IR Beam Break sensor

[grcshekar]

I am a college student doing hobby project, I need to design an IR bream break detector which would work with IR Transmitter and IR Receiver to detect beam break between transmitter and receiver in 1 meter range. Can you please suggest components and circuits for same, preferably requiring 5V. The functionality should not get affected in ambient lighting as well. I will be connecting this to Arduino MC

 

[John Canon]

What are your initial ideas?

 

[hevans1944]

The functionality should not get affected in ambient lighting as well.

Ambient light is always something to consider when designing any photo-electric beam-sensing circuit. The first approach to solving this problem is to collimate (make parallel) the beam from source to sensor and then use an aperture, such as a length of opaque tubing at both the source and sensor ends of the beam, to limit the amount of ambient light entering at the sensor end. Even that may not be enough if a bright ambient source (such as the sun) can illuminate the sensor. You might also want to consider using an infrared spectral filter at both ends of the beam. The sensor must also have sufficient dynamic range that it does not saturate under any ambient lighting conditions. For the most efficient beam-break detection system, modulate the source and then synchronously demodulate the signal at the sensor.

There are available infrared transmitter/receiver pairs that use pulse modulation. These are typically used with infrared remote controls and may be an over-engineered solution to your problem. The advantage is they are inexpensive and are easily interfaced to an Arduino.

 

[Bluejets]

Ultra sonic sensor have some obvious advantages over IR, if indeed the scope of the project allows.

 

[grcshekar]

Ambient light is always something to consider when designing any photo-electric beam-sensing circuit. The first approach to solving this problem is to collimate (make parallel) the beam from source to sensor and then use an aperture, such as a length of opaque tubing at both the source and sensor ends of the beam, to limit the amount of ambient light entering at the sensor end. Even that may not be enough if a bright ambient source (such as the sun) can illuminate the sensor. You might also want to consider using an infrared spectral filter at both ends of the beam. The sensor must also have sufficient dynamic range that it does not saturate under any ambient lighting conditions. For the most efficient beam-break detection system, modulate the source and then synchronously demodulate the signal at the sensor.

There are available infrared transmitter/receiver pairs that use pulse modulation. These are typically used with infrared remote controls and may be an over-engineered solution to your problem. The advantage is they are inexpensive and are easily interfaced to an Arduino.

There are available infrared transmitter/receiver pairs
Can you suggest a few

 

[Bluejets]

Ebay, Amazon, Aliexpress, Digikey.....

 

[Martaine2005]

Is this homework?
Post #2 asked for your ideas so far. What research have you done?

starting with “I’m a college student”. “I need to design”. And then ask for a parts list and circuit.
Show us what you have done so far.


Martin