Create block for TFMini rangefinders

[dlcarrier]

The TFMini rangefinders work with a collection of blocks, but to bring it in line with support of other products, it would need a single block, likely with I2C and serial support. They use the same protocol, so a single code base should work. The product pages are at: https://www.parallax.com/product/28350 and https://www.parallax.com/product/28360

[MatzElectronics]

Any chance someone could forward me a pdf of the pages linked? I don't have access.

On Wed, Jan 22, 2020, 7:15 PM dcarrier-parallax notifications@github.com wrote:

The TFMini rangefinders work with a collection of blocks, but to bring it in line with support of other products, it would need a single block, likely with I2C and serial support. They use the same protocol, so a single code base should work. The product pages are at: https://www.parallax.com/product/28350 and https://www.parallax.com/product/28360

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[PropGit]

I checked: the first page is just a placeholder; no information except a picture. The second link doesn't exist yet.

Here's code and datasheets from the product folders...

For the TFmini-S: TFmini C Example v1.0.zip TFmini-S-01 A00 Datasheet.pdf

For the TFmini Plus: TFmini Plus-01-A04-Datasheet.pdf

[MatzElectronics]

Okay, I own one of these (the mini-s I think). I believe they are both UART devices, so it's just a matter of parsing their stream. Shouldn't be too difficult.

I might be neat to do a library that just handles UART distance detectors, including the laserPing...

On Thu, Jan 23, 2020 at 9:01 AM Parallax Git Administrator < notifications@github.com> wrote:

I checked: the first page is just a placeholder; no information except a picture. The second link doesn't exist yet. [image: image] https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1266318/73005793-64a77c80-3dbe-11ea-8de2-57482d891ca8.png

Here's code and datasheets from the product folders...

For the TFmini-S: TFmini C Example v1.0.zip https://github.com/parallaxinc/BlocklyProp/files/4104379/TFmini.C.Example.v1.0.zip TFmini-S-01 A00 Datasheet.pdf https://github.com/parallaxinc/BlocklyProp/files/4104382/TFmini-S-01.A00.Datasheet.pdf

For the TFmini Plus: TFmini Plus-01-A04-Datasheet.pdf https://github.com/parallaxinc/BlocklyProp/files/4104385/TFmini.Plus-01-A04-Datasheet.pdf

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[JonMcPhalen]

Warning: The TFmini and the TFmini-S use different command protocols -- the latter being an improvement over the former. Out of the box the device sends a 9-byte packet every 10ms; inside that packet is the distance measurement (defaults to CM).

The TFmini-S is easy to use; I have coded experimental code in Spin (will port to an object later), and I did a simple demo in Blockly for Ken.

The problem with Blockly is that the serial blocks do not include an RX Flush block -- and this is important when dealing with a device that is constantly transmitting. In my demo I used a custom block to call fdserial_rxflush() -- but if Ken changes the pin numbers on the serial initialization block, he'll have to edit the custom block.

Anyway, he has the code and will make it available at some point.