Which I acquired for my birthday.
IR control. Almost like a big bug. You
can hold it pretty much in the palm of
your hand. Cost was about 20 dollars.
They said only fly it indoors, but
Which I acquired for my birthday.
IR control. Almost like a big bug. You
can hold it pretty much in the palm of
your hand. Cost was about 20 dollars.
They said only fly it indoors, but
controlling it is practically impossible,
it's so simple in design.
I decided to try it outside in a BIG field.
I held it in my hand and hit the "up" throttle
on the remote control. I knew the sun would
block the IR signal but I didn't care.
It shot upward like a rocket. (Should a guy
who is almost legally blind be flying a
remote control helicopter?)
I looked up. I couldn't find it. Then I
saw a teeny speck. It was out of the influence
to my remote control, on it's own. I heard it's
teeny motor running. Then the motor stopped.
The speck started getting larger. And then LARGER.
I got underneath and pointed the remote up at it.
No effect. The speck was getting even larger.
Then about 20 feet above the ground, it must have
received my signal. The motor started, it flew
sideways and crashed into the grass on the field.
I picked it up. It was undamaged. Then some guy was
walking a couple of dogs through the field. I decided
I didn't want to cause any further mayhem.
So I went home. Test flights in the house were all
good, except when it almost crashed into the
dog's water dish.
I'm gonna paint GNAT 90.9 on the side.
Bruce, GNAT 90.9 SLUG 88.3
When radio frequencies give way to light frequencies there is the IR (Infra Red Band).
What you said is that it is not a part 15 issue. True?
Surely there are rules governing the power levels and uses for infra red.
By now you know I don't know.
Would someone who knows come forward?
Well, you can buy lasers. Beyond
a certain power level they are illegal
to own. People buy them anyway. I
don't know anything about IR or UV.
I know of a ham who has done infrared
cloud bounce communications with another
guy, and that is actually quite exciting,
I think. He also bounced IR signals off
a building in the Hartford area. Another
guy received them. They were both on
mountains, I think.
The Part 15 tie in I have always wanted was
a laser studio to transmitter link. But
that project was a low low priority. But just
to tell people you are doing that sounds
neat to me.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, GNAT 90.9, SLUG 88.3
To overcome the problem of sunlight affecting IR remote controlled stuff like that helicopter is to use an IR filter to block all of the other wavelengths emitting from the Sun, and only pass the wavelengths of the IR remote control.
To boost the IR emitter by not changing the IR emitter diode, simply use a small convex lens and place in front of the existing emitter to widen the IR beam.
Both techniques will reduce the IR light intensity, but not too badly. The filter attenuates the beam by only fractions and the lens attenuates the beam because the lens widens the beam so that when the helicopter IR detector sees it, it can see it from wider
angles in relation to where it is versus where your at and the position of the IR remote control.
Line of sight...stay in sight of the IR light.
If you really want to boost that IR remote control, simply replace the existing IR emitter with an array of high level IR diodes and current amp amplifying the modulation for the IR diode array. Yea alot like modulating a final RF stage in AM.
IR stuff is fun to play with. Just make sure if you start playing with high level IR emitters, or even visible beam emitters, you got the appropriate eye safety gear on hand. Even a high level IR beam focused can severely damage an eye if a reflection just right were to happen to shoot into your eye.
RFB
Thanks for the IR com info.
This is something I've always
wanted to try.
I remember being completely
inspired by a 1974 Popular
Electronics article about
IR communication. Hmmm.
It may have even been visible
light, I'm not sure. It was
just a neat article, well written,
with simple IR systems, and steps
on how to make them more advanced.
With each step, the comm distance
was lengthened. It also included
info about the optics involved.
Well, maybe someday.
It's funny, most people look at that
helicopter as being just a toy - but guys
like us understand the incredible electronic
and engineering miracles that go into a
little aircraft like that.
Gotta go catch a ride to somewhere else.
Best Wishes,
Bruce, GNAT 90.9, SLUG 88.3
Free Space Optics is what it's called. here is a google search for free space optics.
some commercial some home brew
http://www.google.com/search?q=free+space+optics
http://www.google.com/search?q=home+brew+free+space+optics
I will check them out!
Thanks again,
Bruce, GNAT and SLUG-FM