Some stuff has arrived - Bojke laser distance sensor!

The Bojke laser turned up. This came via the AliExpress Bojke storefront. Bojke (Boyi Jingke) is a manufacturer of industrial sensors, so I'm hoping this may actually be of semi professional quality.

How to power this thing?

I have some of these USB-C voltage controllers. You can get them by the dozen from AliExpress etc

They are what you will find inside most slaves / devices. They can control the output voltage by means of a resistor or control voltage. Most chargers control the rate of charge by means of finessing that voltage.

These examples allow you to select a fixed voltage by simply linking a a couple of pads (ie resistors). I want 20V, since the Bojke sensor runs from 12-24V. With it plugged into a USB-C PSU, I'm getting ~20.2Vdc output. And indeed, we have life:

With the preconfigured factory values, the indicator is amber between 31mm and 35mm. Outside that, it is green. I'm simply interested in the value (over RS485), not the limits. This should work between 25 - 35mm.

The next challenge will be talking to it over RS485. I will focus on talking to this distance sensor over RS485 before diving into the HX711 (strain gauge amp).