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Not Flashing

Flashing

Here is a tip I learned in one of my trainings that has turned out to be quite useful.  When using ir flashers, there are typically two types, those that give a blinking visual indication when a signal is emitted, and those that do not.  A lot of poeple, myself included, have always used the flashing type because you can easily tell if an emitter has gone bad.  However, these blinking emitters have some disadvantages.  First, they are more expensive.  Second, due to the extra power needed to flash the light they draw more current and typically have a shorter lifespan.  Finally, if in a dark room, the blinking gets annoying.  So here is an easy way to tell if a non blinking emittter is still working when debugging problems.  Use your phone’s camera (or any digital camera) to view the flash.  Although your eye can not see it, the digital camera will be able to.  You don’t need to actually take a picture, just point it at the camera lens and you will see if it flashes or not.  In the pictures above (I know they’re not great, but hey, they were taken with my camera phone), I used a remote to demostrate my point but the same applies to emitters.  In the first image, a button is not pressed, the second it is.  You will see a slight differene in the color of the emitter.  When doing this for real it is much more noticable since the emitter actually flashes.  This tip has certainly helped me, hopefully you’ll gain some benefit from it too.