Adafruit VL53L5CX Library

Arduino library for the ST VL53L5CX 8x8 multizone Time-of-Flight sensor. Supports up to 4m range with 4x4 or 8x8 resolution.

Features

• Resolution control (4x4 or 8x8)
• Ranging frequency selection
• Sharpener control
• Target order selection
• Ranging mode selection
• Power mode control
• Detection thresholds
• Motion indicator
• Crosstalk (xtalk) calibration
• I2C address change
• LPn pin support

Hardware Requirements

This sensor will NOT work on AVR boards (Arduino Uno, Mega, etc.).

The VL53L5CX stores its firmware in volatile RAM. Every time the sensor powers on, the host MCU must upload an ~84KB firmware blob over I2C before the sensor can range. This means:

• You need an ARM-class MCU with enough flash and RAM — ESP32, SAMD21/51, RP2040, nRF52840, STM32, etc.
• AVR chips cannot compile this library. The firmware blob alone exceeds AVR flash and array initializer limits.
• First begin() call takes up to 10 seconds while firmware uploads. This is normal — it only happens once after power-on.
• The sensor retains firmware across soft resets (as long as 3.3V stays up). Only a full power cycle requires re-upload.
• I2C clock speed matters. 400kHz is the default; 1MHz works on most boards and cuts upload time roughly in half.

Dependencies

• Adafruit BusIO

Examples

• examples/01_simpletest - Basic ranging readout
• examples/02_ascii_art - Print an 8x8 distance grid as ASCII art
• examples/03_detection_threshold - Configure detection thresholds and report triggers
• examples/04_motion_detect - Read motion indicator output
• examples/05_webserial - Stream data for the browser heatmap viewer
• examples/06_set_address - Change the I2C address
• examples/07_tft_heatmap - Display a heatmap on a TFT

WebSerial The webserial/ directory contains a browser-based heatmap visualization that pairs with the WebSerial example.

License MIT

Product Page https://www.adafruit.com/product/XXXXX