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
I believe he was referring to last year’s photoswitches, which used IR. There were two included in the kit, one unit was just a reciever while the other unit was a transmitter/reciever. There are some other threads on CD about specifics on how to wire it. Essentially, as the name suggests, it just turns on or off in response to a signal (IR). I believe the spec sheet said the range is good for several feet, but that depends on the application. You can get more range if using the sensor in a beam breaking type application. If you are using reflected IR the range is shorter, depending on what your are reflecting off of.
umm…the reflecting part… if it was reflected off a spinning mirrior… would it lose the insensity of the beam?
What is the problem you are trying to solve?
these may not be the best solution, so could you fill us in on what you have to do?
As mentioned before, the IR sensor is pretty sensitive. Last year we used our sensors to detect wheel speed of our shooting wheel by just using a little white paint. Also the sensors have a built in gain adjustment to change sensitivity. No sweat they are easy!
basically … i have 4 ir receivers on a 2 inch by 2 inch wood platform… a motor is gonna to be spinning at a constant speed, with a certain rpm… the mirrior is then connected to the motor and is angled at a 45 degree angle… the program is going to design a logitcal “play field” … so it noes where its surrondings are… again . i ono if this is possible … or programmable… also … by the loooks of it … ir isnt gonna be popular as much as the cam this year…