Digsy 1971
Established Member
Hi.
Not sure whether to put this in DIY or not, but I decided on here.
I am trying to make a "super IR eye" to go with my Dgigsender. Basically it takes the IR eye signal from the Digisender and uses it to illuminate a bank of high power IR LEDs. The idea eing that the eye can be placed anywhere in my lounge and operate any amount of equipment without having to place an individual eye on each component, or aim the unit at the HC stack.
In fact I am trying to emulate the IR performance of my OFA Mosaic, which can operate all my kit even when I am pointing it directly AWAY from the IR recievers.
Here comes the science:
At the moment I am using a bank of 6 SFH487 diodes at 100mA and 1.3V (according to the specs in the Maplins catalogue). I selected this diode as I had seen it used in another IR repeater DIY circuit.
I built the "super eye" today and it is not quite strong enough. It will operate half my kit via reflections off walls, etc, and will operate it all at 5m range if pointed directly at it. However the beam is much more focussed than on my Mosaic and more aiming is necessary.
Can anyone suggest a better diode to use? Ideally I would like to know what they use in the Mosaic as there only seems to be two in there. They must be REALLY powerful! ANother option is to drive the SFH487 at a higher current, which will hopefully make it brighter.
TIA,
Not sure whether to put this in DIY or not, but I decided on here.
I am trying to make a "super IR eye" to go with my Dgigsender. Basically it takes the IR eye signal from the Digisender and uses it to illuminate a bank of high power IR LEDs. The idea eing that the eye can be placed anywhere in my lounge and operate any amount of equipment without having to place an individual eye on each component, or aim the unit at the HC stack.
In fact I am trying to emulate the IR performance of my OFA Mosaic, which can operate all my kit even when I am pointing it directly AWAY from the IR recievers.
Here comes the science:
At the moment I am using a bank of 6 SFH487 diodes at 100mA and 1.3V (according to the specs in the Maplins catalogue). I selected this diode as I had seen it used in another IR repeater DIY circuit.
I built the "super eye" today and it is not quite strong enough. It will operate half my kit via reflections off walls, etc, and will operate it all at 5m range if pointed directly at it. However the beam is much more focussed than on my Mosaic and more aiming is necessary.
Can anyone suggest a better diode to use? Ideally I would like to know what they use in the Mosaic as there only seems to be two in there. They must be REALLY powerful! ANother option is to drive the SFH487 at a higher current, which will hopefully make it brighter.
TIA,