Add VL53L0 distance sensor. by smavridis · Pull Request #9706 · meshtastic/firmware

smavridis · 2026-02-21T16:42:18Z

Added new Environment Telemetry class VL53L0XSensor. Tested with a Heltec V3.

I have deployed it with a Heltec V3, currently my only meshtastic/lora device.
Expecting RAK and Xiao boards to ensure no issues, but delayed due to Chinese New Year.

This is my first contribution, i read the contribution guide and signed the CLA, let me know if i have missed anything.

Thank you for the Meshtastic project.

🤝 Attestations

I have tested that my proposed changes behave as described.
I have tested that my proposed changes do not cause any obvious regressions on the following devices:
- Heltec (Lora32) V3

CLAassistant · 2026-02-21T16:42:24Z

All committers have signed the CLA.

CLAassistant · 2026-02-21T16:42:24Z

Thank you for your submission! We really appreciate it. Like many open source projects, we ask that you sign our Contributor License Agreement before we can accept your contribution.

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github-actions · 2026-02-21T16:42:28Z

@smavridis, Welcome to Meshtastic!

Thanks for opening your first pull request. We really appreciate it.

We discuss work as a team in discord, please join us in the #firmware channel.
There's a big backlog of patches at the moment. If you have time,
please help us with some code review and testing of other PRs!

Welcome to the team 😄

fifieldt · 2026-02-25T01:42:12Z

Hey! Thanks for the patch :) For adding the sensor type, a patch needs to be made to the meshtastic/protobufs repo. If you can't find it let us know!

smavridis · 2026-02-25T09:05:17Z

Hey! Thanks for the patch :) For adding the sensor type, a patch needs to be made to the meshtastic/protobufs repo. If you can't find it let us know!

Thanks for the heads-up, i added the VL53L0 enum in TelemetrySensorType.
Is there anything else i am missing?

fifieldt · 2026-02-25T23:24:11Z

That should be all that's required, thanks!

smavridis · 2026-02-25T23:29:07Z

Thank you @fifieldt and @caveman99 for your help and guidance.
Glad to be part of this project.

robekl · 2026-02-26T17:54:34Z

-                    type = TSL2561;
-                    logFoundDevice("TSL2561", (uint8_t)addr.address);
+                switch (registerValue) {
+                    case 0x00 ... 0x04:


getRegisterValue() defaults to 0x00 when no bytes are read, so bus/read failures can be misdetected as VL53L0X.

Did not thinkof that and was testing with the sensor so wasnt checking that scenario, will fix.

robekl · 2026-02-26T18:04:39Z

+    VL53L0X_RangingMeasurementData_t measure;
+    vl53l0x.rangingTest(&measure, false);
+
+    measurement->variant.environment_metrics.has_distance = true;


measure.RangeStatus should be checked for out-of-range/error readings before deciding that the result is valid

Good idea, i didn't know it had such Status.

smavridis · 2026-02-26T22:36:36Z

I addressed the issues by @robekl (thanks), detection of sensors and ranging should be more robust.
Ideally i should have checked a setup with the other sensors, but i don't have any at hand.

smavridis · 2026-02-26T22:40:38Z

                }
                break;
            case TSL25911_ADDR:
-                registerValue = getRegisterValue(ScanI2CTwoWire::RegisterLocation(addr, 0xA0 | 0x12), 1);


Out of curiosity the bitwise OR of the register addresses always seemed wierd to me.
Doesn't that mean that the old code was reading register 0xB2 rather than 0xA0 and/or 0x12.
Am i missing some weird overload or c++ magic?

smavridis · 2026-02-26T23:28:43Z

I converted this to a draft, since i decided to extend it a bit more.
Looking around i found i can add a State Message in to implement configuration of the sensor by the user.
I will be adding an option for setting the sensitivity/range of the sensor.
I think this will make it more usable for any other user that might be interested in the sensor.
Ill be following the SEN5X sensor as it seems to also have State.

smavridis · 2026-02-28T23:04:10Z

I have added the State message and serialization/de-serialization logic.
I can see from the boot log that the load function gets called, but since the state was never written, no state gets loaded.

I think i am still missing some sort of registration so that the application knows that a configuration/option exists for the sensor but i cant really understand where/how that is done.

I did see a handleAdminMessage() function which i guess is relevant but i still think i am missing something.

smavridis · 2026-03-10T23:55:35Z

So i tried to figure out how to add/modify the android application to add a configuration menu for the sensor ... unfortunately it is way above my skill level of Android/kotlin, etc ... i might try to touch it again at a latter time or hopefully some good soul does it instead.

Failing that i switched to providing a menu option in the firmware.
I have made the first steps and added a top level menu 'Sensors' in the System view.
I also considered initially to put it on the Environment Telemetry view, but since it is about received telemetry rather that local sensors i think it is not suitable.

At this point i wanted to get some feedback from you @fifieldt @robekl on the approach and any suggestions or ideas you might have.

I will try tomorrow to see how to call access the VL53L0X object to get/set state and configuration, so ill get back to you.

Thank you for your time.

caveman99 · 2026-04-14T10:56:27Z

The settings changes for your sensor need to be wired in the AdminModule and with additional functions in your sensor code, to process the changes. For testing this, it's best to use the python CLI client, since the protobufs can be updated there without too much hassle. Android App would be the next step.

smavridis · 2026-04-17T22:40:45Z

Thanks for the feedback @caveman99.
I removed the generated files as requested.
I also modified the admin.proto and implemented a handleAdminMessage.
However i cant get/set the new variable so i am still missing something?
Perhaps that's what you mean by AdminModule, should i modify AdminModule.cpp?

Added new Environment Telemetry class VL53L0XSensor. Tested with a Heltec V3.

Need to: - See if this is acceptable, or there is a better way.

…sor mode using menu.

github-actions bot added first-contribution hardware-support Hardware related: new devices or modules, problems specific to hardware labels Feb 21, 2026

smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch 6 times, most recently from f81d8d3 to 9e1e5a7 Compare February 25, 2026 01:09

smavridis mentioned this pull request Feb 25, 2026

Add VL53L0 distance sensor. meshtastic/protobufs#867

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caveman99 force-pushed the vl53l0 branch from 9e1e5a7 to 8926bd8 Compare February 25, 2026 14:05

smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch 2 times, most recently from 67a73de to c7fcb1b Compare February 25, 2026 22:36

robekl reviewed Feb 26, 2026

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smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch from c7fcb1b to 484ad3c Compare February 26, 2026 22:28

smavridis commented Feb 26, 2026

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smavridis marked this pull request as draft February 26, 2026 23:15

smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch from 202a2b7 to 6bc9f08 Compare March 10, 2026 21:10

smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch from b6c70ee to 0570ec9 Compare March 12, 2026 23:20

smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch 3 times, most recently from c50b042 to 0965bbe Compare March 26, 2026 22:19

smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch from 0965bbe to 44895c2 Compare March 31, 2026 22:00

caveman99 requested changes Apr 14, 2026

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Comment thread src/mesh/generated/meshtastic/telemetry.pb.h

smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch from c4d4933 to 675c632 Compare April 17, 2026 22:31

smavridis added 5 commits April 19, 2026 15:37

Add VL53L0 distance sensor.

874afed

Added new Environment Telemetry class VL53L0XSensor. Tested with a Heltec V3.

Added VL53L0XState to peristantly store sensor configuration.

91518a5

WIP: Create System>Sensors>VL53L0X menu to modify sensor sensitivity.

482b1fd

Need to: - See if this is acceptable, or there is a better way.

Added static VL53L0XSensor::getInstance() and setMode() to change Sen…

fc5e2dd

…sor mode using menu.

Added handleAdminMessage function for VL53L0XSensor.

5a87c87

smavridis force-pushed the vl53l0 branch from 675c632 to 5a87c87 Compare April 19, 2026 12:38

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@smavridis, Welcome to Meshtastic!

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