Help with Circuit

nelson1000

I am wanting to build an infrared object detection system for a bot I am working on, and I was wondering if the following would work, as I am more of a mechanical person than electrical.

I bought a matched infrared emitter and detector from radioshack and came up with the circuit attached.

Please have a look and tell me what you think.

Nelson

PJAllen

Yes, it will work: When the IRED is "on", then the transistor will be "on", too.· When the transistor is "on", the voltage at "TO I/O PIN" will be 0V; when it is "off", the voltage there will be appx. 5V ("supply".)

nelson1000

It just occured to me that I did not even say what I was having problems with. But, you gave the answer to exactly what I was having problems with.

Thanks,

Nelson

allanlane5

The typical way a BS2 does this uses an "IR-Decoder" -- a three lead active device, which looks for a 38 Khz 'blinking' IR-LED light.

The benefit of the 'Decoder' approach is that the IR-Decoder continues to output a signal for a short period of time after the 'blinking' has gone away. This short period of time lets you use a

FREQOUT IR_Pin, 38500
PULSIN IR_Pin2, PulseVal

code. The "PULSIN" statement measures any recieved reflection. And the 38500 blinking help reduce the effects of Flourescent lights and sunlight.

Using the 'matched' device you've gotten from Radio shack, I'm not sure it's possible to read the reflection this way.

nelson1000

Thanks for the info.

Nelson

nelson1000

Thanks for all of the info, I have decided to go with the emitter and detector that comes with the BOEBOT. The only thing is, is that I need the leads to be longer on the detector. So I soldered longer leads on to it and now it does not work. I was wondering how easy it is to mess these things up? Because when I replace the one with longer leads to the one that I did not extend the leads the curcuit works fine.

Thanks,

Nelson

PJAllen

Are you an experienced solderer or a novice?· Maybe you cooked it?· Maybe the solder joint was "cold"?

You want to have a good physical connection, first.· Then, with your tip heated fully, melt some solder on it; then place that tinned tip to the joint with your solder at the ready and touch it to the heating joint and remove the tip altogether once the solder flows.

Best to practice on bits of wire.

nelson1000

This was my first attempt at soldering, if I did cook it that could be why it is not working? When I use it on my circuit it is always telling me that there is an object in its path even when there is not.

Nelson

PJAllen

Practice, practice, practice (on bits of wire.)

Muncher

If you can avoid soldering, i suggest thta you do. For the novice, it can be a mess. Maybe breadboarding it, and then covering it in epoxy? Anyways, once you have learned to solder, it can make your projects look real nice...

Paul Baker

Why would anyone epoxy a breadboard? Wirewrapped perfboard, I can see, but epoxying a breadboard ruins the board for what is supposed to be a temporary "test if it works" solution, breadboards should never be the end goal of a permanent circuit. Check various houses (Ramsey Electronics for example) for soldering trainer kits, they are frequently boards that are a working circuit, but something trivial so it doesn't matter if you screw it up.
Also having the proper tools greatly helps, for instance using an iron designed for plumbers is going cause you major headaches. If you need recomendations on which type of iron to get given your budget, ask.

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