These standard gearmotors are incredibly tough and feature full metal gears to help you drive wheels, gears, or almost anything else that needs to turn. They have a gear ratio of 18:1 and operate up to 12 volts and deliver a stall torque of 27.3 oz-in. and a max speed of 168 RPM. Each standard gearmotor sports a 6mm diameter D-shaft.

Features

Voltage: 3 - 12 Volts

Gear Ratio: 18:1

Stall Torque: 27.3 oz-in. (@ 12V)

Speed: 168 RPM (@ 12V)

No Load Current: 95 mA (@ 12V)

Stall Current: 0.5A (@ 12V)

Insulation Resistance: 10 MOhm

Dielectric Strength: 300VDC

DC Reversible

Shaft Size: 6mm Diameter x 0.715” Length

Weight: 4.2 oz.

Let your robotic dreams come true with the new DC+Stepper Motor HAT from Adafruit. This Raspberry Pi add-on is perfect for any motion project as it can drive up to 4 DC or 2 Stepper motors with full PWM speed control.

Raspberry Pi and motors are not included. Works with any and all Raspberry Pi computers with 2x20 connection port.Since the Raspberry Pi does not have a lot of PWM pins, we use a fully-dedicated PWM driver chip onboard to both control motor direction and speed. This chip handles all the motor and speed controls over I2C. Only two pins (SDA & SCL) are required to drive the multiple motors, and since it's I2C you can also connect any other I2C devices or HATs to the same pins.

In fact, you can even stack multiple Motor HATs, up to 32 of them, for controlling up to 64 stepper motors or 128 DC motors (or a mix of the two) - just remember to purchase and solder in a stacking header instead of the one we include.

Motors are controlled by TB6612 MOSFET drivers with 1.2A per channel current capability (you can draw up to 3A peak for approx 20ms at a time), a big improvement over L293D drivers and there are built-in flyback diodes as well.

We even had a little space so we added a polarity protection FET on the power pins and a bit of prototyping area. And the HAT is assembled and tested here at Adafruit so all you have to do is solder on the included 2x20 plain header and the terminal blocks.

Lets check out these specs again:

4 H-Bridges: TB6612 chipset provides 1.2A per bridge with thermal shutdown protection, internal kickback protection diodes. Can run motors on 4.5VDC to 13.5VDC.

Up to 4 bi-directional DC motors with individual 8-bit speed selection (so, about 0.5% resolution)

Up to 2 stepper motors (unipolar or bipolar) with single coil, double coil, interleaved or micro-stepping.

Big terminal block connectors to easily hook up wires (18-26AWG) and power

Polarity protected 2-pin terminal block and jumper to connect external 5-12VDC power

Works best with Raspberry Pi model A+, B+, or Pi 2, but can be used with a model A or B if you purchase a 2x13 extra-tall header and solder that instead of the 2x20

Install the easy-to-use Python library, check out the examples and you're ready to go!

Comes with an assembled & tested HAT, terminal blocks, and 2x20 plain header. Some soldering is required to assemble the headers on. Stacking header not included, but we sell them in the shop so if you want to stack HATs, please pick one up at the same time.

Raspberry Pi, motors, and battery pack are not included but we have lots of motors in the shop and all our DC motors, and stepper motors work great. Check out our detailed tutorial for tons of info including schematics, wiring diagrams, python libraries and example walkthroughs.

Note: The terminal blocks included with your product may be blue or black.

This programmable module combines with a Raspberry Pi to serve as the control center of a small robot or electronics project. Its ATmega32U4 AVR microcontroller comes preloaded with an Arduino-compatible bootloader, and the board includes dual motor drivers that can deliver 1.8 A per channel to two brushed DC motors. An efficient voltage regulator (2.7 V to 11 V input) and level shifters enable it to power and communicate with a Raspberry Pi. This version (item #3117) is assembled with selected through-hole connectors and components installed for use as a Raspberry Pi add-on.

A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller LV with Raspberry Pi Bridge, bottom view with dimensions.

The A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller LV with Raspberry Pi Bridge is a programmable module well-suited for robotics applications, designed to work either as an auxiliary controller mounted to a Raspberry Pi or as a standalone control solution for a small robot. This A-Star (abbreviated A*) is based on the ATmega32U4 AVR microcontroller from Microchip (formerly Atmel), which has built-in USB functionality, and it ships with a preloaded Arduino-compatible bootloader. Its complement of peripheral hardware includes dual motor drivers capable of delivering a continuous 1.8 A per channel, along with pushbuttons, LEDs, and an optional buzzer for building a user interface. An efficient switching voltage regulator allows the controller to work over a wide range of input voltages (2.7 V to 11 V).

The robot controller board conforms to the Raspberry Pi HAT specification, allowing it to be used as an add-on for a Raspberry Pi with a 40-pin GPIO header (Model B+ or newer, including Pi 3 Model B and Model A+) . On-board level shifters make it easy to set up I²C communication and interface other signals between the two controllers, and the A-Star automatically supplies 5 V power to an attached Raspberry Pi. In this setup, the Raspberry Pi can handle the high-level robot control while relying on the A-Star for low-level tasks like reading analog sensors and controlling timing-sensitive devices (e.g. servos).

We provide a library that helps establish communication between the A-Star and a Raspberry Pi, as well as a tutorial that demonstrates how to use the library and its included example code to build such a robot.

Our comprehensive user’s guide provides the basics you need to get started with the A-Star as well as detailed technical information for advanced users.

This product requires a USB A to Micro-B cable (not included) to connect to a computer.

Driving motors with an A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller LV with Raspberry Pi Bridge on a Raspberry Pi Model B+ or Pi 2 Model B.

A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller LV (2.7 V to 11 V) configurations:

Item #3116: Surface mount components only (no through-hole components or mounting hardware)

Item #3117: Assembled with selected through-hole components for use as a Raspberry Pi add-on (Raspberry Pi mounting hardware included)

A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller SV (5.5 V to 36 V) configurations:

Item #3118: Surface mount components only (no through-hole components or mounting hardware)

Item #3119: Assembled with selected through-hole components for use as a Raspberry Pi add-on (Raspberry Pi mounting hardware included)

Dimensions: 65 mm × 56 mm (2.6″ × 2.2″)

Programmable ATmega32U4 MCU with 32 KB flash, 2.5 KB SRAM, 1 KB EEPROM, and native full-speed USB (clocked by precision 16 MHz crystal oscillator)

Preloaded with Arduino-compatible bootloader (no external programmer required)

All 26 general-purpose I/O lines from the ATmega32U4 are broken out (including PB0, PD5, and PE2); 7 of these can be used as hardware PWM outputs and 12 of these can be used as analog inputs (some I/O lines are used by on-board hardware)

Convenient 0.1″-spaced power, ground, and signal connection points

Dual bidirectional DRV8838 motor drivers (1.8 A per channel)

Buzzer option for simple sounds and music

3 user-controllable LEDs

3 user pushbuttons

Reset button

Level shifters for interfacing 5 V logic to 3.3 V Raspberry Pi

Power features:

5 V power can be sourced from USB or from a 2.7 V to 11 V external supply through on-board regulator (with several access points for connecting external power)

Switching 5 V regulator enables efficient operation

Power switch for external power inputs

Reverse-voltage protection on external power inputs

Power selection circuit allows for seamless switching between power sources while providing overcurrent protection, and feedback about which power source is selected

Provides 5 V power to Raspberry Pi

5 V power can be sourced from USB or from a 2.7 V to 11 V external supply through on-board regulator (with several access points for connecting external power)

Switching 5 V regulator enables efficient operation

Power switch for external power inputs

Reverse-voltage protection on external power inputs

Power selection circuit allows for seamless switching between power sources while providing overcurrent protection, and feedback about which power source is selected

Provides 5 V power to Raspberry Pi

6-pin ISP header for use with an external programmer

Comprehensive user’s guide

A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller LV with Raspberry Pi Bridge with included hardware.

This version of the A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller LV with Raspberry Pi Bridge (2.7 V to 11 V input voltage) is assembled with selected through-hole connectors and components for use as a Raspberry Pi expansion board, as shown in the picture above. A 2×20-pin 0.1″ female header is preinstalled to serve as a Raspberry Pi GPIO connector, and a 6-pin strip of terminal blocks and a DC power jack are mounted for motor and power connections. A buzzer is also installed, along with two 2×1-pin male headers and shorting blocks for the buzzer and battery level jumpers.

This version ships with a set of four M2.5 standoffs (11 mm length), screws, and nuts that can be used to secure the board to the Raspberry Pi at the proper height for the GPIO connector.

For a version with SMT components only, making it more suitable for standalone use and allowing customization of through-hole components, see item #3116. For example, if you want to continue to have access to the Raspberry Pi’s 40 GPIO pins while the A-Star is plugged in, you can get the SMT-only version and install a stackable 2×20-pin female header.

A major feature of the A* Robot Controller LV is its power system, which allows it to efficiently operate from a 2.7 V to 11 V external source and provide power to an attached Raspberry Pi. The input voltage is regulated to 5 V by a TPS63061 switching step-up/step-down (buck-boost) converter from Texas Instruments. (We also make a standalone regulator based on this integrated circuit.) The regulator’s flexibility in input voltage is especially well-suited for battery-powered applications in which the battery voltage begins above 5 V and drops below 5 V as the battery discharges. Without the typical restriction on the battery voltage staying above 5 V throughout its life, a wider range of battery types can be considered. For example:

A 4-cell battery holder, which might have a 6 V output with fresh alkalines or a 4.0 V output with partially discharged NiMH cells, can be used to power this A*.

A disposable 9 V battery powering the board can be discharged to under 3 V instead of cutting out at 6 V, as with typical linear or step-down regulators.

As shown in the left graph below, the LV’s 5 V switching regulator has an efficiency – defined as (Power out)/(Power in) – of 80% to 90% for most combinations of input voltage and load.

The A-Star’s components, including the microcontroller and LEDs, draw 30 mA to 40 mA in typical applications (without the buzzer). The rest of the regulator’s achievable output current, which depends on input voltage as well as ambient conditions, can be used to power other devices; this can include an attached Raspberry Pi (which typically draws a few hundred milliamps). The blue line in the right graph above shows output currents at which the voltage regulator’s over-temperature protection typically kicks in after a few seconds. These currents represent the limit of the regulator’s capability and cannot be sustained for long periods; under typical operating conditions, a safe limit for the maximum continuous regulator output current is 60% to 70% of the values shown in the graph.

Like our other A-Star 32U4 programmable controllers, the A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller ships with a preloaded Arduino-compatible bootloader (which uses 4 KB of flash memory, leaving 28 KB available for the user program). We provide a software add-on that enables the board to be easily programmed from the Arduino environment and an Arduino library to make it easy to use the additional on-board hardware.

The A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller has the same microcontroller as the Arduino Leonardo and Arduino Micro, and it runs at the same frequency, so most code examples intended for those boards should also work on the A-Star.

The A-Star 32U4 Robot Controller is a part of our larger A-Star 32U4 family, all of whose members are based on the same ATmega32U4 microcontroller, feature native USB interfaces, and are preloaded with Arduino-compatible bootloaders. The table below shows some key features and specifications of our A-Star microcontroller boards to help you choose the right one for your application.

People often buy this product together with:

We sure love the ATmega328 here at Adafruit, and we use them a lot for our own projects. The processor has plenty of GPIO, Analog inputs, hardware UART SPI and I2C, timers and PWM galore - just enough for most simple projects. When we need to go small, we use a Pro Trinket 3V or 5V, but when size isn't as much of a concern, and a USB-serial converter is required, we reach for an Adafruit METRO.

METRO is the culmination of years of playing with AVRs: we wanted to make a development board that is easy to use and is hacker friendly.

ATmega328 brains - This popular chip has 32KB of flash (1/2 K is reserved for the bootloader), 2KB of RAM, clocked at 16MHz

Power the METRO with 7-9V polarity protected DC or the micro USB connector to any 5V USB source. The 2.1mm DC jack has an on/off switch next to it so you can turn off your setup easily. The METRO will automagically switch between USB and DC.

METRO has 20 GPIO pins, 6 of which are Analog in as well, and 2 of which are reserved for the USB-serial converter. There's also 6 PWMs available on 3 timers (1 x 16-bit, 2 x 8-bit). There's a hardware SPI port, hardware I2C port and hardware UART to USB.

GPIO Logic level is 5V but by cutting and soldering closed a jumper, you can easily convert it to 3.3V logic

USB to Serial converter, there's a hardware USB to Serial converter that can be used by any computer to listen/send data to the METRO, and can also be used to launch and update code via the bootloader

Four indicator LEDs, on the front edge of the PCB, for easy debugging. One green power LED, two RX/TX LEDs for the UART, and a red LED connected to pin PB5

Easy reprogramming, comes pre-loaded with the Optiboot bootloader, which is supported by avrdude and only uses 512 bytes.

Beautiful styling by PaintYourDragon and Bruce Yan, in Adafruit Black with gold plated pads.

Works with all Adafruit designed shields!

This version of the METRO 328 comes as a fully assembled and tested development board but without any headers attached. We do include some through-hole headers that you can solder on if you like, or you can solder wires or header directly to the breakout pads. We also include 4 rubber bumpers to keep it from slipping off your desk.

Mac & Windows People! Don't forget to grab & install the FTDI VCP drivers from FTDI to make the COM/Serial port show up right! The default drivers may not support this FTDI chip!

The Particle Power Shield is the best way to—you guessed it—provide power to your mobile Particle projects. Based around the MCP73871 battery management controller, this shield allows you to simultaneously power a Photon and charge a connected Li-Ion or Li-Po battery. You'll also be able to monitor battery levels using the Photon itself, which makes the Power Shield the best way to untether your wireless project.

Besides the on-board USB port, you can also use an external DC power supply or solar-cell to charge the battery.

This shield ships with a 3.7V, 2000mAh Li-Po battery and headers. Plug & Play - No soldering required!

Designed for use with the Photon, backwards compatible with the Core.

The Intel® Edison is an ultra small computing platform that will change the way you look at embedded electronics. Each Edison is packed with a huge amount of tech goodies into a tiny package while still providing the same robust strength of your go-to single board computer. Powered by the Intel® Atom™ SoC dual-core CPU and including an integrated WiFi, Bluetooth LE, and a 70-pin connector to attach a veritable slew of shield-like “Blocks” which can be stacked on top of each other. It’s no wonder how this little guy is lowering the barrier of entry on the world of electronics!

The Dual H-bridge Block gives the Edison some ability to move when paired with two DC motors. This board can drive two DC motors at voltages ranging from 2.7V-15V and currents up to 1amp. This board is isolated from the Edison using a logic level converter. To use this board external power for the motors will be required. Power for the motors is supplied on the headers labled “VIN” and “GND”.

If you are looking to add a little more stability to your Intel® Edison stack, check out this Hardware Pack. It will provide you with increased mechanical strength for stacking Blocks on your Edison!

PowerBoost is the perfect power supply for your power-hungry portable project! This little DC/DC boost converter module can run from 1.8V batteries or higher, and convert that voltage to 5.2V DC for running your 5V projects. With a beefy 4A DC/DC converter, it can give you 1A+ from as low as 2V. Like our popular 5V 1A USB wall adapter, we tweaked the output to be 5.2V instead of a straight-up 5.0V so that there's a little bit of 'headroom' long cables, high draw, the addition of a diode on the output if you wish, etc. The 5.2V is safe for all 5V-powered electronics like Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or Beagle Bone while preventing icky brown-outs during high current draw because of USB cable resistance.

The PowerBoost 1000 has at the heart a TPS61030 boost converter from TI. This boost converter chip has some really nice extras such as low battery detection, 4A internal switch, synchronous conversion, excellent efficiency, and 700KHz high-frequency operation. Check out these specs!

Synchronous operation means you can disconnect the output completely by connecting the ENable pin to ground. This will completely turn off the output

4A internal switch means you can get 1000mA+ from as low as 1.8V, 1500mA+ from 2 NiMH or Alkaline batteries, and at least 2000mA from a 3.7V LiPoly/LiIon battery or 3 NiMH/Alkalines. Just make sure your batteries can actually supply the required 2-4A, OK?

Low battery indicator LED lights up red when the voltage dips below 3.2V, optimized for the most common usage of LiPo/LiIon battery usage

On-board 1000mA charge-rate 'Apple/iOS' data resistors. Solder in the included USB connector and you can plug in any iPhone or iPod for a speedy 1000mA charge rate. Works with iPads, both mini and 'classic' type.

Full breakout for battery in, control pins and power out

90%+ operating efficiency in most cases (see datasheet for efficiency graphs), and low quiescent current: 5mA when enabled and power LED is on, 20uA when disabled (power and low batt LED are off)

Great for powering your robot, Arduino project, single-board-computer such as Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone! Each order comes with one fully assembled and tested PCB, a loose 2-PH JST jack, a 2-pin Terminal block and a loose USB A jack.

If you are powering your project from USB, solder the USB A jack in (a 3-minute soldering task). Then choose either JST for input (JST is often used for our LiIon batteries, but the connector is only rated for 2A) or a terminal block. 

The 1000 version comes with a 2-pin terminal block so you can solder it to the output spot where the USB jack would go. Or don't solder any connectors in for a more compact power pack and go with 22AWG wires soldered directly in.

Note: The terminal blocks included with your product may be blue or black.

Add an ear to your project with this well-designed electret microphone amplifier. This fully assembled and tested board comes with a 20-20KHz electret microphone soldered on. For the amplification, we use the Maxim MAX4466, an op-amp specifically designed for this delicate task! The amplifier has excellent power supply noise rejection, so this amplifier sounds really good and isn't nearly as noisy or scratchy as other mic amp breakouts we've tried!This breakout is best used for projects such as voice changers, audio recording/sampling, and audio-reactive projects that use FFT. On the back, we include a small trimmer pot to adjust the gain. You can set the gain from 25x to 125x. That's down to be about 200mVpp (for normal speaking volume about 6" away) which is good for attaching to something that expects 'line level' input without clipping, or up to about 1Vpp, ideal for reading from a microcontroller ADC. The output is rail-to-rail so if the sounds gets loud, the output can go up to 5Vpp!Using it is simple: connect GND to ground, VCC to 2.4-5VDC. For the best performance, use the "quietest" supply available (on an Arduino, this would be the 3.3V supply). The audio waveform will come out of the OUT pin. The output will have a DC bias of VCC/2 so when its perfectly quiet, the voltage will be a steady VCC/2 volts (it is DC coupled). If the audio equipment you're using requires AC coupled audio, place a 100uF capacitor between the output pin and the input of your device. If you're connecting to an audio amplifier that has differential inputs or includes decoupling capacitors, the 100uF cap is not required.The output pin is not designed to drive speakers or anything but the smallest in-ear headphones - you'll need an audio amplifier (such as our 3.7W stereo amp) if you want to connect the amp directly to speakers. If you're connecting to a microcontroller pin, you don't need an amplifier or decoupling capacitor - connect the OUT pin directly to the microcontroller ADC pin.For audio-reactive Arduino projects, we suggest using an FFT driver library (such as the one in this library) which can take the audio input and 'translate' it into frequencies. Also, check out this awesome Voice Changer project that uses this mic and an Adafruit Wave Shield!

If you're using with CircuitPython, this audio-reactive pendant project is pretty easy and works great with any CircuitPython board.

This small, inexpensive motor controller allows variable speed and direction control of two small, brushed DC motors using a simple serial interface, making it easy to add motors to your microcontroller- or computer-based project. The motor supply voltage range is 4.5 to 13.5 V; the continuous current per channel is up to 1 A (3 A peak). The logic supply can be as low as 2.7 V, allowing operation with modern microcontrollers running at 3.3 V.

The qik 2s9v1 is Pololu’s second-generation dual serial motor controller. The compact module allows any microcontroller or computer with a serial port (external RS-232 level converter required) or USB-to-serial adapter to easily drive two small, brushed DC motors with full direction and speed control. It provides ultrasonic, 8-bit PWM speed control via an advanced, two-way serial protocol that features automatic baud rate detection up to 38.4 kbps and optional CRC error checking. Two status LEDs give visual feedback about the serial connection and any encountered error conditions, making debugging easy, and a demo mode allows easy verification of proper operation.

The improvements over the previous generation and competing products include:

high-frequency (ultrasonic) PWM to eliminate switching-induced motor shaft hum or whine

a robust, high-speed communication protocol with user-configurable error condition response

visible LEDs and a demo mode to help troubleshoot problematic installations

reverse power protection on the motor supply (not on the logic supply)

For a more advanced, higher-power version of this controller, please consider the qik 2s12v10. For a simpler carrier of the qik’s motor driver, please consider the TB6612FNG dual motor driver carrier, and for a robot controller based on the qik’s driver, please consider the Baby Orangutan and Orangutan SV-328 robot controllers and 3pi robot, which connect the TB6612 to a user-programmable AVR microcontroller.

November 27, 2013 update: We have changed this product by replacing the large, silver electrolytic capacitor with a much smaller ceramic capacitor. This lowers the profile of the board but does not affect functionality at all. The main product picture shows this new version; the rest of the pictures on this product page still show the previous version with the tall electrolytic capacitor.

Simple bidirectional control of two DC brush motors.

4.5 V to 13.5 V motor supply range.

1 A maximum continuous current per motor (3 A peak).

2.7 V to 5.5 V logic supply range.

Logic-level, non-inverted, two-way serial control for easy connection to microcontrollers or robot controllers.

Optional automatic baud rate detection.

Two on-board indicator LEDs (status/heartbeat and serial error indicator) for debugging and feedback.

Serial error output to make it easier for the main controller to recover from a serial error condition.

Jumper-enabled demo mode allows initial testing without any programming.

Optional CRC error detection eliminates serial errors caused by noise or software faults.

Optional motor shutdown on serial error or timeout for additional safety.

Supports daisy-chaining the qik to other qiks and Pololu serial motor and servo controllers, allowing the control of up to hundreds of motors and servos with a single serial line.

Comprehensive user’s guide.

The qik ships with a 16×1 straight 0.100" male header strip, a 12×1 right angle 0.100" male header strip, and two red shorting blocks. This hardware offers several options when it comes to making connections to the qik.

For the most compact installation, wires can be directly soldered to the qik pins themselves. For less permanent connections, the 16×1 straight header strip can be broken into a 12×1 piece and two 2×1 pieces. The 2×1 pieces can optionally be soldered into the jumper pins, and the 12×1 header strip of your choice can be soldered into the qik control pins. This allows connections to the qik via custom-made cables that have female headers on them, or the qik can simply be plugged into a breadboard. Using the right angle header allows for a compact profile or for vertical mounting into a breadboard; using the straight header allows for breadboarding as shown in the picture above.

We have written a basic Arduino library for the qik dual serial motor controllers that makes it simple to interface these controllers with an Arduino. The library handles the details of serial communication with the qik, allowing two brushed DC motors to be controlled easily.

People often buy this product together with:

This is the LIDAR Lite, a compact high performance optical distance measurement sensor from PulsedLight. The LIDAR Lite is ideal when used in drone, robot, or unmanned vehicle situations where you need a reliable and powerful proximity sensor but don’t possess a lot of space. All you need to communicate with this sensor is a standard I2C or PWM interface and the LIDAR Lite, with its range of up to 40 meters, will be yours to command!

Each LIDAR Lite features an edge emitting, 905nm (75um, 1 watt, 4 mrad, 14mm optic), single stripe laser transmitter and a surface mount PIN, 3° FOV with 14mm optics receiver. The LIDAR Lite operates between 4.7 - 5.5VDC with a max of 6V DC and has a current consumption rate of <100mA at continuous operation. On top of everything else, the LIDAR Lite has an acquisition time of only 0.02 seconds or less and can be interfaced via I2C or PWM.

Note: The LIDAR Lite is designated as Class 1 during all procedures of operation, however operating the sensor without its optics or housing or making modifications to the housing can result in direct exposure to laser radiation and the risk of permanent eye damage. Direct eye contact should be avoided and under no circumstances should you ever stare straight into the emitter.

This is the LIDAR-Lite v2, a compact high performance optical distance measurement sensor from PulsedLight. The LIDAR-Lite “Blue Label” is ideal when used in drone, robot, or unmanned vehicle situations where you need a reliable and powerful proximity sensor but don’t possess a lot of space. All you need to communicate with this sensor is a standard I2C or PWM interface. With everything connected the LIDAR-Lite v2, with its range of up to 40 meters, will be yours to command!

Each LIDAR-Lite v2 features an edge emitting, 905nm (75um, 1 watt, 4 mrad, 14mm optic), single stripe laser transmitter and a surface mount PIN, 3° FOV with 14mm optics receiver. The second version of the LIDAR-Lite still operates at 5V DC with a current consumption rate of <100mA at continuous operation. On top of everything else, the LIDAR-Lite has an acquisition time of only 0.02 seconds or less and can be interfaced via I2C or PWM.

The LIDAR-Lite v2 has received a number of upgrades from the previous version. With the implementation of a new signal processing architecture, LIDAR-Lite v2 can operate at measurement speeds of up to 500 readings per second offering greater resolution for scanning applications. Additionally, the LIDAR-Lite v2 has had its I2C communications improved to operate at 100 kbits/s or 400 kbits/s with you, the user, able to assign your own addressing! Just in case you are wondering: yes, the LIDAR-Lite v2 is compatible with its previous version in all primary functions and their compatibility will extend into the next version and beyond.

Note: With Garmin® recently acquiring PulsedLight® the LIDAR-Lite v2 has been marked EOL. We are currently waiting on word about the next exciting product these two companies create. We will come back with additional information once we obtain it.

Note: The LIDAR Lite is designated as Class 1 during all procedures of operation, however operating the sensor without its optics or housing or making modifications to the housing can result in direct exposure to laser radiation and the risk of permanent eye damage. Direct eye contact should be avoided and under no circumstances should you ever stare straight into the emitter.