High Power IR Remote Control

I was one of the mentors for the Hilo High School First Robotics team 1378 during the 2008 robotics competition.

For the first 15 seconds of the game you are only allowed to control the robot via an IR or ultrasonic interface(there are a few others), with only 4 commands.
We were provided a simple learning receiver that works with most standard IR TV remotes, this could have been redone with different protocols and such, but owing to the short time frame (6 weeks) and lots of other tasks I just decried to amplify a standard remote signal.

The 1W IR LED came from Deal Extreme my favorite place to buy cheap chinese junk:) (and not so much junk). Be away the free shipping takes a few weeks average - but the prices are unbeatable.
You can of course use whatever IR LED(s) you can get your hands on :).

The other semi specialized part is the Lamina Lens part # OP-4LN2-0492 You can buy it from Mouser

The UC37322 can be ordered from Digikey I believe, maybe Mouser too.. Or you can get it as a sample from TI(texas instruments).

	Schematic In GIF Format (click on picture) Notes are also included in schematic for reference. Schematic In PDF Format 300K
	Remote External View on/off switch, four buttons, and red LED indicator on front panel.
	Remote External View 2 1Watt IR LED visible on front, mounted to small aluminum heat sink.
	Remote Front View Showing lens in custom aluminum mounting bracket.
	Remote Internal View 1 4AA battery holder, original remote PCB and the ball of masking tape contains the driver and mosfet on a small PCB. The tape is to protect it from shorting to the switches.
	Remote Internal View 2 with the remote PCB exposed.
	Original Remote PCB View Same as above but closer. you should be able to get an idea of how the switch wires connect from this picture. the common one is the black wire. Also visible is the yellow wire which is the output to the mosfet amplifier board.

Last Updated: 2008-04-06

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