Hybo iLidar (HIL) Demo Repository

This repository contains some examples of communicating with the iLidar sensor using the provided API. These examples have been tested on Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi, or MacOS (see Note 1).

Look for additional examples coming soon for other languages and platforms...

These programs are meant to be used as a playground for experimenting with the iLidar data, and also as a way to begin rapid prototyping of systems using the iLidar.

API

The API functions which are used to control and get data from the sensor are outlined in the header file ilidarlib.h. Descriptions of each function is contained therein.

In some applications, the data from the sensor will be coming at high speeds. To assist the application in consuming this data, the API breaks up the reading of sensor packets into two functions: hil_frame_grabber() and hil_frame_reader(). These can be called in-line, as in these examples below, for super-loop style of operation. Or the hil_grabber() function can be put in a separate thread from the consumer hil_frame_reader() function.

NOTE: A threaded example rdsensor_t.cpp to be posted soon.

Build Tools

These examples are written in C, and intended to be run from the command line. A Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 solution and project files are also provided. Note: build each project separately. TODO: carve-out the library to enable building the entire solution.

You will need standard C compiler and make utility for your system installed.
Check the Makefile and edit accordingly.

Dependencies

These tools utilize the Serial Port library from project Sigrok:

• https://github.com/martinling/libserialport

This is a general purpose, multiplatform serial port library used internally in the Sigrok project, and made available as a stand-alone project.

Install libserialport on your system per the instructions provided.

• For Linux and MacOS, the standard final installation command make install is all that is needed.

• On Windows, you need to:

  • point to libserialport.lib from the Makefile and/or VS2019 project file
  • copy libserialport.dll to the C:\Windows\System32\ directory
  • the VS2019 project files point to the project's lib\serial folder by default

iLidar API Demo Installation

Clone the repository to your local machine.

Check the Makefile and edit as necessary for the proper library locations (if applicable, check the VS2019 project file as well).

• $ make clean clean output directories
• $ make rdsensor build program rdsensor
• $ make sensor2csv build program sensor2csv

Running the programs

rdsensor

This program opens the sensor, reads data frames and saves every 50th frame to a file xyzdata.txt, overwriting the previous contents. It also displays a one-line summary of each frame received to stdout. For example:

C:\files\api-demo> bin\rdsensor
Usage:
  rdsensor serial-port [baud] [timeout]
Found port: 'COM3'
Found port: 'COM4'

C:\files\api-demo> bin\rdsensor COM4 1500000
baud string: 2, 1500000
Connected to sensor, port COM4 at 1500000 baud with timeout 50000 msec
iloop:216, nf:0, seq=26809
XYZ written
iloop:217, nf:1, seq=26810
iloop:218, nf:2, seq=26811
iloop:219, nf:3, seq=26812
iloop:220, nf:4, seq=26813
iloop:221, nf:5, seq=26814
iloop:222, nf:6, seq=26815
iloop:223, nf:7, seq=26816
iloop:224, nf:8, seq=26817
...etc...

Note 1: There is currently an issue running this program from within WSL on Windows, due to the serial port library.