Any support for TF-Mini (S)?

[BlackHawk1942]

Hi @ALL!

I tried tasmota-sensors with a lidar range sensor ( Benewake TF-Mini ). Unfortunately there seems to be no way to read the data. Somewhere in the internet I read that this sensor is using the VL53L0X chip. Therefor I cloned tasmota and and wrote "#define USE_VL53L0X" into the user_config_override. Everything fine so war. The driver was loaded. As described in the manual the start address is 0x10. So I changed the 0x29 of the VL53L0X to 0x10 in the xsns_45_vl53l0x.ino.

Wireing seems ok over GPOI 4/5 --> D1/2 on an ESP8266 NodeMCU and an external 5V supply.

Is there a native support or do I need to make other changes? Checks the device via Arduino Sketch. Data is coming and correct. I2CScanner over Arduino finds the senor without issues. I2CScan over tasmota fails.

Greetz and many thanks!

[barbudor]

An I2C address of 0x10 do not match with VL53L0X, neither the documented protocol. Check the datasheet.

You may want to try the serial interface of the TFmini.
Scripting may be able to process the data, or just forward to an host for processing.

[BlackHawk1942]

The new TTL to USB converter reached yesterday. In the manual there are different commands to change the range, protocoll and so on. I checked that and used it with the GUI-tool - gotcha! The interface was change to I2C and the Sketch provided above ist working exactly and fine on my ESP8266.

[barbudor]

So you now got the TFmini to work in I2C on the ESP.
But with Arduino sketch ? Not in Tasmota ?

I2C in Tasmota requires a driver that needs to be written now.
While Serial can be supported directly.

[BlackHawk1942]

Yes, I2C via Adru sketch. I changed the start address of VL53L0X driver from 0x29 to 0x10. Sensor was recognized. Next step ist to rewrite ja VL53L0X and change the data read to the TFMini. Maybe I will write a new driver directly - need to have a closer look at this and getting deeper into the code.

[barbudor]

It was "recognized" because it respond too the address that you have changed
But it doesn't behave at all as the VL53L0X
As said in the doc, the I2C protocol and the Serial protocol use the same commands and responses and is totally different from the VL53L0X protocol.

So please do not try to modify the VL53L0X in the idea to make it work for TFMini but consider writing a TFMini dedicated driver
You can still use the VL53L0X driver (or any other i2C driver) as an example but don't try to merge your changes with VL53L0X.
I suggest that you develop that as XSNS_99 / XI2C_96 to avoid any clash witch other existing driver.

But I still believe that you are taking the loag road vs using Serial.

Let us know how you progress

[BlackHawk1942]

Just to point out: I am a software developer - usually for C#, JS and stuff. So I know what I shoulnd´t do ^^ Especially not merging or perform a pull req on dirty code. Since this is my first project with tasmota I wanna use the VL53L0X driver as my baseline. I soon as this driver is working (nobody knows if this will ever work^^) I will create a knew driver and maybe perfom a pull request :-)