Little infrared gizmo help

Fifer

MSE_Martin wrote: »

Hi folks,

I should've said that blocking the LED also blocks the infrared sensor hence why covering it doesn't work. The plugging it into a remote would work, though the old 'red cover' thing we had was better. I may look at a red quality street wrapper.

Thanks for all the help

Martin

The IR receiver won't be built into the LED (or at least I've never seen one that is) although they may be very close to each other. However, covering the LED with something cut to size should block most of the light without covering the IR receiver.

paddyrg

MSE_Martin wrote: »

...I may look at a red quality street wrapper.

It is in the true money saving spirit, after all ;-)

Just for what it's worth, if you want something a little fancier, next time you're doing a TV show, ask one of the lighting guys for a bit of red gel, or better still if you can take an old gel swatch (and you can pick the colour that works best, probably something like Rosco 026/Bright Red (which the lighting guy will understand).

Lighting gels have the advantage that they are designed to transmit IR no matter what other frequencies they absorb - so they don't catch fire! They also look smarter than a sweet wrapper :-D

MSE_Martin

you're all fab

mattytun

http://www.whathifi.com/
Try the fourm here martin ..great site.

Darksun

Surely the moneysaving (and planetsaving) approach would be to switch the TV off at night rather than leaving it on standby?

Anyway, what you want is an IR pass filter (that is, a filter that blocks all visible light but allows infrared to pass). The plastic bit that covers the IR LED on a remote control is made of this, so if you have an old remote you don't need you can do a bit of surgery and use that. You can also use unexposed film negative, see http://www.pixiq.com/article/create-your-own-ir-filter