Adafruit's "Code Learning" Infrared Receiver Delivers Modulated Signals for Advanced IR Projects

Rather than demodulating itself, this receiver spits out the modulated signal from any IR remote signal — from 20kHz to 60kHz.

Gareth Halfacree
5 months agoSensors / HW101

Adafruit has released an infrared receiver with a difference: it's designed to spit out the modulated signal as-received, for those projects where you need to handle signals a little out of the ordinary.

"For classic 38kHz infrared remote signal reading, we've got a lovely STEMMA IR Receiver," Adafruit explains of its latest launch. "But if you want to read infrared signals from remotes with different carrier signals, especially when you don’t know the frequency, this Adafruit TSMP96000 'Code Learning' Infrared Receiver Breakout has the ability to detect IR signals from 20[kHz] to 60KHz and provide the carrier signal for analysis."

It's a key distinction: many IR receivers work by demodulating the signal on the receiver itself, sending the result to the host microcontroller. That's fine, if the remote you're trying to receive uses a modulation understood by the receiver — but useless if not.

Adafruit's new receiver, by contrast, sends the host microcontroller the still-modulated signal — allowing it to be processed there, rather than in the receiver. The result is the ability to receive a usable signal from almost any infrared remote regardless of modulation — with the trade-off that you're going to need to handle demodulation and decoding yourself.

The receiver comes as a compact breakout board with a STEMMA JST PH 2mm jack at one end and unpopulated pin headers for signal and power. There are also two on-board LEDs, designed to aid development and debugging: a green LED lights when power is applied, and a red LED blinks when the receiver is picking up an infrared signal.

The Adafruit TSMP96000 breakout is now available on the company store, priced at $5.95 before volume discounts.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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