BE CAREFUL!

just sharing a bit. a while back Senkat and myself were communicating about safety concerns and he mentioned 2 me about an IR detector card from Ratshak, had one myself 4 ages BUT check this out! last week i took apart a dvd burner for the diode...musta missed the red one but got the IR diode out and powered up off the board from a cheapo RED pointer. long/short :IRdetector card showed NO indicaction of IR energy at all, but with Night Vision i was able to verify my new IR laser works! seems OKfor some burnin n poppin, just no inferno. anybody know could a different board giv a boost in performance? or why the card gave no indication? i've used it years to ck tv remotes.

tatman said:

just sharing a bit. a while back Senkat and myself were communicating about safety concerns and he mentioned 2 me about an IR detector card from Ratshak, had one myself 4 ages BUT check this out! last week i took apart a dvd burner for the diode...musta missed the red one but got the IR diode out and powered up off the board from a cheapo RED pointer. long/short :IRdetector card showed NO indicaction of IR energy at all, but with Night Vision i was able to verify my new IR laser works! seems OKfor some burnin n poppin, just no inferno. anybody know could a different board giv a boost in performance? or why the card gave no indication? i've used it years to ck tv remotes.

Click to expand...

OH CRAP....that is baaaaad news Maybe it only works for certain wavelengths ? That has GOT to be the answer....dang......okay - so, what would flouresce for 708nm IR ? I think that is the diode in cd-dvd burners....708nm...gotta put on my thinking cap for this one....

glad i thought to share. i tell ya, it freaks me when my control, what i'm using to ck or prove something,turns out unreliable/faulty. puts doubts n fears thru my whole program.

Well, you can FORGET about getting the Rat-Shack morons to assist....at least in the stores around here.

(slightly off topic, bear with me)

I went in to the closest Radio Shack store near my house...asked them if they had the new "DragonFly" yet. I was, of course referring to the radio shack exclusive item, a new toy robot from Wow-Wee Robotics, the "Dragon Fly" it is a little R/C flying dragon fly...it flaps its' wings, etc...very cool looking in the videos...
The guy repies back, "Is that some kinda new wiring harness or something ?"

Okay....my wife said I was a jerk - possibly true, but that annoyed the pi$$ outta me...if you work somewhere, should you not at least know what in the world kinds of product you carry ? I have lost my patience with Radio Shack over the past few months - they NEVER seem to have anything I want anymore...(picky, picky !) Okay, sorry all - had to get that outta my system. I ended up going to another radio shack where they had the little toy...man, that thing is hard to fly - but FUN ! :

they used to answer the phone "We have answers." not any more. and don't that Dragonfly look cute? i want one...i have only seen it in Popular Mechanics tho.

I'll try to get a movie of it in action - hard as hell to control - but FUN ! Just gotta have ZERO wind conditions....