Hi there !

Yes you are right , this might not be the best place to pose the question that keeps me awake all night.
Yes I searched the forum , but
No, I do not have any clue if there is a similar post to this - at least I did not find one.
One last point before I start to ask my question: I am from Austria, so please excuse my english.

So , i bought an IR-Emitter , actually the one that is mentioned in the title to give my webcam based
surveillance cam some more light when it's really dark outside.
Currently , with the help of an old friend I put a 12V/ 1,5A power adapter with two parallel 220 Ohm resistors
in a serial circuit.

But the light I get is like only 5-10cm maximum. I read that people wrote about that Emitter ranges up to 5-6
meters - which is already too far for me. But 2-3 Meters should work I guess.
But it doesn't work. Recently I started to believe that I might be a moron , having bought
that kind of "IR torch" that will never be able to reach the desired range .
With my current setting I get a really strong glow if my cam films into the LED lights , but when I point the
IR LEDs somehere I would have to get really really close.

My question is now the following: Is my IR spot some cheap crap - or am I an idiot , not beeing able to
put things together in the way it was meant to be ?

The specs of my IR-Emitter can be found in the PDF File.
Why I dont write them here ? Because I do not know which one of them is important , and which not.

Many thanks for spending your time , reading my problem online.

Thanks for any help ,

greetings from Vienna

 

Are you using 8 volts

 

Are you using 8 volts

No , as I wrote above , I use 12 Volts. But I tried with 5 Volts also - and that only caused a super slight shimmer in the LED lights ,
and nothing more.

 

It said no more then 8 volts and a 220 Ohm would be to high there 5 in series of 3 sets of 5
5 volt wouldn't work to low. I would say 7.5 volts would light them as brite as they get.

But the datasheet not that clear.

I would use a variable supply and start at 5 volts and ramp up and see but i think you'll hit the honey spot at 7.5 volts
and no resistor

 

I would have thought it will be ok. But, is your web cam IR capable? Some have a filter in them so they do not respond to IR.

 

12V and 110 ohm in series ( two 220 ohm parallel ) should be ok.
Can you measure the total forward voltage of the leds with 110 ohm series resistor.
The series resistor can be then calculated R= ( 12 - Vf) / 0.06 ohms.
0.06 is the nominal current ( 60 mA)

 

Whats the sensitivity of the webcam ? You may have to
open it up to get the CCD chip part number.

Regards, Dana.

 

The universal method for hundredfolding or some cases thousandfolding the distance is PLL.
One extremely handy IC containing as strobe generator as three outstanding algorithms for PLL detection is LM567, allowing to get out by one movement 1) identification that signal of chosen frequency do exist or not 2) get out the AM out of envelope 3) get out the FM from envelope.