, 0x03);
writeReg(0x0DD, 0xF8);
writeReg(0x09F, 0x00);
writeReg(0x0A3, 0x3C);
writeReg(0x0B7, 0x00);
writeReg(0x0BB, 0x3C);
writeReg(0x0B2, 0x09);
writeReg(0x0CA, 0x09);
writeReg(0x198, 0x01);
writeReg(0x1B0, 0x17);
writeReg(0x1AD, 0x00);
writeReg(0x0FF, 0x05);
writeReg(0x100, 0x05);
writeReg(0x199, 0x05);
writeReg(0x1A6, 0x1B);
writeReg(0x1AC, 0x3E);
writeReg(0x1A7, 0x1F);
writeReg(0x030, 0x00);

writeReg(SYSTEM__FRESH_OUT_OF_RESET, 0);

}

2

Hello.

As mentioned in the comments of the VL6180X.cpp file from our library, those settings are recommended in ST’s AN4545 application note.

If you put the sensor back in your ESP32 setup, does it still work there? Can you try the example programs from our library without any modifications? Posting some pictures of your setup that show all of your connections might also be helpful.

- Patrick

3

Hello, thanks for responding.Thank you for the information in the document, it was very clarifying and has helped me. Thank you. Well, I managed to take the reading correctly. In this case, it was necessary to configure and correctly establish the I2C transmission speed. Thank you very much.

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