Hey'all,
I've been reading up on Photodiodes and Phototransistor related projects with Arduino, but fail to get a clear perspective. Is it possible to have two IR sensors and determine which is closer to a light source (ie. the remote control)?
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I wonder if you could measure the strength of the signal.
The closer it is the stronger the signal.
One issue I see here is that the IR remote might be fairly directional which would mean if you point it more towards one sensor it might think it's closer to that sensor even though it isn't.
I wonder if you had an array of sensors and looked at the difference in signal strength across them....
Thanks for the pointers. Sounds worth trying.
How would measure the signal strength for a single sensor?
I don't know, I suppose it depends on the sensor...
What kind of sensor do you have?
I actually have diodes as well as transistors available. Would any of these qualify?
http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/product/154043/Sehr-schnelle-PIN-Fotodiode-Osram-Components-SFH-205-F-Gehaeuseart-TO-92-Abstrahlwinkel-60-950-nm or http://www.ebay.de/itm/300664683835
zaph0d:
Hey'all,I've been reading up on Photodiodes and Phototransistor related projects with Arduino, but fail to get a clear perspective. Is it possible to have two IR sensors and determine which is closer to a light source (ie. the remote control)?
Light travels approximately one foot (12 inches) in one NANOSECOND.
In order for your idea to work, you would need a really, really fast photo sensor that had sub-nanosecond response time, extremely low capacitance, etc... and some pretty sophisticated electronics to accurately time in fractions of a nanosecond.
So, the short answer to your question is "NO" it won't work. Not with Arduino and hobby class electronics anyway....
@zaph0d that first mentioned IR receiver. Have you tried to measure IR intensity with it?
If you can measure IR intensity you may be in business with those...