I'm using the Vl6180 time of flight sensor to measure a distance to a surface.
This surface is a liquid, water for example. In my setup, the sensor doesn't detect the surface, the pulses from the laser goes right through. It seems there is not enough reflection at the surface.
Putting something on the surface that will reflect is not a solution in my case.
If you cannot put a dye in the liquid the only alternative I can think of is to make sure the beam from the chip hits the surface of the liquid at an angle that will guarantee some reflection. In order to recover the reflected beam you would also need to factor in a mirror to return the reflected beam to the chip.
Generally, TOF laser distance sensors are not suitable for measuring distances to anything that is transparent at the laser's wavelength.
Bouncing the laser beam at an angle may work, but the problem then would be getting the bounced laser light back to the sensor, and doing the math to get the actual distance.
Strangely, success has been reported with a specific sensor, but I don't know how reproducible it will prove to be; I haven't tried.
