Thats a good idea merne. I have the 4 in 1 sensor on my robot. In the app I have built for Rafiki, I have a rotating compass image that moves with the position or direction of the compass. I will look at adding this.

I just finished the changes for the colors for the points and background. I will post that for you in about 10 minutes.

The color thing was a bit tricky but it is working now. Let me know if you have any issues with it. A new version has been posted.

Thanks David

Merne, in thinking about this, I would probably rather pass in a variable that is displayed in a certain location on the map. This allows the user to put whatever they want in that variable and I would just display it. I would probably be able to allow the user to specify which variable they want to have displayed through the config side of the screen, but it is getting pretty full now. I have also put some thought into changing the config side of the plugin to be a different form or a panel that is only visible when a button is clicked (like the default ARC controls), but if I did that, I would feel obligated to add the little question mark with instructions

There is another piece of information coming back from the LIDAR that I am not using yet but think I will attempt to use it. It is the intensity of the signal returned to the LIDAR. This should allow you to determine if the object that you are seeing is a wall or a piece of cloth. It is going to take some work to allow it to be used, but I think this is the next thing that I will work on adding.

The thought is that you will have 3 different point colors. The point color would indicate the level of intensity returned by the LIDAR. I will probably build another array variable that would have 360 points showing this level of intensity at each angle.

The issue with this sensor is that you end up with 720 variable elements in 2 arrays. That is a lot of data for someone to consume and process. I will add it and see how it goes and go from there.

I will probably build another plugin (with intensity) so that someone can choose which of these two they want to use. The only issue is that it means managing two different sets of code... Thinking on this a bit.

Like a blind squirrel once in a while I can find a nut ?? I think you have some great ideas David and look forward to seeing your new release thanks again. BTY, i'm glad you can read in what I'm trying to type because most the time I don't seem to clarify things .??

Hi David, great work on this Lidar plugin. I noticed in your video that there is a LED on the 1,2 controller that is on. My controller does not light up and no variables are being populated but the motor is spinning the Lidar. Do you think this is a bum controller? I've used two different XV Lidar units and the results are the same.

@RobotDoc It is possible. Here is what I would try just to verify...

First, make sure your cable isn't just a power cable from something like a cell phone charger. Some of these only have the +5 and ground cables in them.

Second, I would try the directions on https://www.getsurreal.com/product/xv-lidar-controller-v1-2 to see if your getting data reported back through the Arduino app. I say this just because it is what they are targeting.

I would specifically focus on this chunk from their website... The Teensy comes pre-programmed, but you are able to customize and build from source.

Quote:

Firmware https://github.com/getSurreal/XV_Lidar_Controller Arduino IDE (v1.0.5 tested. Newer or older may work) Teensyduino - Software add-on to run Arduino sketches on the Teensy (v1.19 tested. Newer or older may work) http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/teensyduino.html Copy the included libraries to the Arduino libraries directory Usage Connect to the Teensy USB port at 115200 baud. When sending commands, use the newline character sequence to signify the end of a command.

I send a command to the serial port of "ShowDist". If you send this, you should see degrees, distances and intensity ratings. If you get that, you are good. If not, I would reach out to GetSurreal.

I think the issue is probably the cable, but I could be wrong.

Version 5 - 12/23/2015 12:37 PM CST I added the ability to use the intensity reading from the sensor. This lets you try to determine what type of object is being detected. I also chose to include both the distance measurement value and the intensity value in the $LIDAR array element. I decided it was better to have a single value that then can be parsed by a script instead of two different arrays (one for distance and one for intensity). If people don't like this, I can change it to two different variable arrays.