This little gadget has helped me out so many times. When trying to control equipment with IR, I've come across several times when it doesn't just work, and you're left wondering 1) am I sending the wrong codes or 2) is there in fact nothing coming out of the emitter? This will tell you easily by providing a way to make the IR "visible". It's just a little circuit which turns on a visible-light LED when the phototransistor (sensitive to IR) sees IR. The phototransistor also responds to visible light which is handy for knowing that it's working. When you want to check IR coming out of an emitter, you just stick the emitter over the hole on the front. This blocks out visible light. When you actuate the emitter, if its working, the LED flashes brightly.
I have taken to always having with me a "golden" emitter which I know works. If I find one on an installation that's not working, I put my one in temporarily, do my testing, and then can be sure that my bit's done, and the installers just have to go back and replace the bad emitter. Emitters do seem to go bad quite a bit. There are some emitters which have a visible LED in them, so people assume they must be working if they see the visible LED flashing. I've come across these where the IR LED has failed, but the visible one is still working.
| Circuit Diagram | Photo: I used a blue LED. The detector is the hole on the left |
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After a few months of the above version, I decided to modify to version 2. One of the practical problems with the above all-in-one box solution, is that sometimes the wire on the emitter doesn't have a whole lot of slack, so it's hard to physically place it against the box, and then you might need to walk across the room and actually trigger the IR if the touchpanel is wired. So version two has the detector on about 6' of wire. The detector is mounted in a grommet in a hole drilled in the base of a "bulldog" stationery clip. You can grab the emitter easily with this, and then set the box where you can see it. Update: Easier still use your camera cellphone or digital camera: look at the emitter through it - you can "see" the IR coming out. Someone is also selling a widget on Ebay for $10 which you clip on top of a 9v battery.
IR booster
Ever need to send IR across the room from AMX or Crestron and no one thought to run a wire? This little circuit will do it. It takes a standard AMX or Crestron IR output and boosts it enough to fire the IR across the room. Great for when a client wants IR control of an existing Lutron Graphic Eye or similar panel.
| Circuit Diagram | Photo |
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This is the most useful thing I ever came up with. I use this all the time for connecting Crestron processors to wired and wireless touchpanels for test setups etc. Can also be used for AMX Axlink (but just ignore the colors, which are back to front - funny how that turned out!) Both manufacturers started off using the 5mm Phoenix connectors, and then both migrated to 3.5mm. So my cable has both, and a male and female version of each at both ends. Also at one end, a 3.5mm stereo plug for connecting to Crestron wireless touchpanels, and at the other end, an RJ11 for connecting to the older ST-CPs etc. To make it a bit more rugged, I used Weidmuller crimps on the female connectors where there are two wires going to them, and lots of heatshrink tubing and tiewraps for strain relief.
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