Getting started with RPLidar

First of all, if drivers arent installed do this

1.download vcp drivers from http://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/pages/usbtouartbridgevcpdrivers.aspx

2. extract the zip file and go to the folder

cd Linux_3.x.x_VCP_Driver_Source

3. compile it

make

4.copy the compiled cp210x.ko to drivers folder

sudo cp cp210x.ko /lib/modules/3.13.0-43-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/usbserial.ko

5.insert module

sudo insmod /lib/modules/3.13.0-43-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/usbserial.ko

If its showing the following, it means driver is already exist

insmod: ERROR: could not insert module /lib/modules/3.13.0-43-generic/kernel/drivers/usb/serial/usbserial.ko: File exists

Once the drivers are installed, then go to the file directory：/etc/udev/rules.d/, and see whether it has the file named " 50-usb-serial.rules ", if it's not there then create it as follows

cd /etc/udev/rules.d/

sudo touch 50-usb-serial.rules

sudo gedit 50-usb-serial.rules

add this to the file:

 KERNEL=="ttyUSB0", GROUP="mallasrikanth", MODE="0666" 

(for GROUP put your username)

Now, for tutorials you can visit http://wiki.ros.org/rplidar