Nick
COMPONENT ABUSE
- LEDs create light when electric current flows through a semiconductor, causing electrons to drop to lower energy levels and release energy as light.
- An LED can act as a photodiode because when it’s heated or illuminated, its semiconductor junction generates a small current
CHALLENGES
- CHALLENGE 1: Coding the second circuit to identify when to begin reading the pulse and when to end.
- By using a preamble and start byte, circuit 2 would recognize 2 bytes of alternating 1s and 0s to activate, followed by a Q in binary to start recording.
- Unfortunately for any sentence that begins with a Q, that Q would be cut off.
- CHALLENGE 2: Thermal response time- flashing binary too quickly did not give LED 2 enough time to heat up and induce an electrical signal
- I slowed down the transmission rate to 1 bit every 0.2 seconds which significantly reduced transmission speeds.
- CHALLENGE 3: Ambient light interference.
- With the lights on transmission accuracy decreased below 80% at only half an inch apart, this distance could be doubled with the lights off.
- CHALLENGE 4: heat and template effects
- The LED is only calibrated for a 70F house (my house) so to use better that Bluetooth you must first change every thermostat in your house to 70F.
- CHALLENGE 5: data transmission speeds
- Don’t even worry about that.
SOLUTION
- I know the above challenges and solutions may make you think this invention may not in fact be “better than Bluetooth” but I promise it is.
Mike
Matthias Koch
blinkingthing
Ted Yapo
Check out: MERL LED Comm (2002)