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InfraRed carrier frequency? — Parallax Forums

InfraRed carrier frequency?

manzanamanzana Posts: 24
edited 2010-08-24 17:44 in Accessories
I have been playing with the Parallax Infrared receiver as the "weekend project". I got a universal remote which worked great as promised. I assumed it would have a carrier frequency (which is the frequency the IR beam gets modulated at) of around 38 Khz since this is what the passband of the receiver module is designed at. I put it on the scope here and was quite surprised to find the carrier frequency of the remote to be 57.27 khz!! I dont see how a harmonic or subharmonic of 57 khz can wind up in the 38 khz band. Perhaps the filter in the receiver module is a high pass? This would still make since since such IR signals could not occur naturally and would work fine for data transmission. Again, the remote worked fine and had a range exceeding 20 feet. Thanks for any clarification! APPLE

Comments

  • Beau SchwabeBeau Schwabe Posts: 6,566
    edited 2010-08-24 09:36
    manzana,

    The only commonality that 'might' get through would be 19kHz which is 1/2 of 38kHz and 1/3 of 57kHz ...

    ... but that's a big stretch. I always thought that the detectors had a notch filter with an allowable bandpass of a few Khz either way, but in your case you are right, it sounds like it's only using a high-pass filter. Honestly that is surprising to me.
  • manzanamanzana Posts: 24
    edited 2010-08-24 17:44
    Wow, the 3rd harmonic of the 2nd subharmonic. I cant believe you thought of that one! The waveform is a square wave super-imposed on a strange ramp so that could indeed be the explanation. Thanks a bunch for the insight. APPLE
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