How much power for IR led to light up little spot

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hi! :slight_smile:

I have a very very simple question.

My new cat is currently too shy to get in the house. So he is sleeping in my basement. Since I've a LAN camera, I'm keeping an eye on him to check if he is sleeping there through the nights. I also keep the cat door open through the day and only close it after he went to sleep. The problem is, each time I check for him, the IR light goes on and makes a loud (mechanical!) noise always waking him up. Since I can deactivate IR entirely, I was thinking of just providing the IR light by myself.

So the question is, how much power should the IR led provide?
Would any LED do just fine?

I was also thinking to use 4 x 1.2V rechargeable batteries in parallel. Each providing 3600mAh. So the LED will glow at least for a week before I need to recharge the batteries.

Most of the LEDs from my "local" store need 1.2V - 1.5V. I guess 1.5V LEDs won't even light up and 1.2V LEDs are out of power in a few days. Am I just too optimistic of using rechargeable batteries for so long?

2

The problem is, each time I check for him, the IR light goes on and makes a loud (mechanical!) noise always waking him up

What is making the noise, a relay? If it is a relay, maybe replace the relay with a MOSFET so there would be no noise.

3

groundfungus:
What is making the noise, a relay? If it is a relay, maybe replace the relay with a MOSFET so there would be no noise.

Thanks for your answer. I checked it. It's an IR filter which moves in front of the camera lens.

4

I suspect the IR light comes on and the filter is deployed solely because you activated the camera when
it was dark. Without visible light they have no need to come on. So unless you leave the camera
continuously active it will move the filter unless there is visible light in the room.