RPLIDAR C1 LiDAR

Product Introduction

Overview

RPLIDAR C1 is a hybrid DTOF LiDAR developed by Slamtec for developers and indoor applications. It supports 360° scanning, with a 5 kHz sampling rate and an 8-12 Hz scanning frequency, making it suitable for robot navigation, obstacle avoidance, localization, mapping, and other applications.

Specifications

Item	Specification
Model	RPLIDAR C1
Type	Hybrid DTOF LiDAR
Application	Indoor
Mechanical dimensions	55.6 x 55.6 x 41.3 mm
Measurement range	White objects: 0.05-12 m (70% reflectivity); black objects: 0.05-6 m (10% reflectivity)
Sampling rate	5 kHz
Scanning frequency	8-12 Hz, typically 10 Hz
Angular resolution	0.72°
Range resolution	15 mm
Range accuracy	±30 mm
Protection rating	IP54
Ambient light immunity	40 klux
Supply voltage	5 V
Data communication interface	TTL UART, 460800 bps
Operating temperature	0°C-50°C

Usage

SDK Usage

The latest SDK is available from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/Slamtec/rplidar_sdk.git
cd rplidar_sdk
make
cd output/Linux/Release
ls

After compilation, the following files should be available:

custom_baudrate  libsl_lidar_sdk.a  simple_grabber  ultra_simple

After connecting the RPLIDAR C1, use the following commands to identify the device node:

dmesg | grep -E "ttyUSB|cp210x"
ls /dev/ttyUSB*

On Firefly Ubuntu platforms, the device node is usually /dev/ttyUSB0, and the C1 communication baud rate is 460800.

ultra_simple

ultra_simple reads and prints real-time scan data through the serial port:

./ultra_simple --channel --serial /dev/ttyUSB0 460800

Example output:

theta: 0.10 Dist: 00666.00 Q: 47
theta: 0.98 Dist: 00669.00 Q: 47
theta: 1.86 Dist: 00671.00 Q: 47

In the output:

theta: Scan angle in degrees, from 0° to 360°.
Dist: Distance to the obstacle in millimeters.
Q: Signal quality. Higher values indicate a stronger signal, while 0 indicates an invalid point.

simple_grabber

simple_grabber displays scan results from 0° to 360° as ASCII art in the terminal:

./simple_grabber --channel --serial /dev/ttyUSB0 460800

The LiDAR origin is located at the bottom of the ASCII diagram. Denser characters generally indicate that obstacles are closer in the corresponding direction.

custom_baudrate

custom_baudrate tests communication at a specified baud rate:

./custom_baudrate /dev/ttyUSB0 460800

ROS 2 Usage

The test platform is Firefly ROC-RK3588S-PC running Ubuntu 22.04 and ROS 2 Humble. For instructions on installing ROS 2 Humble, see the Firefly ROS 2 Installation Guide.

Download and build the SLAMTEC ROS 2 driver:

git clone -b ros2 --single-branch https://github.com/Slamtec/rplidar_ros.git
sudo apt install -y python3-colcon-common-extensions
cd rplidar_ros
source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
colcon build --symlink-install --parallel-workers 2
source ./install/setup.bash

After connecting the LiDAR, confirm that the serial device is /dev/ttyUSB0, then start the driver node:

sudo chmod 777 /dev/ttyUSB0
ros2 launch rplidar_ros rplidar_c1_launch.py

Open another terminal, load the ROS 2 and driver environments, and run the client:

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
cd rplidar_ros
source ./install/setup.bash
ros2 run rplidar_ros rplidar_client

The client subscribes to the /scan topic and outputs scan data. Angles are in degrees, and distances are in meters.

You can also run the visualization tool rviz2 to view the point cloud:

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
cd rplidar_ros
rviz2 -d rviz/rplidar_ros.rviz