I got a new VL53L0X by pololu and followed the hookup guide from Adafruit. When I realized that pololu has its own libraries for this sensor, I deleted the adafruit libraries and using the pololu ones. I am using an Arduino Uno. When I hook it up, the arduino’s LED’s flicker then turn off and my computer does not see it plugged into the port. When I unplug the sensor from the 5V, the LEDs on the arduino turn back on and my computer can find my arduino again. Is there anything else I need to do with hookup that will prevent this?
You most likely wired it incorrectly and are shorting out the 5V Arduino power.
Post a clear picture of your setup, and a hand drawn wiring diagram showing the connections YOU made, with the connected pins carefully labeled.
Check all adjacent soldered connections for solder bridges.
Whenever I solder, I always immediately test for shorts with a multimeter.
Previously when this problem was happening, I was using a breadboard. I unplugged it and plugged it into some jumpers to clearly show the pin labels to take a picture. Now it’s not shorting out my arduino, so maybe something is wrong with my breadboard.
However, when I upload the continuous sketch example, it does not recognize the sensor. Don’t know if it’s because other pins need to be connected or what. It’s only the Vin, Ground, SDA, and SCL in the adafruit tutorial. I couldn’t find any other tutorial for this particular brand of sensor.
Hello.
I am sorry you are having trouble interfacing with your VL53L0X. I agree with Jim_Remington; the behavior you described in your first post does make it sound like there was a short on the Arduino 5V power. If this behavior is not there after removing your breadboard, this does make it seem like there could be a short on the breadboard, or in how you connected the breadboard.
The connections in your picture seem fine. (The Getting Started section of the GitHub page of our Arduino library for the VL53L0X describes which pins to connect to on the sensor.) You mentioned that you used your multimeter to check for shorts. Can you use your multimeter to check the continuity of each of the connections between your Arduino and the time of flight sensor? Can you post pictures that clearly show the soldered joints on the VL53L0X?
As for the software, can you confirm that you are running an unmodified version of our Continuous example sketch? Also, this might seem silly, but can you double check that you are using the correct library? (We also have a VL53L1X library, which has a similar name.)
-Jon
Yes, I only have the pololu VL53L0X library on my computer and I have not modified the continuous sketch. Connections are all good on the multimeter.
I forgot about this problem and accidentally tested a different sensor with my breadboard and it shorted out my arduino too. Luckily that sensor still works! I’m thinking more and more that my time of flight is dead.
Your soldered joints look good to me, but that picture shows our VL53L1X board, which is a different product than the VL53L0X that you are asking about. The pinout on both of those time-of-flight boards is the same, so to continue troubleshooting, can you try running the Continuous sketch from the VL53L1X Arduino library?
-Jon
OMG you are right! It works now! I went back to my order history from the distributer and I definitely selected the one with a “0” in the name when I bought it. So they messed up and gave me the wrong sensor! I need to contact them and let them know in case this happened to anyone else.
Thank you!
The sensor should have been labeled properly on the packaging. Do you happen to still have that, and if so, can you post a picture of it? Also, where did you get it from?
-Jon
I got it from Solarbotics. I contacted them and they said they did not update the name on their website, but now that I told them they are changing it now.