SLAMTEC RPLIDAR S2E Low Cost 360 Degree Laser Range Scanner User Manual
- June 3, 2024
- SLAMTEC
Table of Contents
SLAMTEC RPLIDAR S2E Low Cost 360 Degree Laser Range Scanner
Overview
RPLIDAR S2E development kit includes the matched tools used for evaluating RPLIDAR’s performance and initial development. After connecting the RPLIDAR S2E with PC via Network cable and connecting the power adapter to the power supply and the power adapter cable, users can observe the cloud map of the environment scanning point collected by the RPLIDAR in Robo Studio and start development based on the SDK.
Items in the Development Kit
RPLIDAR Development Kit contains:
The standard version of the RPLIDAR S2E module is included in the RPLIDAR S2E development kit. The default IP address of RPLIDAR S2E is 192.168.11.2. The user Ethernet address cannot be the same as that of RPLIDAR S2E.
Connection and Usage
Device Connection
- Connect the network port line of RPLIDAR S2E module provided in the development kit to the PC, and connect the power cord to the power supply through the power adapter and power adapter.
Network Configuration
Need to configure the Ethernet before using the RPLIDAR S2E module. Make sure that the RPLIDAR S2E module is connected to a PC through network ports. Perform the following steps to configure the Ethernet:
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Windows Network Configuration:
As shown in Figure 2-2, open the Ethernet attribute configuration of the network interface connected to RPLIDAR S2E and set the IP address of the local network to 192.168.11.2, which is in the same network segment as the lidar (the change is based on the default IP address of the lidar 192.168.11.2).
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Linux/MacOs Network Configuration:
As shown in Figure 2-3, in Linux, run the sudoifconfig enp4s0 192.168.11.2
command to configure the network. Enp4s0 indicates the interface name. Change
the port name based on the actual situation.
After the network configuration is complete, ping 192.168.11.2 to check whether the network configuration is successful.
Run Demo Application
SLAMTEC provides a Lidars plugin in Robo Studio for users in test and
evaluation. You can view the scan result directly in the UI and save the scan
result to files for further processing.
Currently the software needs to run on Windows, but for Linux and MacOS users,
additional sample programs are available with the SDK.
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Please make sure you have connected RPLIDAR to PC by using network interface before running the demo application in Robo Studio. Launch Robo Studio and log in.
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If the connection is ok, you will see the user interface is shown as below.
Click the ” Lidars ” option in the “File” menu, and then right click on the Lidars below the box area, the content of dialog box will be “Manual Connect to Lidar… / Auto Discovery to Lidar…”.
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Click on ” Manual Connect to Lidar.. “, select “Udp Server” connection mode in the dialog box, configure the Lidar IP address (192.168.11.2) and port (8089), and then click “Connect”.
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Or click on ” Auto Discovery to Lidar… “Use the device discovery function of RPLIDAR S2E to find the automatic detection lidar, and the lidar connected to PC will appear in the list. Click the lidar icon to expand the list of tool ICONS below the lidar, and click the toolbar button to open the toolbar options on the main interface, as shown below:
The lidar display window shows the serial number, version and model information of the current connected lidar. All the operations available for RPLIDAR are listed in the toolbar: 
Press the Start Scan button ，the scan data will be displayed as below(by default, the motor rotating speed should be about 10Hz.): 
Right click in the major working area to choose a range so as to zoom in or out the view. The scan frequency is also showed in the above interface.
（eg：10.07Hz(604rpm)）
Troubleshooting
When the scan core or the laser power works abnormally, the scan core will enter protection mode. This state can be retrieved via SDK API. If such scenario happened, please send restart command to reset the scan core.
Motor Speed Adjustment
During the running process, different motor rotating speed can be achieved by
pressing the button, which can fit in different working environments or meet
specific requirements. There will be a speed adjustment dialog box and dash
board popped up for users to enter required speed. After entering a value, the
motor will work as the settled rotating speed automatically. User can also
drag the sliding handle to the required rotating speed.
The current actual rotating speed will show in the upper left corner of the
major work area. For instance, the actual rotating speed in the following
screenshot is 15.14Hz.
SDK Introduction and Usage
Power Supply Specification
The RPLIDAR S2E uses a unique external power supply to drive both the range
core and a motor system that makes the range core rotate. The external system
needs to ensure the current output capacity and ripple characteristics of the
power supply to ensure the normal operation of the lidar. Please refer to
Datasheet for details.
SDK Usage
RPLIDAR S2E can use open source code RPLIDAR SDK provided by SLAMTEC for rapid development and validation. Please refer to the website the SDK user manual for details. (https://github.com/Slamtec/rplidar_sdk) This section will briefly introduce the visual point cloud display Demo(Frame _Grabber) on Windows.
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Set frame _grabber to start the project and compile
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Find frame_grabber.exe and double-click it under the path of \output\win32\Debug or.\output\win32\Release. If an error occurs, copy the DLL from dL. rar to the directory, start the program, select Network, and manually fill in the DLL according to the interface parameters of RPLIDAR S2E.
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If Bonjour has been installed on Windows (the SDK directory contains the installation package bonjour. rar), you can use the device Discovery function of RPLIDAR S2E, click “Auto-Discovery”, wait for 2 to 3 seconds, double-click the corresponding lidar device as shown in the figure, and click “OK”.
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Click “OK” in Figure 3-3 and then click to scan point cloud, as shown in Figure 3-5. For SDK, please refer to start Scan Express and grab Scan Data Hq.
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The RPLIDAR S2E supports three scan modes. The Sensitivity mode can output range, angle and intensity information, as well as internal lidar time stamps for each 96 point cloud data. For details, please refer to the communication protocol documents on the official website.
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After starting lidar scanning, you can click to adjust the speed. Please check the SDK check Motor Ctrl Support and set Motor Speed.
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Click Command >IP Config to configure the IP address. As Figure 3-7 shows resetting the device after the configuration is complete. For SDK, see set Lidar Ip Cone and reset.
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Click to download single point cloud data.
ROS/ROS2 Usage
- Please refer to https://github.com/Slamtec/rplidar_ros for ROS ，and run relaunch rapider _roes view_rplidar_s2e.launch to perform visual tests.
- Please refer to https://github.com/Slamtec/sllidar_ros2 for ROS2，and run ros2 launch sllidar_ros2 view_sllidar_a3_launch.py to perform visual tests.
Operation Recommendation
Please refer to Slamtec Github for details.
Pre-Heating for Best Performance
The scan core will be heating when start working. We recommend pre-heating RPLIDAR (Start the scan mode and the scan motor is rotating) for more than 2 minutes to get the best measurement accuracy.
Ambient Temperature
RPLIDAR’s measurement resolution is sensitive to the ambient temperature.
Improper use may even damage the sensor. Please avoid using RPLIDAR in extreme
high temperature (>50℃) and too low temperature (<-10 ℃).
Ambient Light
Compared with RPLIDAR A series, RPLIDAR S2E performs better to resist ambient
light interference, which supports it to work properly in outdoor environment.
Maintenance and Repairs
Please do not open the shell of the equipment for repair without
authorization, otherwise the warranty will be invalid.
Pay attention to keep the equipment shell clean during using to ensure the
normal operation of the lidar.
References
- GitHub - Slamtec/rplidar_ros
- GitHub - Slamtec/rplidar_sdk: Open source SDK for Slamtec RPLIDAR series products
- GitHub - Slamtec/sllidar_ros2