VL53L0X time-of-flight distance with ESP32

Supply 3.3-5 V Bus I2C I2C address 0x29 Measures distance

Pins and ESP32 wiring

Pin	Role	ESP32 pin	Notes
VIN	Power	3V3
GND	Ground	GND
SCL	I2C clock (SCL)	D22
SDA	I2C data (SDA)	D21
XSHUT	Input (the ESP32 drives it)	D25	Shutdown, active LOW. Optional; needed to use several sensors
GPIO1	Interrupt	D35	Interrupt output, optional

Suggested wiring for the 30-pin ESP32 DevKit, avoiding flash, input-only and strapping pins. BoardPilot checks it for you as you wire.

Good to know

Every sensor starts at address 0x29. To use two on one bus, hold one in reset with XSHUT and give the other a new address at start-up; the new address is lost at power-off. (ST VL53L0X datasheet, I²C interface: device address 0x52 (8-bit), change of address)

Check it is the real chip

Read register 0xC0: a genuine part answers 0xEE. BoardPilot does this automatically in “Debug a problem”.

Starter code (Arduino)

#include <Wire.h>

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  Wire.begin(21, 22);  // SDA = GPIO 21, SCL = GPIO 22
  Wire.beginTransmission(0x29);
  bool found = Wire.endTransmission() == 0;
  Serial.println(found ? "VL53L0X time-of-flight distance found at 0x29" : "Not found: check power, GND and SDA/SCL");
}

void loop() {}

Sources

ST VL53L0X datasheet, Default I2C address 0x29 (0x52 8-bit)
ST VL53L0X API user manual, Reference register 0xC0 reads 0xEE

Try it in 3D in BoardPilot

BoardPilot Part data (JSON)

VL53L0X time-of-flight distance on other boards: wiring and code

Arduino Mega 2560 R3 Arduino Nano Arduino Uno R3 WeAct Black Pill STM32F411CE ESP32-C3-DevKitM-1 ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 Nordic nRF52840 DK NUCLEO-F401RE Raspberry Pi Pico 2 Raspberry Pi Pico W Raspberry Pi Pico Teensy 4.1

Learn the basics

Lesson: UART, I2C and SPI Lesson: GPIO: pins in and out Lesson: Timers and interrupts I2C I2C address SDA and SCL Pull-up resistor GPIO Interrupt

Part data: CC BY 4.0, free to reuse with credit to BoardPilot.