IR emitter bud resistance/splicing

Hi peeps,

I have a URC MX homepro 500 av control kit I am setting up, it has four IR outputs and four ir emitter buds, but I need another two. As it happens I also have an old ir extender kit with similar buds, I was thinking these would just be diodes I could wire in parallel with the orignals, but after stripping them back they seem open circuit? Do they work in a different way do you think? Or maybe one has become open circuit due to being tangled in the draw for some months...?

Cheer,

Steve

 

[John-Del]

On Saturday, August 5, 2017 at 3:33:13 AM UTC-4, lmm...@gmail.com wrote:

Hi peeps,

I have a URC MX homepro 500 av control kit I am setting up, it has four IR outputs and four ir emitter buds, but I need another two. As it happens I also have an old ir extender kit with similar buds, I was thinking these would just be diodes I could wire in parallel with the orignals, but after stripping them back they seem open circuit? Do they work in a different way do you think? Or maybe one has become open circuit due to being tangled in the draw for some months...?

Cheer,

Steve

If they're two wire, they should be diodes. But I've seen some IR remote transmitters that used two or more LEDs in series which would put the diode voltage drop higher than your meter would likely output to get conduction/diode indication.

You can try watching the output of the suspect buds through a cell phone camera. Many cell phone cameras will show the IR as visible light if they're working (pretest first on a known good IR source). Using a low voltage adjustable source, add some voltage across a resistor and watch the buds through the camera to see if they output light. Switch polarity and check again..

If they are multiple diode buds and the Homepro kit you have uses single diodes, they won't work together.

 

Thanks for this, they certainly don't react as diodes. But after some investigation, I have found they are wired as pairs and can be made to work but it's taking a lot of fiddling.

Also iPhone and iPads don't show ir:-(

Oh well, bodge away I shall.

Steve