Thursday 29 December 2016

Infrared Remote Control Tester

Two things ive been pondering recently - how to test some potentially dicky TV remote controls, and what to do with a number of nice little metal mint tins I have,

well clearly the obvious thing is to build a little IR remote control tester!

I have some salvaged IR receiver modules amongst my junk boxes. It seems from what I can work out that these generally have an open collector output and run nicely on 3-5v, so it should be little more complex than giving it a suitable supply, and connecting a visible light LED to the output pin.

If it will work on 3v or less then a lithium CR2032 coin cell should power it for a good long while at the sort of very intermittent usage it will get, but it would be a very handy gadget to have.

To the workshop!

Well, I eventually found the IR receiver modules, in the box full of LEDs! I picked two out, one of which is a TSOP1738, and since this worked first time I haven't tried the other one.


Thats the best photo your getting, so deal with it! The circuit is so ridiculously simple for something so useful. A final version will need a few more parts to deal with the voltage requirement, sadly it doesnt work at 3v, so a pair of 3v coin cells and something to regulate it down to 5v will be needed. Probably a simple resistor and Zener diode will do. But other than the power supply, there really is nothing more to it than the IR receiver module, an LED and a 1K series resistor!

Ive tested this with all the remote controls I have to hand. Its interesting that some have much faster data rates than others. And as suspected, the remote for an Amazon Fire TV stick isnt IR!

No comments: