DOC#:01.13.

000202
YDLIDAR X2
USER MANUAL

www.ydlidar.com

Shenzhen EAI Technology Co.,Ltd.

 CONTENTS
1 YDLIDAR X2 LIDAR DEVELOPMENT KIT ............................................ 1
1.1 Development Kit ........................................................................................ 1
2 USAGE UNDER WINDOWS ..................................................................... 1
2.1 Device Connection .................................................................................. 1
2.2 Driver Installation ...................................................................................... 3
2.3 Evaluation Software Usage...................................................................... 4
2.3.1 Start Scanning ......................................................................................................... 5
2.3.2 Data Storage ............................................................................................................ 6
2.3.3 Display Mean and Standard Deviation............................................................... 6
2.3.4 Play and Record ...................................................................................................... 6
2.3.5 Debug ....................................................................................................................... 7
2.3.6 Filter .......................................................................................................................... 8
3 LINUX ROS OPERATION ......................................................................... 8
3.1 Device Connection .................................................................................... 8
3.2 Compile and Install YDlidar-SDK ............................................................ 8
3.3 ROS Driver Installation.............................................................................. 9
3.4 Run the ydlidar_ros_driver ...................................................................... 9
3.5 RVIZ View Scan Results .......................................................................... 10
3.6 Modify Scan Angle ................................................................................... 10
4 CAUTION ................................................................................................. 12
4.1 Ambient Temperature ............................................................................ 12
4.2 Ambient Lighting ..................................................................................... 12
4.3 Power Supply ............................................................................................ 12
5 REVISE ..................................................................................................... 13

Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved

1 YDLIDAR X2 LIDAR DEVELOPMENT KIT
The development kit of YDLIDAR X2 lidar (hereinafter referred to as X2) is an accessory tool
provided for performance evaluation and early development of the X2. Through the X2 development
kit, and with the evaluation software, users can observe point cloud data scanned by X2 on your
environment or development on the SDK.

1.1 Development Kit

The X2 development kit has the following components:

X2 Lidar USB Type-C Cable USB Adapter Board

FIG 1 YDLIDAR X2 DEVELOPMENT KIT

CHART 1 YDLIDAR X2 LIDAR DEVELOPMENT KIT DESCRIPTION

Item Qty. Description
Standard version of the X2 lidar. The X2 has an integrated motor drive for
X2 Lidar 1
despin control and motor control
USB Type-C Use with USB adapter board to connect X2 and PC. USB cable is both a
1
Cable power supply cable and a data cable
Realize the function of USB to UART, which is convenient for the fast
USB Adapter interconnection between X2 and PC. Serial port DTR signal to control X2
1
Board motor despin control, a Micro USB power interface (PWR) for auxiliary
power supply is provided

Note: USB Adapter board has two USB TYPE C interface：USB_DATA, USB_PWR.
USB_DATA: Data powered interface. In most cases, this interface can be used to meet power and
communication requirements.
USB_PWR: Auxiliary power supply interface. The USB interface of some development platforms has weak
current drive capability. At this time, auxiliary power supply can be used.

2 USAGE UNDER WINDOWS

2.1 Device Connection
When evaluating and developing X2 under windows, X2 and PC needed to be connected. The
specific process is as follows:

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 FIG 2 YDLIDAR X2 DEVICE CONNECTION STEP 1

FIG 3 YDLIDAR X2 DEVICE CONNECTION STEP 2

Connect the adapter board with X2 first, then connect the USB cable to the USB port of the
adapter board and the PC. Note that the Type-C interface of the USB cable is connected to the
USB_DATA of the USB adapter board, and the X2 enters the idle mode after being powered on. The
motor does not rotate.

The drive current of USB interface of some development platforms or PC is not sufficient. X2
need to be connected to the auxiliary power supply of +5V, otherwise the lidar will be abnormal.

Development
Platform

5V Power
Supply

FIG 4 YDLIDAR X2 AUXILIARY POWER SUPPLY

Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved 2 / 13

2.2 Driver Installation
To evaluate and develop the X2 under Windows, the serial port driver of the USB adapter
board. The USB adapter board need to be installed of this kit adopts CP2102 chip to realize serial
port (UART) to USB signal conversion. Its driver can be downloaded from our official website or
downloaded from the official website of Silicon Labs.

https://www.ydlidar.com/dowfile.html?id=97

http://cn.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers

After unzip the driver package, run the CP2102's Windows driver installation file (exe file
under CP210x_VCP_Windows). Please select the 32-bit version (x86) or 64-bit version (x64)
installation program according to the version of the windows operating system.

FIG 5 YDLIDAR X2 DRIVER VERSION SELECTION

Double-click the exe file and follow the prompts to install it.

FIG 6 YDLIDAR X2 DRIVER INSTALLING

After the installation is complete, right-click on [My Computer] and select [Properties]. On the
open [System] screen, select [Device Manager] from the left menu to access the [Device Manager].
Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved 3 / 13
 Expand [Port] to see the serial port name corresponding to the identified USB adapter, that is,
the driver installation is successful. The following figure shows COM3. (Note that the port must be
checked in case of X2 and PC interconnection).

FIG 7 YDLIDAR X2 DRIVER INSTALLATION CHECK

2.3 Evaluation Software Usage

YDLIDAR provides Point Cloud Viewer, a point cloud data visualization software LidarViewer
for X2 real-time scanning. Users can intuitively observe the X2 scanning effect chart. GDL real- time
point cloud data and real-time scanning frequency are provided on YDLIDAR. At the same time,
save the scanned data offline to an external file for further analysis. Visualization software download
link: https://www.ydlidar.com/Public/upload/download/TOOL.zip

Before using the YDLIDAR software, make sure that the X2 USB adapter board serial port
driver is installed successfully, and interconnect the X2 with the USB port of the PC. Run the
evaluation software: LidarViewer.exe, select the corresponding serial port number and model
number. Meanwhile, users could choose language on the top right corner.

FIG 8 YDLIDAR X2 EVALUATION SOFTWARE

Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved 4 / 13

 If the connection is correct, you will see the following screen：

FIG 9 POINTCLOUD VIEWER INTERFACE

2.3.1 Start Scanning

Click to start scanning and display the environment point cloud, the upper left corner
displays the angle & distance information of the red line position (unit: mm). Click to stop it. as
shown below:

FIG 10 LIDAR SCANNING POINT CLOUD DISPLAY

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2.3.2 Data Storage
During lidar scanning, click [File] in the main menu, select [Export to Excel], and save point
cloud data according to the prompts. Then the system will save the point cloud information scanned
in a circle in Excel format.

FIG 11 SAVE DATA

2.3.3 Display Mean and Standard Deviation

Click [Tools] in the main menu, then select [Mean And STD] - [View].

FIG 12 YDLIDAR G4 DISPLAY MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION

Choose one according to needs, move the mouse to the test position, right-click the pop-up
menu, and select [Lock Mouse Tracking].

FIG 13 LOCK MOUSE TRACKING

2.3.4 Play and Record

Click [Tools] in the main menu, then select [Record and Play].

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 FIG 14 RECORD AND PLAY

The main window is displayed as follows:

To record lidar data, click to start recording, and click to stop recording.

In non-scanning mode, click to start play.

The play process is as follows:

FIG 15 PLAY PROCESS

2.3.5 Debug
Click [Tools] in the main menu, and then select [DebugON] to output the raw lidar data to the
"viewer_log.txt" and "viewer_log_err.txt" files.

FIG 16 START DEBUGGING

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2.3.6 Filter
Click [Tools] in the main menu, and then select [Filter] to add lidar data filtering algorithm.

FIG 17 FILTER SETTING

Note: For more functions of LidarViewer, please click [Help], select [More Information], and learn more about
how to use it.

3 LINUX ROS OPERATION

There are many Linux versions，this article only uses Ubuntu 18.04, Melodic version ROS as
an example.

SDK driver address：

https://github.com/YDLIDAR/YDLidar-SDK

ROS driver address：

https://github.com/YDLIDAR/ydlidar_ros_driver

3.1 Device Connection

Under Linux, the X2 and PC interconnect processes are consistent with those under Windows.
See Device Connection under Window.

3.2 Compile and Install YDlidar-SDK

YDLIDAR_ROS_DRIVER depends on the YDLIDAR-SDK library. If never installed the
YDlidar-SDK library before, or it has expired, it is necessary to install the YDlidar-SDK library. If
you have the latest version of ydlidar-SDK, please skip this step, then go to the next step.

Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved 8 / 13

 $ git clone https://github.com/YDLIDAR/YDLidar-SDK.git

$ cd YDLidar-SDK/build

$ cmake ..

$ make

$ sudo make install

3.3 ROS Driver Installation

1) Cloning GitHub's YDlidar ROS Driver Package:
$ git clone https://github.com/YDLIDAR/ydlidar_ros_driver.git
ydlidar_ws/src/ydlidar_ros_driver

2) Build the Ydlidar_ROS_Driver software package:

$ cd ydlidar_ws

$ catkin_make
3) Package environment Settings:
$ source ./devel/setup.sh

Note: Add permanent workspace environment variables. It will be very convenient if ROS
environment variables are automatically added to your bash session every time when start a new
shell:

$ echo "source ~/ydlidar_ws/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

$ source ~/.bashrc

4) Verify that the package path is set, echo the ROS_PACKAGE_PATH variable.
$ echo $ROS_PACKAGE_PATH
It can see something like this: /home/tony/ydlidar_ws/src:/opt/ros/melodic/share Create
5) Serial Port Alias [Optional]
$ chmod 0777 src/ydlidar_ros_driver/startup/*

$ sudo sh src/ydlidar_ros_driver/startup/initenv.sh

Note: After completing the previous operation, re-insert the LIDAR again.

3.4 Run the ydlidar_ros_driver

Run ydlidar_ros_driver with startup file, as shown below:

Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved 9 / 13

 $ roslaunch ydlidar_ros_driver X2.launch

3.5 RVIZ View Scan Results

Run the launch file and open rviz to view the X2 scan results, as shown in the figure below:

$ roslaunch ydlidar_ros_driver lidar_view.launch

Note: Take G4 as an example by default, if use other types of lidar, need to change lidar.launch in
lidar_view.launch file to the corresponding **.launch file. (If X2 lidar is used, it needs to be changed to
X2.launch)

FIG 18 YDLIDAR X2 RVIZ

3.6 Modify Scan Angle

The scanning data seen by running the launch file is displayed by default with 360- degree data.
To modify the display range, you need to modify the configuration parameters in the launch file. The
specific operation is as follows:

1) Switch to the directory where the corresponding [launch file] is located, edit the file, and its
content is as shown in the figure:
$ vim X2.launch

Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved 10 / 13

 FIG 19 X2.LAUNCH FILE

Note: For more information about the file contents, please refer to

https://github.com/YDLIDAR/ydlidar_ros_driver#configure-ydlidar_ros_driver-internal-parameter

2) The X2 lidar coordinates follow the right-hand rule within ROS, with an angle range of
[-180, 180]. "angle_min" is the start angle, and "angle_max" is the endangle. The
specific scope needs to be modified according to actual use.

FIG 20 YDLIDAR X2 COORDINATES DEFINITION

Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved 11 / 13

4 CAUTION
4.1 Ambient Temperature
When the working environment temperature of X2 is overhigh or overlow, it will affect the
accuracy of the distance measuring system. It may also damage the structure of the scanning system
and reduce the service life of the X2 lidar. Avoid using in high temperature (>50 degrees celsius) and
low temperature (<0 degrees celsius) conditions.

4.2 Ambient Lighting

The ideal working environment of X2 is indoor, and the indoor environment light (including no
light) will not affect the work of X2. However, please avoid using strong light sources (such as high-
power lasers) to directly illuminate the X2 vision system.

If you need to use it outdoors, please avoid the X2's vision system directly facing the sun, which
may cause permanent damage to the vision system's photosensitive chip, which will invalidate the
range finding.

The X2 standard version will cause interference in the distance measurement under the conditions
of strong sunlight reflection outdoors, please pay attention to it.

4.3 Power Supply

During the development process, since the drive current of the USB interface of each platform or
the USB interface of the computer may be too low to drive the X2, the external power supply of the
+5V to the X2 needs to be provided through the USB_PWR interface of the USB interface board. It is
not recommended for use mobile phone power bank because the voltage ripple of power bank is too
large.

Copyright 2017 EAI All Rights Reserved 12 / 13

5 REVISE
Date Version Content
2017-12-05 1.0 Composing a first draft
Added auxiliary power connection method, document description,
2018-01-22 1.1
configuration description, and power supply requirements
2018-04-03 1.2 Adapt to PointCloudViewer2.0 client
2021-08-02 1.3 Adapt LidarViewer client, update SDK, ROS tutorial

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