I made this little gadget a long time ago, but maybe it had never occured to some of you. When I am about to throw out some piece of consumer gear, I always like to strip it down for the screws and whatever else seems useful. SOmetimes I find the little pc boards with just the headphones jack or maybe a level control to be useful now and then.
But on units that had a remote control, there will be the IR rewmote receiver module mounted on the front panel. It is a little silver cube. It has just three terminals: +5VDC, ground, and output. I have saved a few of them. I mounted one on a small pc board, and added a lovely green LED with a transistor to drive it. I connected the output leg to this.
Now when I want to test a remote control, instead of tearing it open and scoping the IR LED, I just connect my gadget to my 5v bench supply and shine the remote at it. If it is sending, the LED on my tester flashes.
Another test is to shine it at a video camera, but I don't have one of those. And this takes up a lot less room.
But on units that had a remote control, there will be the IR rewmote receiver module mounted on the front panel. It is a little silver cube. It has just three terminals: +5VDC, ground, and output. I have saved a few of them. I mounted one on a small pc board, and added a lovely green LED with a transistor to drive it. I connected the output leg to this.
Now when I want to test a remote control, instead of tearing it open and scoping the IR LED, I just connect my gadget to my 5v bench supply and shine the remote at it. If it is sending, the LED on my tester flashes.
Another test is to shine it at a video camera, but I don't have one of those. And this takes up a lot less room.