Parsing laser distance meter serial output

UPDATE: Serial commands and timing information are now available here.

This is a follow-up on my previous article about an arduino-compatible laser distance meter‎ with serial output. I've received several emails asking for example code to parse the serial output. displaying a laser distance measurement on an lcd

int strstart_P(const char *s1, const char * PROGMEM s2)
{
    return strncmp_P(s1, s2, strlen_P(s2)) == 0;
}

int getdist(void)
{
    char buf[64];
    char *comma;
    int dist;
    int rc;

    for (;;) {
        rc = Serial.readBytesUntil('\n', buf, sizeof(buf));
        buf[rc] = '\0';

        if (!strstart_P(buf, PSTR("Dist: ")))
            continue;

        comma = strchr(buf, ',');
        if (comma == NULL)
            continue;

        *comma = '\0';

        dist = atoi(buf + strlen_P(PSTR("Dist: ")));
        return dist;
    }
}

void setup(void)
{
    Serial.begin(115200);
}

void loop(void)
{
    int dist_mm;
    int dist_m;
    char buf[128];

    dist_mm = getdist();
    dist_m = dist_mm / 1000;

    snprintf_P(buf, sizeof(buf),
        PSTR("Laser distance: %d.%dm"),
        dist_m, dist_mm % 1000);

    Serial.println(buf);
}

screen shot of laser distance measurements

  • Mike

    Hi, Any furthur info on Laser Range Finder ?

    Regards
    Mike

  • qartis

    What kind of info do you need?

  • drjohn

    Any progress on sending it commands?

    Any idea of how fast you can pulse the 'on' line and get reliable results?

  • speleomaniac

    some experimenting showed that:

    sending char 'r' powers down the system, all other characters except * and # are echoed back.

    the device seems to accept commands in form: *xxxxx#

    where x are numbers. the last number defines the action: i think it accepts only numbers with 5 digits.

    *43531# outputs:
    *00021012#pMsgWrite TRUE
    pInitDataWrite TRUE

    *11112# turns on laser and does 3 readings, but display shows "Er":
    Dist: 428,curtemp =18
    V2.0
    nDist: 428,tempDv=0
    Dist: 428,curtemp =18
    V2.0
    nDist: 428,tempDv=0
    Dist: 428,curtemp =18
    V2.0
    nDist: 428,tempDv=0
    u32Dist[0]=428 u32Dist[1] =428 u32Dist[2] =428
    u32temp =0
    *000720150000000042#

    *54343# does nothing

    *11114# does a single reading, and displays on lcd. BINGO:
    Dist: 525,curtemp =18
    V2.0
    nDist: 525,tempDv=0

    *55555# dumps some data:
    772*0024500001000022430000000000000000000000000000000040#*0024500002000009340000000000000000000000000000000019#*0024500003000007830000000000000000000000000000000067#*0024500004000009530000000000000000000000000000000040#*0024500005000002980000000000000000000000000000000079#

  • Aslak

    Hi! How often can this setup read out data? once per sec?

  • Nikolai

    This information would interest me also because i can find no information about it.

  • rinnamon

    Andrew,

    I managed to combine some of the things discussed here so I can now turn it on (NPN), take a reading (serial), shut it off (serial), and capture all of the output (serial).The problem I am having it that it is challenging to parse the output (just providing mm). I tried using your method but it doesn't work for me. Is there a simple way that I can search the stream for ": " (colon & space)? or something like that? - The value follows those two characters. - The serial command also comes back with a response that is a bunch of leading zeros and the distance value that I am looking for. So, either of these are fine but it seems like it should be simple to do and yet I am having a very very hard time doing so.

    Any thoughts?


    ....
    void loop(void)
    {
    thisUpdate = millis();

    if (thisUpdate >= (lastUpdate + interval)){
    // Turn the device on using an NPN transistor
    subRecord(); // call the routine to take a reading
    }

    // Serial.print("I should turn off now");
    if (thisUpdate >= (lastUpdate + interval+TimeToTakeReading)){
    subOff(); // turn it off
    lastUpdate = thisUpdate;
    }

    //This is how I am reading the data continuously
    if(Serial1.available()){
    char inByte = Serial1.read();
    Serial.write(inByte);
    }
    }

    ////////////Sampling the Serial line for a value
    void subRecord(){
    Serial1.write("*11114#"); //*11114# does a single reading, and displays on lcd. BINGO:
    Complete = true;
    }
    /////////////Turning off
    void subOff(){
    Serial1.write("r");
    Complete = false;
    }

    Results are

    ldpara:368
    curent ver:420411
    Year:Jan 21 2013 Time:13:53:10
    ldpara:368
    Iint OK
    GetAPDMinVoltage ÿAPDMIN=186 APDMAX=224
    BIASVOLMIN=2311 BIASVOLMAX =2323
    (
    Dist: 3192,curtemp =18

    V2.0
    nDist: 3192,tempDv=0

    *0006400000319269#

  • qartis

    See my updated post here: http://blog.qartis.com/laser-distance-meter-update-serial-commands-timing-measurements/

    Short answer: about 1 measurement per second for single-shot mode, and about 3 measurements per second for rapid-fire mode.

  • Tom

    Hi,
    Could you tell me how could you turn it on?

    Thanks in advance!

    Tom

  • JCT250

    Did you find a datasheet or something with these commands or was it trial and error? Just wondering if it was trial and error how many of the different combinations you tried?

  • speleomaniac

    Trial and error. After finding out chars * and # are not echoed back, it took me about 15 tries to figure out the pattern. In short, it was pure luck :)

  • JCT250

    Ok sweet, Did you just pick random combinations withing the chars * and # or did you run through a list of them?

    Just wondering whether its worth me having a hack at some code that scrolls through all the *xxxxx# combinations to see if there are any other ones

  • Martin Langelier

    hello
    From : http://y6-multicopter.blogspot.ru/2014/03/blog-post.html
    the shown code is working in rapid fire, but i whant a one second interval shot

    boolean recdata = true;
    boolean data;
    int buf[64];
    int rc=0;

    void setup()
    {
    Serial.begin(115200);
    Serial1.begin(115200);
    //Serial.println("Start...");
    }

    void loop()
    {
    static unsigned long t = 0;
    if (millis() > (t + 2000)){ // timer start when no data from the sensor
    Serial1.write("*00084553#");
    t = millis();
    }
    getdist();
    if (recdata) t = millis(); // Reset the timer when it receives data from the sensor
    }

    int getdist(){
    int litera;

    if (Serial1.available() > 0){
    while (Serial1.available() > 0){
    litera = Serial1.read();
    if (litera == 42) { // If adopted a "*"
    data = true; //Then set the sign of the beginning of the packet
    }

    if (litera == 35) { // If adopted, the "#"
    data = false; //Then set the sign of the end of the package ...
    recdata = true; //And install a sign to obtain data for the control (reset) the timer and further processing of the packet
    }
    if(data==true && rc47){ // If there is a sign of the beginning of the packet, the packet length is reasonable and litera has a numeric value to ASCII, the ...
    litera = litera-48;// convert ASCII to figure ...
    buf[rc] = litera; // And add it to the array.
    rc++;
    }
    }
    }else{
    if (recdata == true){
    boolean dig=true; //This variable will work to separate the package into categories 2 digits
    int countdata=0; //This variable will be considered level
    int data=0; //This variable will take the values ​​of bits
    int sum=0; //This sum of all digits except for the last
    int src=0; //This is the last category (10), which defines the checksum
    int countLaser=0; //This is an internal counter in the 5th digit
    int dist=0; //It is the distance, we calculate
    for(int p = 0; p<rc; p++){
    if(dig){
    data = buf[p]*10;//Here we have the first sign of any new discharge multiply by 10 ....
    countdata++;
    }else{
    data += buf[p]; // And here we add to it, the second value.
    if(countdata= 100) {// If the checksum is greater than 99, then cut off the excess, leaving only the last two
    int a=sum;
    sum=sum/100;
    sum=sum*100;
    sum =a-sum;
    }
    if(sum==src){// If the amount of bits (except the last) is the checksum (last digit) then ...
    // Serial.print(" ");
    // Serial.print(sum);
    // Serial.print(" ");
    // Serial.print(src);
    Serial.print("t");
    Serial.print(countLaser); //Output data of the internal counter
    Serial.print("t");
    Serial.print(dist);//Output the distance and ...
    if(countLaser==99){// if the counter has reached the limit, then ...
    Serial1.write("*00084553#"); //give the command to start a new cycle
    }
    }
    src = 0;
    countdata = 0;
    countLaser = 0;
    rc=0;
    recdata = false;
    Serial.println();
    }
    }
    }

  • Mohamed Elsayed

    hello andrew i want to ask about how did u discover all these info about that module coz i have GLM50 bosh and i want to connect it with my MCU and i don't know from where i can start .