Arduino and IR Sensor

Found an old ball mouse at work. After it was fittingly destroyed, I harvested the board within. Among some useful resistors I found two sets of IR emitters (LEDs) and IR detectors (some sort of triode?).

The only way for me to actually see the IR LEDs is through some sort of CCD bearing device, like my cameraphone. It shines quite brightly at 2 volts, and is shown here being stepped through PWM from 0 to 5 volts and back down again.

The triode on the other hand takes power and ground to pins 1 and 3, and pin 2 creates a bridge to ground with variable resistance given the level of IR detected. I attached that to a green LED, so the result of the IR detection could be seen.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• arduino
• ir
• sensor
• leds

[cristian3131]

Nice work, I also have a ball mouse. I can do that too I guess. But let me ask you something : how far can the receiver communicate with the emmiter ? I need at least 1 metter. I want to make a device to sounds an alarm when someone passes through the door :)

[daneiellacey]

this is what i have been trying to do, with little luck, i want to make a midi comtroller that shines IR light up and detects the amount of reflected light back, so that moving your hand nearer will cause an increasing value.