I am building a challenge for some Scouts, and it will be used outdoors in July. I am planning to recess the sensor some distance inside the object, and mount it so that the minimal area is exposed but cannot place anything in front of the sensor as it ‘sees’ the clear plastic panel rather than the Scouts as they approach. Can I ‘paint’ the PCB except the actual laser module with something like nail polish?
That was initial question to the team
The initial response from James:
I wouldn’t recommend any sort of coating, but the VL53L1X chips have a “cover glass rejection” feature, so if you move some acrylic (you may have to try glass, I’m unsure what refractive index will do here) very close to the sensor, it should be filtered out.
And a quick test result:
My immediate testing results - a piece of thin plastic from a ‘bunnings bubble pack’ and a piece of 1.5mm perspex work fine IF they are placed hard on top of the PiicoDev connectors - i.e. about 1 mm clear of the sensor…
