Introduction: Arduino and VL53L0X Time-of-Flight + OLED Display Tutorial

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About: Arduino fan!

In this tutorial we will learn how to display the distance in mm using VL53L0X Time-of-Flight sensor and OLED Display.

Watch the video.

Step 1: What You Will Need

  • Arduino UNO (or any other Arduino)
  • VL53L0X Laser Ranging Sensor Time-of-Flight Sensor
  • Jumper wires
  • OLED Display
  • Visuino program: Download Visuino

Step 2: The Circuit

  • Connect OLED Display pin (GND) to Arduino pin (GND)
  • Connect OLED Display pin (VCC) to Arduino pin (5V)
  • Connect OLED Display pin (SCL) to Arduino pin (SCL)
  • Connect OLED Display pin (SDA) to Arduino pin (SDA)
  • Connect VL53L0X sensor pin (GND) to Arduino pin (GND)
  • Connect VL53L0X sensor pin (VCC) to Arduino pin (5V)
  • Connect VL53L0X sensor pin (SCL) to Arduino pin (SCL)
  • Connect VL53L0X sensor pin (SDA) to Arduino pin (SDA)

Step 3: Start Visuino, and Select the Arduino UNO Board Type

To start programming the Arduino, you will need to have the Arduino IDE installed from here: http://www.arduino.cc/.

Please be aware that there are some critical bugs in Arduino IDE 1.6.6. Make sure that you install 1.6.7 or higher, otherwise this Instructable will not work! If you have not done follow the steps in this Instructable to setup the Arduino IDE to program ESP 8266! The Visuino: https://www.visuino.eu also needs to be installed. Start Visuino as shown in the first picture Click on the "Tools" button on the Arduino component (Picture 1) in Visuino When the dialog appears, select "Arduino UNO" as shown on Picture 2

Step 4: In Visuino Add & Connect Components

  • Add "Time Of Flight Laser Ranger VL53L0X" component
  • Add "SSD1306/SH1106 OLED Display (I2C)" component, Double click on the "DisplayOLED1" and in the elements window drag "Text Field" to the left and in the properties window set size:2
  • Connect LaserRanger1 pin Sensor I2C to Arduino pin I2C
  • Connect DisplayOLED1 pin Out I2C to Arduino pin I2C
  • Connect LaserRanger1 pin Distance (mm) to DisplayOLED1 pin Text Field1 > In

Step 5: Generate, Compile, and Upload the Arduino Code

In Visuino, Press F9 or click on the button shown on Picture 1 to generate the Arduino code, and open the Arduino IDE

In the Arduino IDE, click on the Upload button, to compile and upload the code (Picture 2)

Step 6: Play

If you power the Arduino UNO module, the OLED display should start displaying the distance in mm that it is getting from the Time of flight sensor, you can put some object in front of the sensor and the value will change.

Congratulations! You have completed your project with Visuino. Also attached is the Visuino project, that I created for this Instructable, you can download it here and open it in Visuino: https://www.visuino.eu