Developer Anoof C has released a library designed to make it easier to integrate the Benewake TFmini and TFmini Plus lidar-like sensors into Arduino projects — using a simple software-serial UART connection.
“I just wrapped up a lightweight and beginner-friendly Arduino library for the TFmini and TFmini Plus lidar sensors (UART version), and I thought I’d share it with the community,” Anoof explains. “It’s built around the 9-byte standard frame the sensor sends via UART, so there’s no command mode needed — just plug and play. I’ve tested it on the LILYGO T-Eth Lite ESP32, but it should work on any board that supports SoftwareSerial.”
If you fancy adding a lidar-like distance sensor to your next build, this library for the TFmini and TFmini Plus makes it easy. (📷: Anoof C)
Benewake’s TFmini and TFmini Plus sensors are lidar-like light direction and ranging sensors — using the same time-of-flight (ToF) calculation approach but replacing the traditional laser with a smaller and lower-cost infrared LED and matching optics. The result is a device that can run at up to 1kHz and measure distances over a range from 0.1-12m (0.33-39.4 feet) yet draws as little as 85mW and weighs just 11g, making it suitable for power-and-size-constrained builds where traditional lidar can’t be used.
Anoof’s library makes it easy to use both sensors in the Arduino IDE and compatible development environments, using a software-serial UART connection to return the sensor’s reported distance to the reflecting object, signal strength, and the sensor’s internal temperature. “[It’s] designed for quick integration with [Espressif] ESP32, Arduino UNO, Mega, Nano, and compatible boards,” the developer explains.
The library is available on GitHub under the permissive MIT license, with more information available in Anoof’s Reddit post; details on the TFmini sensor family can be found on the Benewake website.
