This Tiny Sensor Sees the World in 3D

Discover Easy, Affordable & Reliable PCB Manufacturing With JLCPCB
👉 https://jlcpcb.com/?from=mellow_labs
🔧 Trusted by over 5 million engineers!
💰 New customers get $70 in coupons

https://www.dfrobot.com/product-2999.html

💖 Support My Work:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Mellow_labs
Mugs: http://mellowlabs.uk/

🌐 Socials:
Discord: https://discord.gg/bnxkTqQRak
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/fire-marshmallow
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mellow_fire/
Printables: https://www.printables.com/social/282935-mellow

⏱️ Chapters
00:00 Intro
00:37 JLCPCB Sponsor
02:04 What's in the Box
03:00 How the Sensor Works
04:06 Live Demo on PC
06:09 Inside Zippy the Tank
07:36 Designing a New Cover
10:24 ESP32 Upgrade
13:32 Coding Autonomous Mode
17:52 Letting Zippy Loose

🏷️ Tags
#dfrobot #lidar #timeofflight #tofsensor #esp32 #esphome #robotics #diyrobot #3dprinted #zippy #autonomousrobot #makerproject #electronics #arduino #claudecode #obstacleavoidance #jlcpcb #mellowlabs #diyelectronics #homelab

🎉 Video Summary
I tested DFRobot's Matrix LiDAR 8x8 time of flight sensor by bolting it to my 3D printed tank Zippy and using Claude Code to write autonomous wandering firmware on an ESP32, which involved a fresh cover design, a board upgrade from ESP8266, and a lot of fiddling before Zippy mostly stopped getting stuck in corners.