[Alan Anderson]

We use our IR receiver to tell the robot which position our alliance color's trackball is occupying on the overpass. It only needs to get a signal at the very start of the match, so we aren't worried about range.

But we discovered that the remote controls we are using have a relatively narrow beam width. If you're too close to the receiver, correct aim is incredibly important. We also discovered that the IR beam from the remote isn't necessarily pointing straight forward. One of our two remotes is skewed enough to the left to affect the aim significantly.

We determined this by using a camera phone to watch the IR LED on the front of the remote while waving the remote around. You can easily tell where the beam intensity is greatest.