IR Emitters and Receivers

[dtengineering]

Originally Posted by teh_pwnerer795

Hey guys, Brand new.. out of the package me ok .. im sorta new to programming ... but not really ANyways.. i'll get to the point


I heard that last year there were two beacons of IR Emitters. My question is, How far can the IR receiver aquire a signal from? and how do u set up a IR receiver>??

I had computer engineering last year but they didnt have that unit (even tho they had the parts ) If you could help me out that be great

I think the last time IR beacons were used was a couple of years ago. I seem to recall them having some problems with unintended reflections on the real game floor that were difficult to simulate on a practice field. IR reflects very well, as you can demonstrate by pointing your TV remote control at a wall directly opposite the television.

I believe the receivers that were used were similar to the PNA4602m... they receive and demodulate a 38kHz pulse from the emitter. When it is present they set their output pin low (or is it high) and vice-versa. This makes it really easy to read... it is either receiving or it is not. If you hook up a PNA4602m to a PIC chip and drop some fairly simple code into it you can read the output of a TV remote control (I use the Sony IR protocol) for just a couple of bucks.

The IR emitters have since been replaced with visible beacons and the CMU2 camera.... but who knows what they have dreamed up for this year....

Good luck, and have fun,

Jason