VL6180X Driver

Platform-independent, dependency-free C driver for the ST VL6180X Time-of-Flight distance and ambient light sensor.
Provides initialization, configuration and measurement functions for range (mm) and ALS (ambient light) using an abstracted I²C interface.
This driver based on Pololu's VL6180X library for Arduino.

Features

• Platform-independent
• No external library dependencies, except for standard C
• Device ID validation
• Hardware reset support
• A few devices on the same and different I2C bus support with separated handles
• Polling, Interrupt and Asynchronous modes support
• Timeouts for blocking operations
• Ability to change range scaling (1x–2x-3x) and part to part offset

Usage

• Assign your platform-specific functions:

uint8_t (*read)(void *handle, uint16_t addr, uint16_t reg, uint8_t *data, uint16_t size, uint32_t timeout);
uint8_t (*write)(void *handle, uint16_t addr, uint16_t reg, uint8_t *data, uint16_t size, uint32_t timeout);
void (*ce)(uint8_t level); // 0 - pin reset
void (*delay)(uint32_t ms);
void *handle; // Optional, used by platform read/write functions

• Common device setup

void vl6180x_SetUp(vl6180x_t *dev)
{
    i2c1_Init(&i2c1Handle, 100000);
    gpio_Init(); // For chip enable (gpio0) and interrupt pin (gpio1)

    memset(dev, 0, sizeof(vl6180x_t));
    tof.interface.handle = &i2c1Handle; // Optional, used by ctx_i2c_read and ctx_i2c_write
    tof.interface.read  = ctx_i2c_read;
    tof.interface.write = ctx_i2c_write;
    tof.interface.ce    = ctx_gpio_ce;
    tof.interface.delay = ctx_delay;
    tof.sampleReadyTimeout = 1000;
    tof.address = 0b1010101; // If you are sure that device has non-default address 

    vl6180x_Init(&tof, true);
    vl6180x_ConfigureDefault(&tof);
}

1. Single‑Shot (Range + Ambient)

void Task_SingleShot(void)
{
    vl6180x_t tof;
    vl6180x_SetUp(&tof);

    while (1)
    {
        uint16_t range = vl6180x_ReadRangeSingle(&tof);
        uint16_t ambient = vl6180x_ReadAmbientSingle(&tof);
    }
}

2. Continuous Range Measurement

void Task_ContinuousRange(void)
{
    vl6180x_t tof;
    vl6180x_SetUp(&tof);
    vl6180x_StartRangeContinuous(&tof, 100);

    while (1)
    {
        uint16_t range = vl6180x_ReadRangeContinuous(&tof);
    }
}

3. Interleaved Continuous (Ambient + Range)

void Task_Interleaved(void)
{
    vl6180x_t tof;
    vl6180x_SetUp(&tof);
    vl6180x_StartInterleavedContinuous(&tof, 100);

    while (1)
    {
        uint16_t ambient = vl6180x_ReadAmbientContinuous(&tof);
        uint16_t range = vl6180x_ReadRangeContinuous(&tof);
    }
}

4. Asynchronous Range (Polling Interrupt Register - no interrupt pin used)

void Task_AsyncPoll(void)
{
    vl6180x_t tof;
    vl6180x_SetUp(&tof);
    vl6180x_StartRangeContinuous(&tof, 500);

    while (1)
    {
        uint16_t range = vl6180x_ReadRangeAsync(&tof); // UINT16_MAX if not ready

        if (range != UINT16_MAX)
        {
            // Use range result
        }
    }
}

5. Asynchronous with External GPIO (Active‑Low GPIO1)

void Task_AsyncInt(void)
{
    vl6180x_t tof;
    vl6180x_SetUp(&tof);
    vl6180x_StartRangeContinuous(&tof, 500);

    while (1)
    {
        uint16_t range;

        if (IsIntPinLow())
            range = vl6180x_ReadRangeAsync(&tof);
    }
}

Examples

• STM32 + FreeRTOS