Benewake TFmini-i LiDAR Distance Sensors Instruction Manual

: June 5, 2024
: Benewake

Table of Contents

Benewake TFmini-i LiDAR Distance Sensors
Foreword
Attentions
Physical Interface
Electrical Characteristics
Hardware and communication protocol
FAQ
- Specified Product
References
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Benewake TFmini-i LiDAR Distance Sensors

Benewake TFmini-i LiDAR Distance Sensors-prod

Foreword

Dear users:
Thanks for choosing Benewake products, and it’s our pleasure to help you to solve any technical question. For the purpose of offering a better operation experience to you, we hereby write this manual for an easier and simpler operation of our product, hoping to better solve the common problems you maybe meet. This operation manual covers the product operation introduction and common problem solutions, but it is really hard to cover all the problems you maybe meet. So, if you have any further questions or problems, please feel free to consult our technical support service (support@benewake.com). We will do our best to solve any problem related to the product. If you have any other good advice or suggestions, welcome to visit our official website and offer us your feedback there (http://en.benewake.com/support), and we are looking forwards to your participation. We are Benewake who dedicated to making the best “Robotic Eyes” worldwide!

Attentions

About this Document

This Manual provides information necessary for the use of this product.
Please read this Manual carefully before using this product and make sure that you have fully understood its contents.

Installation and maintenance

This product can only be maintained by qualified professionals and only the original spare parts can be used to ensure its performance and safety.
The working temperature of the product is -20°C~60°C; please do not use it beyond this temperature range, so as to avoid risks.
The storage temperature of the product is -30°C~75°C; please do not store it beyond this temperature range, so as to avoid risks.
Do not open its enclosure for assembly or maintenance beyond this Manual; otherwise, it will affect the product performance.
Do not twist the cable forcefully, so as to avoid damage to the product.
The product can’t be aimed directly to the sun or another TFmini-i, so as to avoid damage the detector by strong light. If there is such an application, please contact our technician.

Conditions with Potential Product Failure

When the product transmitter and receiver lens are covered by dirt, there will be a risk of failures. Please keep the lens clean.
The product will have a risk of failure when immersed completely in water. Do not use it underwater.
When detecting objects with high reflectivities, such as mirrors and smooth tiles, the product may have a high risk of failure.

Physical Interface

Wiring
Terminal model: MH1.25-7P-W/B, size of single wire is AWG26, the diameter of single wire is 0.404mm, and cross-sectional area is 0.129mm2.

No.	Color	Pin	Function
1	Red	VCC	Power supply
2	White	RS485-B/ CAN_L	RS485-B/CAN bus
3	Green	RS485-A/ CAN_H	RS485-A/CAN bus
4	N/A	N/A	N/A
5	Blue	UART_RX	UART receive(debug)
6	Brown	UART_TX	UART transport(debug)
7	Black	GND	Ground

Note: The hardware of RS485 and CAN is different; Do not mix UART cable with RS485 or CAN bus, otherwise it will cause damage of MCU.

Electrical Characteristics

TFmini-i has overvoltage and polarity protection.

Parameter	Typical value
Supply voltage	7V~30V
Peak current	100mA
Average current	≤65mA@12V
Average power consumption	≤0.8W@12V
Overvoltage protection	30V
Polarity protection

40V

Hardware and communication protocol

There are two communication interfaces available. The hardware of RS485 and CAN is different. The interface can not be switched by command.

Protocol of RS485
Modbus is the default setting. The parameters is shown as below. The default value of baudrate and slave ID is 115200 and 0x01.

Item	Parameter
Communication interface	RS485
Baud rate	115200
Data bit	8
Stop bit	1
Parity	None

Parameter configuration and description of Modbus
Baudrate of TFmini-i supports 9600、14400、19200、38400、43000、57600、76800、115200、 128000、230400、256000. Based on reliability considerations, it is not recommended to use a baud rate above 115200 for communication When Modbus protocol is enabled, the Modbus reading distance command format:

Address

field

| Function

code

| Register address| Number of registers| CRC_low| CRC_high
---|---|---|---|---|---
01 （ default ）| 03| 00| 00| 00| 01| xx| xx

The data frame returned by TFmini-i is as follows:

Address

field

| Function

code

| Data length| Dist_high| Dist_low| CRC_low| CRC_high
---|---|---|---|---|---|---
01 （ default ）| 03| 02| xx| xx| xx| xx

Parameter configuration:

Category	Function	Instruction	Response	Description

UART

instructions

|

Enable Modbus

|

5A 05 15 01 75

|

5A 05 15 01 75

| Save settings and restart to take effect.
Save settings| 5A 04 11 6F| 5A 05 11 00 70|
Modbus instructions|

Read distance

|

01 03 00 00 00 01 84 0A

|

01 03 02 DH DL CL CH

| DH and DL are 8 high-order

and low-order bits of Distance;

| | | | CH and CL are 8 high-order
---|---|---|---|---
and low-order bits of CRC.
| | | DH and DL are 8 high-order
| | | and low-order bits of
Read distance and| 01 03 00 00 00 02 C4| 01 03 04 DH DL SH SL| Distance;
signal strength| 0B| CL CH| SH and SL are 8 high-order and
| | | low-order bits of signal
| | | Strength.
Read software| 01 03 00 06 00 02 24 0A| 01 03 04 00 VM VS VC| VM,VS,VC are the major, minor
version| CL CH| and revised version number.
| | | BH1,BH2,BL1,BL2 are high,
| | | secondary high, secondary low
| 01 06 00 83 BH1 BH2| 01 06 00 83 BH1 BH2 CL| and low bytes of baud rate.
Set Baud rate| CL CH

01 06 00 84 BL1 BL2 CL

| CH

01 06 00 84 BL1 BL2 CL

| For example, set baud rate to

9600，BH1=00 BH2=00 CL=78

| CH| CH| CH=22,
| | | BL1=25 BL2=80 CL=D2
| | | CH=D3
| | | IH,IL are high and low bytes of
Set Slave ID| 01 06 00 85 IH IL CL CH| 01 06 00 84 IH IL CL CH| ID.

Set ID to 2，IH=00 IL=02

CH

| 01 06 00 86 FH FL CL CH| frame rate.

Set frame rate to 100，FH=00

01 06 00 88 LH LL CL CH

| low power sampling rate. Set it to 5HZ low-power

consumption mode, LH=00

| | | LL=05 CL=C9 CH=E3
Save settings| 01 06 00 80 00 00 88 22| 01 06 00 80 00 00 88 22| Save settings and restart to
take effect
Restore factory| 01 06 00 89 00 00 58 20| 01 06 00 89 00 00 58 20|
setting
Disable Modbus| 01 06 00 82 00 01 E8 22| 01 06 00 82 00 01 E8 22| Save settings and restart to
take effect

Note: Only RTU mode is supported for communication in UART link.

Function code of TFmini-i Modbus

Function code	Description
03	Read register
06	Write register

Register address description

All register addresses are hexadecimal and register values are 16bit;
After setting parameter, save and restart to take effect;

Register address list using function code: 0x03(read only)

Register address	Definition	Description
00 00	Dist	Distance, unit: cm
00 01	Strength	Signal strength
00 03	High16bit of timestamp	2 high-order bits of timestamp represent

relative

time of radar start up, unit: ms

Register address list using function code: 0x06(write only)

Register address	Definition	Description
00 80	Save settings	Write any value to save settings

00 81

|

Power off/Restart

| Register value：

0-Power off（unavailable currently）

1-Restart；

00 82

|

Disable Modbus

| Register value：

1-Disable Modbus

Others-Error reply

0x01)

00 86| fps| Set fps. Restart to take effect(default 100hz)

00 87

|

Working mode

| Set working mode. Restart to take effect after saving

Register value:

0- Continuously detection mode(default) 1-Triggering mode

Others-Error reply

00 88

|

Low-power consumption mode

| Set low-power consumption mode，Restart to take

effect after saving

Register value:

0-Disable(default)

0 and≤10-Enable(the value is inside sampling

frequent)

00 89| Restore default| Write any value. Restart to take effect after saving

Examples:

Enable Modbus protocol：
5A 05 15 01 75 // Enable Modbus
5A 04 11 6F // Save settings
Disable Modbus protocol：
01 06 00 82 00 01 E8 22 // Default address 01, disable Modbus
01 06 00 80 00 00 88 22 // Default address 01, save setting

Protocol of CAN
The data protocol of CAN is shown in Table 4. Each data frame consists of 8 bytes and the data contains the distance(unit: cm), signal strength and timestamp(unit: ms) information.

Data byte	Definition	Description
Byte0	DIST_L	DIST low 8-bits
Byte1	DIST_H	DIST high 8-bits
Byte2	Strength_L	Signal strength low 8-bits
Byte3	Strength_H	Signal strength high 8-bits
Byte4	Timestamp	Low8bit of timestamp
Byte5	Timestamp	Secondary-low8bit of timestamp
Byte6	Timestamp	Secondary-high8bit of timestamp
Byte7	Timestamp	High8bit of timestamp

Parameter configuration and description of CAN
The default baudrate is 250kbps, the default type is standard frame, default receive and send id is 0x00000003.
The format of instruction is shown as below:

Byte	0	1	2	3	4	5-8	9-12	13
Description	0x5A	0x0E	0x51	Type	Baudrate	Recv_id	Send_id

Check_sum
Default| | | | 0| 8| 0x00000003| 0x00000003|

Type: 0(Standard Frame), 1(Extended Frame);
Recv_id: LiDAR receive ID, Little Endian; Send_id: LiDAR send ID, Little Endian

The relation between Baudrate(unit: kbps) and Byte4 is shown as below:

Byte4	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16
Baudrate	1000	900	800	666	600	500	400	300	250	225	200	160
150	144	125	120	100

Examples of configuration
Example1: Standard frame, Baud rate 500kbps, receive ID=0x0010, send ID=0x0020 Command: 5A 0E 51 00 05 10 00 00 00 20 00 00 00 EE
Example2: Extended Frame, Baud rate 250kbps, receive ID=0x0000AABB,
send ID=0x0000CCDD
Command: 5A 0E 51 01 08 BB AA 00 00 DD CC 00 00 D0
CAN Terminating Resistor Configuration Instructions
Enable 120Ω Terminating Resistor: 5A 05 60 01 C0
Disable(Default) 120Ω Terminating Resistor: 5A 05 60 00 BF
Others
Other configuration instructions are the same as UART instructions of standard products, such as saving settings(5A 04 11 6F), resetting(5A 04 02 60) and so on. “Save setting” instruction must be sent after setting parameters, otherwise the parameter doesn’t take effect after restarting.
When the command is longer than 8 bytes, it needs to be distributed into multiple CAN data frames. And the interval between every data frame can’t be longer than 20ms.

FAQ

Q1: Can the FOV (spot) of TFmini-i be increased or decreased?
A1: Generally, this is a customized demand. You need to contact our sales colleague for further details. FOV is determined at the beginning of product design. Determination of FOV is also related to the optical system and the product structure. Therefore, it cannot be easily changed and needs to be customized.
Q2: Can I change the frequency of data output?
A2: Yes, customization of parameter configuration is supported in TFmini-i. You may consult our sales colleague or technical support for further details. Other common questions please refer to SJ-PM-TFmini-S A01 Product Manual on our website.

Headquarters:

400-880-9610

Technical support:

bw@benewake.com support@benewake.com

Specified Product

Product model: TFmini-i
Product name: TFmini-i LiDAR
Manufacturer
Company name: Benewake (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Address: NO.28 Xinxi Road, Haidian District, Beijing, PRC
Copyright
The Copyright of this document is protected. All the rights involved herein belong to Benewake (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Any copy activity of this document, no matter in whole or in part, should be in conformity of the Copyright Law. The actives of modification, omission or translation of this document are not allowed unless written permission from Benewake (Beijing) Co., Ltd. All rights reserved © Benewake (Beijing) Co., Ltd.