IR Receiver behaving strangely in beam break setup

Using Arduino Sensors
#1

I’m currently trying to build a chronograph to measure the velocity of a projectile between two IR beams, but the IR recievers are behaving very strangely. The IR gates detect the beam is broken at the beginning. If I break the beam, nothing changes, but when I unblock the beam, it breifly senses the IR beam before going back to not detecting it again. I’ve linked a video of the problem here.

I based it off of this project with a few differences, such as using an OLED with u8glib instead of a segmented display

I purchased this nano clone, and these IR LED’s and receivers.

Here is my code for the project

#include <U8glib.h>

/*
 * This is a test program to confirm that the photogates work correctly and is not supposed to display or calculate velocity yet
*/

extern const int PHOTOGATE_1_PIN = 4;  //D4
extern const int PHOTOGATE_2_PIN = 7; //D7

/* SLboat Add Device */
U8GLIB_SH1106_128X64 u8g(U8G_I2C_OPT_FAST); // I2C 128x64(col2-col129) SH1106,Like HeiTec 1.3' I2C OLED

void u8g_prepare(void) {
  u8g.setFont(u8g_font_6x10);
  u8g.setFontRefHeightExtendedText();
  u8g.setDefaultForegroundColor();
  u8g.setFontPosTop();
}

//Draws two strings displaying the status of each of the two photogates
void drawPhotogateStatus()
{
  // Prepare the strings to be drawn
  String val;
  String val1;
  if(digitalRead(PHOTOGATE_1_PIN) == HIGH)
    val = "true";
  else
    val = "false";

  if(digitalRead(PHOTOGATE_2_PIN) == HIGH)
    val1 = "true";
  else
    val1 = "false";
  String str1 = "Photogate 1: " + val;
  String str2 = "Photogate 2: " + val1;

  // Set font
  u8g.setFont(u8g_font_helvB10);
  
  // Draw the strings
  u8g.drawStr(0, 30, str1.c_str());
  u8g.drawStr(0, 60, str2.c_str());
}


void setup(void)
{
  // Display Setup
  pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(13, HIGH);

  // Photogate 1 Setup
  pinMode(PHOTOGATE_1_PIN, INPUT);
  digitalWrite(PHOTOGATE_1_PIN, HIGH);

  // Photogate 2 Setup
  pinMode(PHOTOGATE_2_PIN, INPUT);
  digitalWrite(PHOTOGATE_2_PIN, HIGH);
}

void loop(void) {

  // picture loop
  u8g.firstPage();
  do
  {
    u8g_prepare();
    drawPhotogateStatus();
  }
  while ( u8g.nextPage() );
  // rebuild the picture after some delay

}

Sorry if it’s something really simple, I have quite a bit of coding experience but I’m quite new to electronics and hardware. Thanks so much for any help!

#2

Those 3-pin sensors expect bursts of modulated 38kHz light from the IR diodes.
Bursts (with gaps), so probably not ok for what you're doing.
Leo..

#3