Hi everyone,
Im tasked with using a 2 button remote as (ON=Red, Hold ON=Amber & Off=Off)
Hooked up to a RaspPi4
Using Ring LED 8 Bit WS2812 RGB connected to the RaspPi4
Q1: What IR module should I use if I need the widest angle possible?
Q2: Can the 2 button IR SKU: FIT0389 if I need the ON button for 2 signals as ON and ON+Hold?
Q3: The special ask now is by using no wires with no line of sight, I need to have the same function of colors from the Above Ring LED to also happen on this (1M RGB LED Strip - WS2812B) at the same time. The distance between the Raspi Ring light above and this would be 50 feet give or take. What would the best way I should tackle this request without making a complicated project out of it but it has to always be guaranteed to work?
Im just brain storming here.
Been a long time since i played with IR. That unit seems to send 2 codes “on” and “off” without knowing more, I am not sure if you could detect on and hold via repeated “on” codes getting sent.
It could be simpler to work out the needed minimum angle and see what covers that. Im sure if you built your own there will be lots of options, but for ready made you could be more restricted. A quick search and I can see IR LEDs upto 150 Deg. Note this is not a transmitter I was looking at, just the led that would be used by the transmitter. Of course you would need to use a matching transmitter receiver as IR LEDs can have different wave lengths; also data encoding would need to match.
Driving the Color LEDs would just be as per any other WS2812b project (mostly)
the remote display. I would expect a wireless transmitter from the Pi to a remote display is what you are after.
I just run a quick point to point Lora test inside my house from one end to the other. About 5 plaster walls and a bathroom, so mirror, tiles etc to get in the way. Seemed no issue over 75 feet (23 meters) using a 1/2 wave antenna 915MHz LoRa Antenna RP-SMA - 1/2 Wave 2dBi
So you could connect a lora radio to the Pi and one to the remote display controller to tell it what to show.
Please note, there can be other options to do this and as always testing in your environment may be needed. e.g. radio inside a house v going from inside a steel shed to the house are very different things.
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Hey @ERZ292038USA, welcome to the forums!
Sounds like you have a fun project on your hands. let’s break down those questions for you.
Q1: Most IR receiver modules quote around 45° of angle although this seems to change depending on your distance from the receiver. The Vishay TSOP38438 IR Receiver Module, 38kHz seems like a decent option that would work with the IR Remote Controller (2-Key) you mentioned.
This figure from the datasheet should give you a better idea of the signal range.
From my understanding of the datasheet a distance value of 1.0 will be the maximum transmission distance of 45 meters so at 50 feet (approx 15 meters) you should get a fair bit more than 45° of detection angle.
Q2: That particular IR controller can’t be set up to output two different signals for a press and a press and hold of the ON button. If you are planning on using this with a Raspberry Pi 4 I would consider having the Pi record the time it detects and stops detecting the IR signal so you can set different behaviours based on signal lengths over or under a value of something like 1 second.
Q3: The short answer is that IR around the 38 kHz range of that remote won’t really work without line of sight. LoRa is fantastic and it is certainly worth a look into for this kind of project. For this kind of range you could also get away with a WiFi based solution.
Would you be able to tell us more about what specific kind of colours you want to mirror between these LED setups? Are you just wanting to display static colours, one colour per LED on the ring or something else?
Hope this helps!
