Hi, I am currently looking for a proximity or time of flight sensors that can measure up to a 0.1 mm range. So far I have tried using the Adafruit VL53L0X to measure the distance required but found that the smallest value it can determine is up to 1mm. Are there any sensors that can measure up to 0.1mm?
For context, the project is in relation to a railway switch where the measurement cannot exceed 4mm. Therefore having a sensor with a smaller reading would be beneficial. I have done some necessary research and the reading will not start exactly at 0mm but instead after around 1-2cm, which I would be able to calibrate out of the reading.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!
Welcone to the forum.
I would use down where you use up, but to be clear…
You want to measure the distance of something about 15 millimeters away to a 0.1 millimeter resolution.
a7
Perhaps give some details of what, exactly, you're trying to achieve - then people may be able to suggest other ways to do that...
eg, maybe a small sensing* switch?
Maybe the optics out of an optical mouse - people have done some quite interesting things with them...
EDIT
* I think "detector switch" is the term I was trying to remember...
The kind of thing that printers use to detect when paper is present:
The main use of the measurement is to determine the size of a gap, which cannot exceed a certain amount, which in this case is 4mm. The measurement is used for a predictive maintenance plan.
Therefore a distance reading would be required to ensure when the maintenance should be performed so a switch to detect presence may not be feasible for the application.
The measurement would be to detect the rail about 15-25mm away to a 0.1mm resolution.
Hope the information is enough. Thanks again!
Is the object in the distance moving, or stationary? Is this a continuous measurement, or a single point?
can the object be touched, or must this be a non-contact measurement?
The object will be measured when stationary. It will be part of a tool which will be placed at the rail during weekly inspections and removed after, so its more of a single measurement.
It was recommended by my project lead that the measurement should remain non-contact as contact may affect the reading to be obtained.
have a look at the Pololu VL6180X TOF sensor
when I was experimenting with a pair of VL6180X results were typically within 1 to 2 mm
averaging a series of readings helps
Thanks for the suggestion! If I really cannot obtain any sensors to fit the requirement then the next best thing would be to get an average of a few readings per inspection
Or possibly, change your sensing method, so you can select different types of sensors.
If you could make contact with the rail, my suggestion would be something like an LVDT but I can't think of a non-contact distance (as opposed to simply present/not present) method that will work over such a small displacement.
No, it isn't. It's not clear how you intent to measure the size of an approximately 4 mm gap from a distance of 15 to 25 mm.
Considering the apparent language difficulties, a sketch would be the next best thing to present.
But anyway, did you try Google? A search on...
distance sensor 0.1 mm
...shows several promising sensors, such as this one by SICK:
Seems like that is in your ballpark.
It's about US$500.
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