So I'm a total noob at this and maybe I'm bad at searching but I wasn't able to find quite this question anywhere on the forum. I'm building a machine that will trigger a motor and increase its speed based on the proximity of a person approaching it. I figured I could do this by shining a few IR LEDs and picking them up on an IR sensor. My question is, it seems that an IR receiver (which is what I have) is more for detecting pulse patterns and such for remote control stuff. Is it correct that there isn't a way to get this to do what I want it to do? Is it possible to have an LED transmit the command out and then have the detector pick it up off of the environment?
If I were to get a two pin IR detector, would that simply turn the motor on after a threshold, or could I get it to vary the motor speed based on strength of the light it was getting back?
I'm sure this is a pretty obvious question with an answer somewhere out there, so sorry if I just didn't search hard enough.
Hi. Can you just draw what you need? Because really it's kinda difficult to understand what you want. Sorry. Sometimes little image can say more that 1000 words. Just draw in paint etc. program. Thank you.
I figured I could do this by shining a few IR LEDs and picking them up on an IR sensor.
You figured wrong.
Is it correct that there isn't a way to get this to do what I want it to do
Yes - double negative there do you know?
Is it possible to have an LED transmit the command out and then have the detector pick it up off of the environment?
No.
If I were to get a two pin IR detector, would that simply turn the motor on after a threshold, or could I get it to vary the motor speed based on strength of the light it was getting back?
Using return strength of IR is not a workable way to get a measure of the distance of the reflecting object.
The IR sensors work by measuring the return angle of the IR beam from a number of different sensors. They are not always reliable but can work over a limited range.