RE: Nigel's IR transmitter - some questions from a beginner about to bu ild one.

["Ian" <I.Bird@xxxxxxx>]

>From one beginner to another:
I put together a PCB schematic at the weekend which is at the moment
untested. I have the circuit working on breadboard with the exception of
the
IR LED as I managed to blow it up. Assuming all works well then the
finished
board will fit in a otting box I had lying around from RS. It is about 1 by
1.5 by .5 inches i.e. pretty small. I have not completed the connections
bit
yet but I am planning on having the IR bit separate as you want and for the
same reasons. Attached are the PDF files of progress so far. I have taken
liberties with some of the components used but the track layout and pins
are
not affected. The best example of this is on the receiver circuit where I
used what looks like a voltage regulator rather than the TSOP 1838 as I
could not find one of these in the Proteus library. The Zener may be the
wrong way round but I don't know pictorially. The circuit exists on copper
and is drilled but I am now waiting for an etch resist pen to do some
touching up before I melt it. More when this done.................

As for the breadboard circuit - I had a good weekend and destroyed 5 IR
LED's and one large capacitor. I guess the smell gave it away at first but
after a while the silvery stuff oozing out of the capacitor was a good
visual confirmation. Lesson 1: insert components the correct way round. OK,
replace the capacitor (between + and - so no other components damaged and
hey presto - nothing. The visible LED flashes as it should but no IR signal
out. In a fit of complete madness I then tried a total of 5 out of 6 IR
LEDs
and none of them worked. About this time I wondered if I had the LED
connected the correct way round. My guess (and Nigels, the circuit creator)
at the moment is that I have toasted all but one IR LED. Time to do some
safe testing to find the good  one and ascertain its polarity. I did some
research this morning and it seems it is opposite to the visual LED so
woops, Lesson 2: insert components the correct way round and check, check
and treble check!

Ian

-----Original Message-----
From: nick.broughton@xxxxxxx
[mailto:nick.broughton@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 13 November 2000 11:00
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Nigel's IR transmitter - some questions from a
beginner about to bu ild one.


1) How big is the finished product?, and I presume that the IR LED can
be separated from the rest of the module (by a length of cable).  It's
going to have to be in a very visible location to have clear line of
sight to all of my AV equipment, so I want to reduce the impact as much
as possible.

2) Can I put a device on the serial port (or any other port for that
matter) of a PC running HomeSeer to feed IR commands to the same
transmitter?  How can I build/buy such a device?

Nigel and Keith must be getting really worried, with all these
beginners getting their soldering irons out!  :-)

Thanks

Nick




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IRTrans3 all.PDF

IRTrans3.PDF