RoboPeak RPLIDAR User manual

RPLIDAR
Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR) System
Development Kit User Manual
Copyright 2009-2014 RoboPeak Team
http://www.RoboPeak.com
2014-2
Rev.1

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Copyright 2009-2014 RoboPeak
http://www.RoboPeak.com
Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
System
机密
Contents:
1. OVERVIEW.................................................................................................................................2
ITEMS IN DEVELOPMENT KIT ......................................................................................................................2
RPLIDAR ...............................................................................................................................................2
USB ADAPTER.........................................................................................................................................3
2. CONNECTION AND USAGE.......................................................................................................4
CONNECTION..........................................................................................................................................4
INSTALL DRIVER FOR THE USB ADAPTER .....................................................................................................5
RUN DEMO APPLICATION .........................................................................................................................6
TROUBLE SHOOTING.................................................................................................................................8
3. DEVELOPMENT GUIDE AND SDK INTRODUCTION...................................................................9
PIN DEFINITION FOR RPLIDAR .................................................................................................................9
PIN DEFINITION FOR USB ADAPTER .........................................................................................................10
CONFIGURE RPLIDAR SCAN FREQUENCY.................................................................................................10
SDK USAGE ..........................................................................................................................................11
4. OPERATION RECOMMENDATION ........................................................................................... 12
PRE-HEATING FOR BEST PERFORMANCE....................................................................................................12
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE..........................................................................................................................12
AMBIENT LIGHT .....................................................................................................................................12
5. REVISION HISTORY.................................................................................................................. 13

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Copyright 2009-2014 RoboPeak
http://www.RoboPeak.com
Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
System
机密
1. Overview
Thank you for purchasing RPLIDAR development kit. By using this kit, customers can easily
evaluating RPLIDAR’s performance. RoboPeak also provides SDK code to help customers
integrate RPLIDAR to their system.
Items in Development Kit
RPLIDAR Development Kit contains：
RPLIDAR（PWM motor driver embedded）
USB Adapter
RPLIDAR communication cable
Micro-USB cable
RPLIDAR
USB Adapter
Micro-USB cable
RPLIDAR
RPLIDAR communication cable

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Copyright 2009-2014 RoboPeak
http://www.RoboPeak.com
Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
System
机密
RPLIDAR development kit contains standard RPLIDAR unit (A1M1-R1). The RPLIDAR
embedded logic IO drivable (3.3V) motor controller which can be used to configure scan
frequency by tuning motor speed. Developer also can choose to turn off motor for power
saving purpose.
RPLIDAR usage and interface definition will be introduced in the coming sections.
USB Adapter
RPLIDAR development kit contains a USB adapter to provide power supply for RPLIDAR
and convert RPLIDAR internal UART serial interface to USB interface.

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Copyright 2009-2014 RoboPeak
http://www.RoboPeak.com
Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
System
机密
2. Connection and Usage
Connection
RPLIDAR can be easily connect to PC by following bellow steps.
1) Connect RPLIDAR with the USB adapter using provided communication cable. The
socket is in the bottom of RPLIDAR.
2) Connect the USB adapter to your PC using the Micro-USB cable
After connecting RPLIDAR to your PC through the USB cable, the LED in the bottom of
the RPLIDAR will light up and RPLIDAR start scanning.

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Copyright 2009-2014 RoboPeak
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Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
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Install Driver for the USB Adapter
The USB adapter converts UART to USB using CP2102 chip. You need to install the device
driver for the chip. The driver can be found in the provided SDK package or download
from Silicon Labs’s official website:
http://www.silabs.com/products/interface/usbtouart/Pages/usb-to-uart-bridge.aspx
Here’s the installation steps in Windows:
After connecting the RPLIDAR with PC, find the driver file “CP210x VCP Windows” and
choose correct operating system version accordingly: x86 for 32-bit OS and x64 for 64-bit
OS.
After Installing the driver according to installation steps, you should see corresponding
serial port name in the [Control Panel] -> [Device and Printers]. Please refer to the bellow
figure.

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Copyright 2009-2014 RoboPeak
http://www.RoboPeak.com
Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
System
机密
Run Demo Application
Frame_grabber is a GUI demo application provided by RoboPeak. You can view the scan
result directly in the UI and save the scan result to files for further processing. The source
code of this demo application is also provided for reference.
This GUI demo can only run under Windows. For Linux and MacOS users, please refer to
the other simple demo provided in the SDK.
Steps to run the GUI demo application:
Please make sure you have connect RPLIDAR to PC using USB adapter and installed the
device driver correctly before running the demo application.
Starting demo application frame_grabber.exe and choose serial port name identified in
the previous step.
If the connection is ok, you shall see the UI like this:

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Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
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The firmware/hardware version and serial number of the RPLIDAR will show in the title line
of the GUI. The supported commands of RPLIDAR are showed in the tool bar. The
descriptions are listed in the bellow table.
Button
Function
Description
Start Scan
Scan data will be displayed after scan core starting
work
Stop Scan
Scan core enter power save mode
Save Scan Data
Save current scan data to the local file
Restart RPLIDAR
Restart scan core to clear internal errors
Press the Start Scan button ，the scan data will be displayed in the UI：

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Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
System
机密
Use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. Move the cursor to any sample point, the
distance and degree value to the RPLIDAR will be showed in the screen with red font.
The scan frequency also showed in the UI.
Trouble shooting
When scan core or laser power works abnormally, scan core will enter protection mode.
This state can be retrieved using SDK API. If such scenario happened, sending restart
command can let scan core reset.

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Copyright 2009-2014 RoboPeak
http://www.RoboPeak.com
Low Cost 360 degree 2D Laser Scanner (LIDAR)
System
机密
3. Development Guide and SDK Introduction
Pin Definition for RPLIDAR
The socket in the bottom of RPLIDAR is using 5267-7A specification: 2.5mm spacing 7 pin.
Any communication cable has 5264-7 terminal block can be used to connect with
RPLIDAR. Please find the detail pin definition in the bellow table:
Pin
Signal name
Type
Description
Minimum
Typical
Maximum
P1
VMOTO
Power
Power supply for the RPLIDAR scan
motor
-
5V
9V
P2
MOTOCTL
Input
Enable pin for RPLIDAR scan
motor/PWM control signal
(active high)
0V
-
VMOTO
P3
GND
Power
GND signal for RPLIDAR scan motor
-
0V
-
P4
V5.0
Power
Power supply for RPLIDAR scan core
3.6V
5V
6V
P5
TX
Output
Serial output for RPLIDAR scan core
0V
-
5V
P6
RX
Input
Serial input for RPLIDAR scan core
0V
-
5V
P7
GND
Power
GND signal for RPLIDAR scan core
-
0V
V5.0
External system must provide required VMOTO and V5.0 power to make scan motor and
scan core work correctly. In most of scenarios, VMOTO and V5.0 can share the same power
supply.
MOTOCTL Pin used to control scan motor speed to adjust RPLIDAR’s scan frequency, PWM
signal also can be applied. The equivalent circuit showed as bellow:
You can also refer to the bellow Reference Design for RPLIDAR development.
P1
P7
…
5267-7A