Experimenting with IR comms for multiplayer Arduino game
1,240 views · Published 17 February 2013 · 1:45 · Indexed 3 October 2026
Channel: Jason Hotchkiss · 2013 · Science & Technology
An experiment to try and get two of my SixtyFourPixels LED matrix games talking to each other via IR, to make multiplayer games possible. The game board only has a basic serial programming header so I made an add on board to plug on to it. I just use the serial transmit to modulate a 38KHz pulse train (from a 555 oscillator), so I just take the 1200baud UART output directly. Similarly the receiver is a TSOP4838 module connected directly to the UART input. After reading up a bit more on IR comms I realised this is -not- how IR usually works.. In fact I'm surprised it works at all :o) but it does seem to! Next step is to use proper differential mark/space encoding and try to modulate the 38Khz carrier inside the AVR to do away with the need for the 555 circuit.
