Add support for VL53L8CX Time-of-Flight (ToF) multi range distance sensor

[mortenx]

Describe the component you'd like

Please add support for the VL53L8CX Time-of-Flight distance sensor from STMicroelectronics.
This is a next-generation ToF sensor capable of multi-zone distance measurement (up to 8x8 zones) with a range of up to 400 cm, depending on lighting conditions.

It’s part of the newer family that includes VL53L7CX and VL53L9CX, but it offers better ambient light immunity, faster measurement rates, and higher resolution.
It communicates via I²C and uses ST’s ULD (Ultra Lite Driver) library, similar to previous VL53 series sensors.

What are your use cases for this component?

Enables accurate 3D ranging and object detection.

Suitable for presence detection, biomass or water level sensing, and robot navigation.

Is there a public datasheet, documentation and/or schematics?

https://www.st.com/en/imaging-and-photonics-solutions/vl53l8cx.html

Anything else?

Desired features:

I²C configuration support (address, update rate, etc.)

Multi-zone (4x4 or 8x8) distance map reading

Simple mode for average distance reporting

Optional temperature and ambient light data if available

[B48D81EFCC]

I'm curious about this sensor. Is this sensor capable of detecting simple gestures, such as movement from left to right or right to left?

[mortenx]

I'm curious about this sensor. Is this sensor capable of detecting simple gestures, such as movement from left to right or right to left?

i think so

[SG-O]

I created a custom component for all of the STMicroelectronics multizone ToF sensors (VL53L5CX, VL53L7CX, VL53L8CX). You can find it here: https://github.com/SG-O/VL53L_MZ_esphome

[carlhye]

@SG-O Feel free to make a PR for us to review 🎉

[SG-O]

@carlhye I’d be happy to open a PR in the future.

At the moment, I’m still the only one who’s tested the component, and Xtalk calibration hasn’t been validated yet. I’d prefer to gather some additional feedback and testing before merging anything.

I’m also currently looking into motion analysis, which is fairly non-trivial and may require significant changes to the existing codebase. I’d rather avoid introducing breaking changes once the component is more widely adopted.