IR Battle emitter specs

[MichaelC]

Hi all,

Does anyone know the specs for the IR emitter bulb ? I know it has to be 940nm, but what about the forward voltage (i.e. how powerful I guess ?) and the actual voltage specs ? Also, does it matter if it is clear vs pale blue in colour ?

I will be ordering from Digikey so if anyone has the specific link would be great !

MikeC.

[971wright]

Hi they are 5 volt 940nm ,most electronic stores sell them .these are the ones I use http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/940nm-infrare ... iode-yh70m

regards pete

[MichaelC]

Thanks Pete. You use this with the Tamiya system right?

[Tankbear]

I don't think voltage is important. Higher the output the better.

But more important is the output pattern you need a narrow beam not a wide beam.

I use clear 890nm IR myself and no problems hitting other tanks of various brand receiver.

Ian.

[MichaelC]

I always thought it has to be 940nm. Now I am even more confused.

Hopefully these will work better than what I have now......

https://www.digikey.ca/product-search/e ... 1071-ND%09

[Tankbear]

Most people regard 940nm to be correct as it's said many times on forums and in clubs, but since tamiya don't publish the specification I have never seen proof it is correct.

Plus an emitter stated at 940nm will be its peak and produce IR + or - 50nm. And same with the receivers so there is large bandwidth.

When I get to work I dig out the item numbers of the IR I sell to help.

Ian

[Tankbear]

These are the IR emitters I use

Vishay TSAL6100 (940nm)
Vishay TSHF5210 (890nm)

[wibblywobbly]

In all honesty as long as the IR emitter is any of the ones that are used by IR tankers around the globe they will work ok. I have seen many discussions about 'my led shoots further than yours', but haven't yet seen anyone actually use that range in a battle. 30m is achievable by all of the known led's, and boards, and Clark, Tankbear, Elmod and Tamiya all supply different ones. Hobbyists then go and fit whatever led they prefer (eg a 5mm bulb is sometimes easier to fit than a 3mm one etc). All of the led's work with all of the boards. I use the YH70M for no other reason than I always have, and because I have a large Maplins store 2 miles away with easy parking (and a £60 fine if you forget what the time is and drive down the bus lane to get in there... ).

There is a theory that the blue ones are higher power but shorter range, but even those will go 30m.

Like Ian says, its the beam spread that is important, and its also important to mount the led in a tube with the tip of the bulb 9mm back from the end, as this reduces it. The Tamiya apples are the only ones I know that effectively block stray and bounced shots of walls etc, and have that 45 degree defence, but many are heppy to forego a £90 apple in favour of custom install sensors that cost less than 1/10 of that.

The worst battle system I ever came across was the original (now redesigned) SLU, it only had a range of about 15-20m on a good day, no matter what IR led I installed, but would take a hit from the other side of town...

Tamiya change their IR system every now and then which causes headaches for aftermarket board manufacturers, but all of the aftermarket boards work with each other flawlessly.

And just for info, in case anyone wondered. The bulb emits a beam. The contents of the beam are supplied by the IR driver on the board. Although it looks like a brief flash when viewed through a camera, it's actually a 38mhz frequency signal. The signal contains invisible binary code, milliseconds of flashes that are zero's and '1's. The battle systems are designed to detect that signal and respond with a 'hit' process. It's why you can't just point any old IR beam at a tank and shoot at it, and why it isn't affected by daylight (which is why sensors are black - that's an IR light filter). Those boards that have a test mode, disable the on board signal filters and allow a tv remote to be used.