Lefty I'm amazed at how small the chip is, no wonder it's offered with a breakout board. Do you happen to know of one that might be attachable to a breadboard so that I can experiment cheaply. I appreciate that this is the only one familiar to you in an Arduino context, but guessing that I2C is I2C is I2C (unless perhaps it's revision 4 - I don't know) and provided I can get insight into the 'quality' of the chip, perhaps I could use another without much code change...
N.B. I have now tested the current AREF setup with a 12V battery. Both Sicks were powered from it, as was the AREF (using a zener 4V7 to cut it down). The signal from the digitally configured Sick used a simple divider to reduce 12V to around 5V and the analogue output was just as nature intended because it is low anyway (even though the specs say max 6V, I've never seen it above 3V and only then when it was 'blinded' by perpendicular light I think). One thing though, the Uno was powered by USB which was still being used to give feedback to the PC.
Cheers