Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 (Qwiic) Hookup Guide

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Contributors: santaimpersonator, MAKIN-STUFF
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Hardware Overview

Board Dimensions

The Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 (Qwiic) has an attached 1" x 1" Qwiic board for ease of use. The overall product dimensions are approximately 2.8" x 1.0" x 0.9" (L x W x H), with more detailed measurements in the drawing below.

Board Dimensions
Board dimensions (PDF) for the Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 (Qwiic), in inches. (Click to enlarge)

Mounting Options

The Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 operation manual lists zipties and double-sided tape as attachment methods. There are notches on the sensor housing that appear to be meant for a ziptie.

Mounting hole locations
Screw holes and zip-tie notches on the Qwiic LIDAR-Lite v4. (Click to enlarge)

With our Qwiic version, we provide two screw holes on the Qwiic board as an additional mounting option. The holes are compatible with 4-40 screws and hardware.

Power

There is a power status LED to indicate when the Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 (Qwiic) sensor is powered. Power the board either through the polarized Qwiic connector system or the breakout pins (3.3V or 5V and GND) provided. The Qwiic system is meant to run on 3.3V, be sure that you are NOT using another voltage when using the Qwiic system. A jumper is available on the back of the board to remove power to the LED for low-power applications (see Jumpers section below).

power pins and LED
Power LED and power breakout pins on the Qwiic LIDAR-Lite v4. (Click to enlarge)

DC-DC Converter

The Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 sensor requires 5V to operate. In order to provide 5V to the sensor from the 3.3V line of the Qwiic connector, a DC-to-DC voltage converter is utilized. This can also be referred to as the buck/boost converter/circuit. For more details, check out the XC9140 datasheet.

boost converter
Boost converter on the Qwiic LIDAR-Lite v4. (Click to enlarge)

Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4

The Garmin® LIDAR-Lite v4 is a distance measurement sensor. For more details on the sensor, please refer to the operation manual and technical specifications.

LIDAR sensor
Garming® LIDAR-Lite v4 sensor. (Click to enlarge)

Note: For the sensor's compliance and safety information, please refer to the safety and product information documentation.

Sensor Characteristics

⚡ Note:

The power and current consumption characteristics listed below are from the operation manual and technical specifications. However, these specifications are for the sensor itself.

To prevent brown outs, users should be wary when attaching several Qwiic LIDAR-Lite v4s to the Qwiic connect system. Users can easily surpass the current (supply) limitation of their Qwiic microcontroller board. The Qwiic LIDAR-Lite v4 operates at 3.3V and we have measured the current consumption from the 3.3V line to be approximately:

  • 120mA (idle)
  • 165mA (during an acquisition)

Below, are the LIDAR sensor's electrical and performance characteristics, as listed in the operation manual and technical specifications datasheet.

Characteristic Description
Power (operating voltage) 4.75 to 5.25 Vdc
Current Consumption 2 mA idle
85 mA during an acquisition
I/O Voltage 3.3 V
Max Range 5 cm to 10 m (1.97 in. to 32.8 ft.)
Resolution 1 cm (0.4 in.)
Beam divergence 4.77 degrees
LED Wavelength 940 nm
Optical Aperture 14.9 mm
Measurement Repeatability* ± 1 cm up to 2 m
± 2 cm up to 4 m
± 5 cm up to 10m
I2C Address 0x62 (Default)
Software configurable

*NOTE: As measured indoors to a 90% reflective target; 1 cm is equivalent to 1 standard deviation. Measurements were obtained using high accuracy mode.

Qwiic and I2C

I2C Address

The Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 (Qwiic)’s I2C address, 0x62 (7-bit), is factory set. However, this address is software configurable.

Qwiic Connectors

The simplest way to use the Garmin LIDAR-Lite v4 (Qwiic) is through the Qwiic connect system. The connectors are polarized for the I2C connection and power. (*They are tied to the corresponding power and I2C breakout pins.)

Qwiic connectors
Qwiic connectors on the Qwiic LIDAR-Lite v4. (Click to enlarge)

Breakout Pins

⚡ Note: Excluding the 5V pin, the rest are 3.3V pins.

The board also provides eleven labeled breakout pins. Besides the 5V (and GND) pin, the rest of the pins are only 3.3V tolerant.

I2C

You can connect these lines to the I2C bus of your microcontroller and power pins (3.3V and GND), if it doesn't have a Qwiic connector. The interrupt pins are also broken out to use for triggered events.

I2C Pins
I2C Connections- The pins are tied to the Qwiic connectors.

J-Link Debug and I/O Pins

DANGER!

Reprogramming the nRF52840 System on Chip (SoC) removes all pre-programmed factory software. SparkFun is NOT able to help you recover the software once it has been removed.

Before attempting to mess with the the nRF52840 System on Chip (SoC), we highly recommend users refer to the operation manual and technical specifications for other considerations and notices from the manufacturer.

The J-Link and I/O pins are also broken out for users, in case they wish to interface with the RF52840 SoC.

other pins
Other breakout pins on the Qwiic LIDAR-Lite v4. (Click to enlarge)

Jumpers

There are three jumpers on the board. Not sure how to cut or modify a jumper? Read here!

  • Power LED - Cutting the LED jumper will remove the 1kΩ resistors and PWR LED from the 3.3V power. This is useful for lowering power consumption.
  • I2C Pull-Up - Cutting the I2C jumper will remove the 4.7kΩ pull-up resistors from the I2C bus. If you have many devices on your I2C bus you may want to remove these jumpers.
  • 5V Disconnect - Cutting the 5V jumper on the board will disconnect the buck converter from the 5V power trace. This is useful when users power the board through the 5V breakout pin.

Jumpers
The power LED, I2C pull-up resistor, and 5V disconnect jumpers on the Qwiic LIDAR-Lite v4. (Click to enlarge)