next topic »

[on:]

Hi,

I got this couple of IR emitter/receiver, and was wondering how to use them with an arduino.
I can't seem to figure out how to read from the receiver.

Anyone has an idea?
I don't have a reference for those components.

[Reply #1 on:]

See http://www.ladyada.net/learn/sensors/ir.html

[Reply #2 on:]

I can't seem to figure out how to read from the receiver.

The receiver will only detect light / no light, it is not the type you can read data from like a remote.
The range is limited. This project could use them:-
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Hardware/Sneak_Thief.html

[Reply #3 on:]

See http://www.ladyada.net/learn/sensors/ir.html

I don't want to know how to use a photo transistor, I want to know how to use the IR receptor in the picture.
As you can see in the picture, this is not a photo transistor.

[Reply #4 on:]

I can't seem to figure out how to read from the receiver.

The receiver will only detect light / no light, it is not the type you can read data from like a remote.
The range is limited. This project could use them:-
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Hardware/Sneak_Thief.html

This is not really helping neither.
I don't want to build this project, I just want to know how to connect my simple IR receiver to the arduino, and read from it.
The page you're indicting is a full circuit that does not explain anything of value on how to use individual components.

[Reply #5 on:]

As you can see in the picture, this is not a photo transistor.

Well it looks like a photo transistor to me.

The page you're indicting is a full circuit that does not explain anything of value on how to use individual components.

Well it does if you only read what it says.

It would help if you drop the attitude and explain what you want to know.
That component has only two legs so it is either a photo transistor or a photo diode. Simple as that.

[Reply #6 on:]

There is no attitude, just annoyance.

I'm simply asking how to hook up this component into an arduino, and one person send me a link to a component that does not look like the one in the photo and does not have the same number of legs, and someone else send me a link to a full project that does not explains how to use the individual components.

[Reply #7 on:]

My first post. Found your question and I'm working on something similar. I have a LED transmitter/receiver pair in a single plastic module, but the principle should be the same.

First, LED's are diodes, so they are polarity sensitive and the receiver is too. I don't recall which is the long lead, + or -, but that is how you tell the difference. The back of the package for my component says 5VDC, so I'll apply 5 volts and see if the transmitter lights. If not, I'll reverse the polarity. I have a 50/50 chance of getting it right the first time, but that's why we use breadboards instead of solder. Now I have light.

The next step is to get the receiver working. I think the right thing to do is to hook the positive lead to 5V and then to your Arduino input and then from the Arduino input a 10k resistor to ground. You need the 10k resistor to ground to pull the Arduino input pin back to ground once the sensor quits sensing otherwise it may float to some odd voltage and cause headaches. I'm not sure 10k is the right value, but it seems to be a pretty common resistor size in projects to pull pins high or low when other inputs aren't present. Some projects may call for a current limiting resistor for when the sensor is ON, but the Arduino pins should be very high resistance so you shouldn't need any other resistor.

BTW: I think what you are calling the receiver is a photo-transistor. It depends on photons hitting the tiny piece of silicon inside to knock some electrons loose and start a waterfall of other electrons. If you had a photocell as your sensor and hooked it to a transistor to amplify the signal, you'd have the same things conceptually. They just make it simpler by manufacturing the whole thing in one component and calling it a photo-transistor (conceptually).

If there are any EE's that want to tell me why I'm wrong with anything I've typed above I'm all ears.

[Reply #8 on:]

and start a waterfall of other electrons.

No that is how photo a multiplier works or an avalanche diode, not a photo diode.

Are you using the word "conceptually" to mean "it's not like this actually but it is how I like to think of it" if so it is the right word.