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- Опубліковано 4 тра 2019
- Using laser light to measure the distance is an incredible technology. Today we will test a rangefinder which does precisely that. Up to 1500 meters in full sun, if we believe the glossy Leaflets. Will it keep its promise? And of course, we will take it apart.
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The forgotten picture of 4:25 (438.7 meters) : drive.google.com/open?id=1WszI6Mk3lxFlVdzhUjQxu0HFenlk-3Ed
Andreas, you've earned the privilege of being believed without providing evidence for everything. Thanks for another excellent video.
You cannot aim in the dark...
Hi , i have someting interesting for you how obouth blocking the device from mesuring the distance ???
Often quite a price jump from the 600m to the 1500m versions and I have tried to compare the internals on some but not my alley...
Would it be doable to increase the 905nm output? to get longer range on the cheap ones, as many are not fw locked and seems able to reach over spec, at least the lesser distanced ones.
Have two.. one 600m and one 800m.. the 600m seems to max out around 800 to 900m and the better of the two with a huge amount of features and angles and all that jazz plus decimals and was a tad ovwr 50 USD bucks some years back (great product)
these, - one is Hawkeye800m and the other Milesey600m imgur.com/a/AK444fi
One thing I really miss in the cheaper versions, is values that are somewhat lid' as these dark LCD with black symbols can be difficult to see against darker backgrounds or in low light but you need to get up around a few hundred dollars minimum for lid symbols that can be seen in darker enviroments. -
Thx for the video, though it would have been niced if you handled the aspect if on one can maximise the performance by delivering a higher wattage to the 905nm LD and how one would approach that..
the angle mesurement (H-versions) is quite usefull, as you can just point on an object and get the height difference in regards to you but sadly it comes at a cost on this H-unit as your loosing scan-mode, like on the P versions..
Im not sure if the H model can do "point to point".
what does that pod do at 10:15 at the bottom? any chance that it adjust the laserdidoe 905NM current/wattage output?
wishful thinking, and doublfull that its the laser diodes driver circuit that is there, but on most laser devices there is an pod to adjust current driver output and how hard you will drive the laser diode and it would be ideal if one could elevate the effect for fx longer range., though with bigger wear and shorter battery time.
you can vocally hear when it's pulsing, when in speed or fog mode...
@Andreas Spiess: The light travels the distance twice therefore 10ns = 1.5m resolution
Thanks for the correction!
OK now that was impressive to get 1500m from that Banggood rangefinder.
Thanks for sharing Andreas.
You are welcome!
Andreas. You really did a very good video. Like the teardown. Like the real world comparisons. Like the storyline. Good work
Thank you!
Please keep adding episode # for videos. It's a sweet and useful tradition of your channel.
Great video. Since a young boy my parents grew frustrated with me as it seems I disassembled pretty much everything. Crazy how fast tech has moved forward and it illustrates the genius of humanity.
I completely agree.
555 for the win! Ha ha I never would have guessed those old chips would be used!
One of the engineers probably used the 555 just to win a bet.
Seems to be an evergreen.
This thing is f*cking impressive, dayum!
:-)
As always, great content by Andreas.
BTW, that helping hand is so cool! :)
It has 5 hands ;-)
That's a really cool tear down Andreas!
Glad you liked it!
Very useful video 👍
Thank you!
I've said this many times and I'm going to say it again.. You are AWESOME!! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for your nice words!
Excellent Observations, I was impressed with conclusions. From Adelaide, South Australia, an avid Andreas Spiess follower.
Thank you. Adelaide is really far away. I never have been on your continent so far.
@Andreas Spiess Bangood admins already included your video in their product description!!
The best review and advertising for them!!
As we say here: One Hand cleans the other“ I get also their support if I need it.
That is a good range finder, Andreas. Only half way through. You are reminding me of my Army training now. So long ago.
Somebody else also wrote that the armies use such devices. I did not shoot too much during my army time.
Wow, another great video! Thumbs up and subscribed with notifications enabled!
Thank you for your support!
I need that range finder :O
I don't even know what I need it *for*, I just need the hell out of it!
Same here. But I was interested in the technology. And I did what nerds do. Bought one...
Thank you for the review!
You are welcome!
Hi Mr.ANDREAS , perfect and precise us always :).):)
Thank you!
Very well done
Thank you!
Crazy tech! Alway wondered how those work, thanks for the video!
You are welcome!
Thank you for your videos Sir!
You are welcome!
A 555 was the first IC I played with when I was a teenager, damn, that has been a long time ago...
That range finder is really impressive for that price!
I agree. This technology is astonishing. And about the long time ago, too ;-)
Really nicely done :)
Thank you!
Awesome! Thank You!
You are welcome!
Thank you, that's impressive technology.
You are welcome!
Superb Video. Good man. Thumbs up.
Thank you!
Great Video @Andreas Spiess, totally loved it!
I can't wait to learn how you will disassemble light with filters.
I have been looking for this since forever!!!
Please make it as detailed as possible.
Big hello all the way from India, I am a fan of your videos.
Keep up the great work.
P.S. I hope disassembly videos will be a regular thing in the future on your channel ;)
I will not use filters. I will use a diffraction grating slide because it provides the whole spectrum, not only one frequency
very interesting. Thank you)
You are welcome!
That’s pretty incredible
:-)
That’s amazing. Thank you for showing this. I want one - I do not need one but want one!
Same here ;-)
I am blown away by many things here .... I too was impressed that this device is able to discern that small signal from the background noise & able to measure the (to me ) incredibly small time values to be able to calculate the distance. I was also impressed with the great explanation (as usual) that Andreas supplied. Then I looked at the comments & notice that he had responded to many of the comments himself. Where does this guy find the time !?!?!
Good question ;-) If you would watch all my other videos you would see that I answer all comments. Because the commenters deserve it.
wow and what a wonderful cliffhanger - can't wait for it! :-)
You are right. We hope it is not too hard ;-)
Hi Andreas,
I work in a mountain search and rescue team and in order to locate victims or areas we are using a « GPS Binocular » which allows you to point to a place and get its lat/long coordinates + distance with only the click of a button. Problem is that the range of the binoculars is limited (1km maximum) and it is above all super heavy (more than 3 kilograms).
Last week I thought about building my own « GPS Gun » based on Arduino.
What it needs looks (at first) very simple : a laser range finder module ; a gps chip ; an lcd screen, a compass and that’s it !
The principles on which it would work : you aim at the area you want to search ; you push the button and the range finder calculates the range while the compass calculates the azimuth ; the device then uses your gps coordinates to compute the victim’s coordinates by adding the distance and the direction.
But unfortunately it only looks simple… My first problem is finding the right rangefinder laser module for Arduino.
After some research, all I’ve find are ultrasonic modules (too short in distance for me) or laser modules that work only up to 50-100 meters…
I am a huge fan of your UA-cam channel and I’ve seen your rangefinder tear down as well as your Arduino projects. So my question would be : Would you know of an arduino laser rangefinder module that would work past the 500 meters limit ?
Huge thanks in advance !
An interesting project idea! Back then, I did not find a decent range finder with a digital output. Maybe this changed by now. I did not investigate.
Super Video, sehr interessant!! 👌🏼👌🏼
Danke!
That is good, thanks.
You're welcome!
The angle is useful for measuring heights or calculating triangles
I thought that. But I had no need for it... Maybe architects or so?
@@AndreasSpiess You can calculate the height of some tree or obstacle, by reading the measurement to the base of it, and perhaps the top, and taking the angle to the top of it, then applying basic trigonometry. Then you can measure distances that are not in a straight line from you. edit: perhaps you would like to cut that tree down, and you need to know how much space you need to put it.
@@SteveWrightNZ I've actually done exactly this! I had a 60 foot tree that I cut down in a yard. It was good to know that I had room before the fence. I've also used the height functions for planning where to put Wi-Fi antennas in stadiums.
@@AdamFraserKruck Hah, yeah they don't look very big when they're upright do they!
Also for hunting/shooting sports. Angles change points of aim.
mind blowing!
Yes!
Very interesting!
Thank you!
That's a nice little device.
Agreed!
Easy to use and effective
True!
The engineers that worked on this were very smart. It's nice when you buy something and it meets the specs.
Especially if the specs are nearly unbelievable ;-)
The little hand pointing things really funny 😂
Thank you!
Very interesting.
:-)
danke you too
This guy with the Swiss accent ... nice video - amazing that that device can actually achieve the measurement.
Indeed, I was also surprised. It is Incredible for me.
Nice stuff!
I saw you do your measurements while I flew by your house...with street-view.😁
My god. And I did not say hello to you ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess Yes, that`s very unusual for Basler Bebbis. I was quite disappointed.
I am Baselbieter ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess So Bebbis are located only in Basel? If so, i'm sorry, that's the ignorance of Zürischnurre. Is there a kind of nickname for Baslebieter?
thanck you
You are welcome!
Hoi Andreas
finde deinen Kanal super. Weiter so :)
Danke!
So cool
:-)
Yes, Usefull as allways :-)
Thank you!
Nice!
Thank you!
Thanks for a great video. Most digital cameras (still, video, @ phone) can detect some IR. (They have filters, but usually let some IR through) You can see this in the camera's viewfinder by pointing a common IR based Remote Control at the camera lens and see a small flashing dot. It would be interesting if you can see the Range Finder's emitter flashing. It would be more interesting (but unlikely) to see the Rand Finder IR reflected from a nearby target.
I will do some IR experiments in a future video.
Great engineering
True!
The device has a microphone and sends what you talk to the Chinese. They translate it, use google maps and send the value back into the device.
On a serious note: the second series of pulses might be used to measure the phase shift from the response pulses to get the accuracy. Well done!
I like the first option ;-)
Very good!
I'm impressed
Non reflective targets are more difficult.
Kind regards
You are right. and probably also rough surfaces.
i like your MSO
Viewer 61!! Yes my personal record
:-)
We must secure the existence of this channel and a future for tinkering children.
Thank you! I am not sure if the creator will be fit in 10 years from now ;-) At least the videos will survive.
I believe one of the tricks to measure signals with a small signal to noise ratio is to do the measurements as often as it takes to be sure enough of the result. Using the repeated pulses the device can differentiate between signal and noise. I've done similar things with EEG and ECG. Often I can figure out details which are more precise than the "theoretical" ADC resolution or sample rate, by superimposing multiple measurements.
You are right. But still, I was surprised that anything comes back to the receiver...
Wonderful review! Of course you can get the height of things by measuring the distance to the top of something and then just multiplying by the sine of the angle. Any chance you can do a review about testing the speed version? perhaps by using a friend driving directly towards or away from you?
So far I have no such plans. But I am sure it will work.
Thanks for an interesting video. I have a cheap distance meter and speedometer that ALDI sold 8-9 years ago. It easily measures the distance on both houses, cars and trees in 300 meters distance. I have been able to measure distances of up to 600 meters but it requires a flat reflecting surface (preferably white) that turns the surface into 90 degrees. What is best about the distance meter is that I have never experienced it show a wrong distance, which I think is impressive, it is either the right distance or an error message.
The speedometer actually works just as well, it returns the measured speed without error if you can hold the beam on the item for 1/10 second.
Thanks for sharing your experience. It seems to be a similar device. I also had my problems measuring the speed of small or fast moving objects.
Andreas they had 2 similar ones at Aldi Olten and nobody bought them so I ended up with both on special. Blew me away too how far they go and they have a 123 3V battery but same interface. Now I measure rural property boundaries in tropical Australia. Even the speed function is useful, Aldi ones have no angle function but else are very similar.
I assume Aldi sources from similar manufacturers as we do...
Cool Andreas, I'm curious about your future findings on this subject. I've been looking at narrow band UV-A/UV-B filters, perhaps I'll learn something applicable to the other side of the spectrum from your experience with IR stuff.
Dupont 215 Riston photoresist lists micrometer resolution potential with a narrow band ~200nm light source. I have been looking at cheap filter glass and germacidal UV lamps that claim to also create O3 as a source. I have not seen any practical examples of light sources and narrow band filters in practice, but haven't really gone looking, yet :-)
Thanks for the upload.
-Jake
I will not experiment with filters in my IR Video. I do not have IR filters.
I never knew I needed one of these until I saw this video. I think Andreas has caused more money to disappear from my bank account than any other UA-camr ;) There are several related models of this unit, ranging (pun intended) from 600 to 1500 meters and the H variations, LR900H and LR1500H, do angle AND height (thus the H) so you can measure the height of things like a building or tree.
Before the money disappears from your account, it disappears also from mine ;-) So we suffer the same illness.
Andreas, i think they used a lock-in amplifier in order to measure only a spesific frequency below thermal noise. And the avalanche diodes could be used to cause a very deterministic and stable oscillation source.
I agree they have to have sharp filters and a long measuring period. But still, it is magic for me....
This tof stuff is like star trek technology. If it bounces back in light, it would make one heck of a audio surveillance device!
Maybe it is not fast enough.
Better done with continuous light and detecting amplitude changes from microphone surfaces. Windows etc, spy stuff.
The Rasberry pi laserbeam finder....was interesting ...more on that.
So far, I do not have such plans :-(
Thanks for a very interesting video :)
I wonder if it's possible to interface this to a microcontroller ?
That could open up a new world.
I only found one "connector" type pins on the board. But no signals. Maybe somebody else knows something.
Maybe you can use the signals that go to the display.
Very interesting video.
Speaking of considerable distance with small powers, you reminded me that in the 80s and 90s some amateur radio operators made a connection between the hills above Bologna and the surroundings of Argenta (province of Ferrara) for about 40 km away, using a laser of about ten mW current modulated and a photodiode mounted on a dish as a receiver. I wanted to give you the link to the news (which I found on the internet a few years ago) to be more precise, but this time the search was not successful.
Given the quality of the optoelectronic components available at that time, it seems almost normal that with $ 150 an item of this type can be bought, which, at least until a few years ago was exclusively for professional use, and perhaps strictly reserved for armed forces
Another commenter also wrote about experiments in the seventies. It seems that this technology is old. But for me, it is a miracle.
@@AndreasSpiess maybe i was that commenter, during writing my post something appeared on my mind like a dejavu, but i was not sure about it, so you confirmed that my memory had some lacks 😆😆😆😆😆
@Andreas Spiess The timer 555 used to make separate pulses groups , about 150 ms as in your oscilloscope.
Thank you!
@@AndreasSpiess you are welcome
Great video! Can you try to interface with the module?
I did not find a serial connector
Worst case, I guess a parallel in, serial out shift register connected to the LCD data lines could be used.
@@MoritzvonSchweinitz Can you please point me towards content on how to do this? I would like to figure out how to interface with a laser range finder. I am working on a project that requires it. Without a serial connector I need to find other means. Thanks
@@sbsrd7 That depends completely on the device you want to interface with. Some will have an internal serial bus somewhere you might be able to tap into. Or maybe they communicate with the display over I2C. Worst case, there should be many many lines going to the display. In that case you might be able to use an Arduino Mega to listen to those lines (and reconstruc what number is being shown), or you could use a parallel in, serial out shift register to save on pins.
@@MoritzvonSchweinitz I actually found a long range unit that had a serial port available. Thank you
It knows the distance and the angle. I wonder how good it is at working out heights.
I did not try.
Testing on hugely reflective targets is cool, but you also need to do tree, and animal size with different reflectivity. Any laser rangefinder is going to do well on a super reflective huge target. It's when it gets smaller and less reflective and differing size is where you will find the performance difference.
You are right. But this large range is still astonishing for me.
@Andreas Spiess at 10:08 I notice some pin header at right side of the board in front of the D2 diode and another set of pin header on the top left of the board...
I'm wonder if one of these are the JTAG or some sort of Serial communication that we could take advantage and read the results such as distance and speed of object!
Would be awesome if you could do a video about this, and if it's possible to extract the data using an Rapberry PI or arduino!
I do not know if they are JTAG. But they do not provide output of the data.
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks for your feedback! I'm looking everywhere for such device that does that... really hard to find!
Incredible Andreas. Have you found a way to extract the signal so we can use it as a sensor to work with Andruino project?
No. As I said, it has no interface :-(
👍👍👍 !!!
Thank you!
Bushnell Yardage Pro over a decade ago had 1000yd (only a rangefinder) abvertised range and only slightly larger package. I had another generic brand that boasted 2000yds w/ speed.
The bushnell would read 800yds to pine trees mid-day and in full sun. I saw it go above 1200yds to a reflective street sign.
The 2000yd device didn't work as well unfortunately.
I did not know this technology. Thank you for this information.
unrelated, but if you're looking into something fun to hack into, concider a cheap "mechanical" keyboard, mayhaps even an RGB one. most of them seem to run on STM32 MCUs, and should be fun to mess with.
Nice video and explanation Andreas .
I would like your opinion on a problem that I have with my rangefinder .
The range finder works fine,but, the display is very dim and I can barely see the letters and numbers now(they used to be a very nice red light display).
A new battery doesn't fix the problem .
I've disassemble it .
Do you think that cleaning the ribbon cable contacts would help,or you think that the problem would be more serious ?
Any advice or tip will be greatly appreciated .
Thank You .
Unfortunately, I have no idea. Cleaning the cable probably does not hurt but I fear it has a deeper reason :-(.
I fly gliders (fuselage close to the ground) and light sport aircraft (with different length legs under the fuselage).
- All airports have a preferred (pattern) altitude that you should fly above the ground when you are coming in for a landing. Pilots use their altitude indicator to fly that altitude. The indicator depends on barometric pressure, which changes from place to place. Pilots often forget to check it for the destination airport and could be off the pattern altitude by as much as 30-60 meters while in the pattern. This puts them too high or too low and reduces the margin of safety.
- If you fly different aircraft with fuselages at different heights from the ground, It can be a bit tricky to make that final landing flair at just the right height, so that you gently settle onto the ground as you lose speed.
I can imagine one of these rangefinders in a small protected shell underneath a small airplane to provide accurate ground speed and distance information to the pilot in the pattern and on final (lined up with the runway), all the way through that final flare. Typical pattern altitude at the beginning is ~ 500 meters above ground level. If the device could work from that altitude, pointing at the ground, and over grass or pavement on final, then this could be a great safety enhancement.
I am not an electrical engineer. I don't know what it would take to hack the output signal. I know what it would take to turn that signal into an instrument on the panel.
I know that you work on a lot of interesting projects, but was wondering whether you might be able to put a tiny arduino in front of it, like you connected the infrared sensor to a Raspberry Pi. People could connect to the arduino with SPI or I2C to read the Rangefinder output and display it on the aircraft instrument panel.
What do you think?
I remember these things from when I did my pilot training. I thought that airliners already use this technology to measure the real distance to the ground. Unfortunately, I did not find a serial connector.
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks for thinking about it.
There is probably a polarised filter in the front of the infrared receiver.
I don’t think so on multiple reasons but mostly cause its reducing the amount of light beeing detected by minimum factor 2 even if tuned in absolut perfect angle. I wont say is not possible, but i believe its not the case.
What would be the advantage of such a filter?
@@AndreasSpiess if you have a polarised light source the sensor would block half the natural light and still let through the source light fully.
Imagine you sit in jail and the fencesticks on ya window r very tight, and someone is throwing matchsticks to you from outside. So, only the ones who come on straight (orientation top-bottom) fly trough. In science they r used to detect tension on surfaces, on lcd display they straighten up the backlight for the liquid crystals who do the same (and block so all the shine trough), but mostly theyr used as sunglasses or in photographie.
Great video! Any idea how you could export the data from the laser to say an Arduino?
Unfortunately, no
very impressing. The last time i was using such a device it was in 1981 in Military ;-) in Golfing i will trust my ball boy :-). But still very intresting. Just questioning the use of Laser in a public place?
I thought you were younger ;-) Looking at the power consumption the laser is not very powerful. But you are right, it has no certification.
Hi Andreas, my question concerns the functionality that you have not presented, namely - is there any communication interface, for example UART, displayed on the PCB. On the PCB, you can see two rows of fields with holes as if it could be used for something more, such as reading the distance by rPi Zero or Arduino and presenting the result on an external display.
I think I mentioned that I did not find a serial output
the only time i ever used these devices is when i played FPS games as a sniper.
This seems to be a main application
The laser diode is by no means weak, it is just not suited for CW operation. The diode is going to be one of those pulsed osram diodes, ranging( ;) ) from 15 to 35 watts pulsed!
Good to know. Thanks!
Very impressive for a cheap and small device. Good video as well! Let me ask you something: could you tell me how the angle and height measurements work? I´m interest on buying this product to make som forestry measurements. Regards!!
They have a built in accelerometer which measures the angle from horizontal.
Hello Andreas, Nice job! :) What depends on the range measuring between 600m and 1500m? This product there is different ranges between 600m and 1500m. What is the key of longer range? The IR led diode angle or low beam divrgence or sensor or others? I have a 600m model. Is it possible to tune the same product 600m model up to 1000...1500m? Thx.
I do not know since I have no other models.
Wow nice device.
I hope you used an affiliate link after this review! :)
As I mention, I always use affiliate links. Otherwise it would be hard to finance the channel :-(
There seem to be some pins that were not soldered to anything. Can you read data from this module using those pins maybe? They seem to be TTL level serial pins.
Unfortunately, I was not able.
They have a 600m model for less than 100 bucks. That is amazing.
I wanted the longest one because I did not trust the "glossy paper" ;-)
Could you please try to interface with this device to get an arduino to read the speed and distance values?
I support this request :) I have a similar one, only 600m, and tried to get something out of the two unused connectors, without success.
The same with me. I did not find a connector.
You could use the flat ribbon to reverse engineer the display
Hi andreas. I can explain you why you are so surprised of the range, and why it can detect it with such precision. This is not a dot wich is measured, but in fact a cross. You might know that in optics, what you are projecting is sensibly alterated by distance. So that's what they are measuring. A cloud of dots making a cross, then the distance between dots by projection range. This also gives you an idea of the Cmos sensor resolution, and you can calculate it yourself around squared 4K. So you just have to measure the distance between dots to exactly know th real distance because there is a constant magnifying for the cloud of dots of the projected cross. In short distance, they are going to be very close from each other, in longer distance, they are going to be very spaced from each other in the sensor. Then you just have to count the distance between dots on the Cmos sensor grid to know the real distance. Of course, the Cmos sensor is only focusing at 905nm, which is not in the visible spectrum, and also not perturbated by the natural day light. They only see the dots in fact ! ;-)
I am not sure if this method is used in this case. I did not find a camera chip.
... probably not playing with this anymore but wonder if a surveyor reflector prism would extend the range any
You are right, it is sitting in the shelf for the moment.
Assuming that I could find a connector, how easy would it be to get the distance information?
I do not know.
I assume a laser diode with coded signal for correlation based boost in SnR?
Well possible. Or at least a particular modulation frequency.
Very interesting: are we going toward an ham laser rtx project?
It is more an end. I was very frustrated with my first device and now I am in peace with this technology ;-)
Thanks for this great test!
That these distances are possible - and far more - is proven by professional geodetical devices as Theodolites, Tacheometers, Total Stations, which can mor the ten times more but can cost more than 100 times more.
What is about eye safety of your device? Which laser class according DIN EN 60825-1?
I did not find a label. Maybe we can guess from the power consumption?
@@AndreasSpiess Most probably not. According de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser#/media/File:Maximal_zul%C3%A4ssige_cw-Leistungen_nach_EN_60825-1.de.png derived from the 2007 standard (now 2015 standard is valid) the limit for the harmless class 1 is about 1mW average optical power @ 900nm. Even with an assumed efficiency of 50% the rest of the electronics will dominate by far.
Hi Andreas, do you think is it possible to extract the range value directly from the electronic component to feed another device ?
Maybe from the display. Not a simple task