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Subject: 
Has anyone figured out how to improve the NXT light sensor?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics.nxt
Date: 
Sat, 16 Dec 2006 22:59:17 GMT
Reply-To: 
Geoffrey Hyde <GDOTHYDE@BIGPONDDOTNETnomorespamDOTAU>
Viewed: 
15297 times
  
I'm looking for ways to build this sensor into a studless beam project of
mine, and I was wondering, given it's large size and the comparative
brightness of the LED used to light it, how can I use it to detect if an
object is blocking a path?

Problems I can see right away:

1.  The sensor is designed in such a way that the LED cannot be used to
detect objects close to it.  IE some of the LED's lightsource will always
reflect back onto it.  It can, however, be used to detect changes in
lightsource intensity.

2.  I was wondering if the light could be piped uisng some sort of
fiber-optic cable method - this presumably would mean shielding the light
LED in some kind of sheath which would considerably narrow it.  I've no idea
how hot the LED can get during operation, so presumably the sheath would
have to be able to withstand a moderate temperature rise without melting or
smoking.

3.  If #2 above is possible, how difficult would it be to get an accurate
reading of on/off on the receiving side of the pipe from the LED?

I also would like to know if there are there any 3rd party light sensors out
there that use a setup where a light is transmitted at one part of the
sensor unit, and which can be received at a different sensor unit attached
to the same cable?  It probably would be as simple as having a light unit in
one box, which is in turn cabled to the sensing unit in the second box via a
length of cable, and this feeds back to/is powered from the NXT unit.


Cheers ...

Geoffrey Hyde



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Has anyone figured out how to improve the NXT light sensor?
 
Hello Geoffrey, (...) First, don't worry about heat - such leds are really cool (thermically wise) devices! This one dissipates only about 20 mW... Your fiber optic cable idea is interesting... and it works well! I used the fiber optic cable (...) (18 years ago, 17-Dec-06, to lugnet.robotics.nxt)

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