X-NUCLEO-53L0A1 ranging and gesture detection sensor expansion board

Overview

The X-NUCLEO-53L0A1 expansion board features the VL53L0X ranging and gesture detection sensor, based on ST’s FlightSense™, Time-of-Flight technology. It is an evaluation board that provides an introduction to the ranging and gesture detection capabilities of the VL53L0X module.

One VL53L0X is soldered on the expansion board itself. A set of spacers and a cover glass are provided with the board, and can be fitted onto this center sensor.

Two VL53L0X satellites can be connected using the two 10 pin connectors. The expansion board is compatible with the STM32 Nucleo board family, and with the Arduino UNO R3 connector layout.

X-NUCLEO-53L0A1

More information about the board can be found at the X-NUCLEO-53L0A1 website.

Requirements

This shield can only be used with a development board that provides a configuration for Arduino connectors and defines a node alias for the I2C interface (see Shields for more details).

Peripherals

The sensors have the following device tree labels and I2C addresses:

  • Center sensor (soldered on the shield): VL53L0X_C, 0x30

  • Left satellite sensor: VL53L0X_L, 0x31

  • Right satellite sensor: VL53L0X_R, 0x32

The 7 segment display is connected to two GPIO expanders, each of one handles 2 digits x 7 segments = 14 pins:

  • Rightmost two digits: EXPANDER1, 0x42

  • Leftmost two digits: EXPANDER2, 0x43

Samples

The sample VL53L0X: Time Of Flight sensor demonstrates how to use the ranging sensor VL53L0X using the center sensor only.

The sample X-NUCLEO-53L0A1 shield sample demonstrates how to use the three sensors (soldered + 2 satellites) and the 7 segments display.

Programming

Set -DSHIELD=x_nucleo_53l0a1 when you invoke west build. For example:

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b nucleo_f429zi samples/sensor/vl53l0x -- -DSHIELD=x_nucleo_53l0a1