3 LED TV-B-Gone

[paulfos]

Hello,
I just received and made the TV-B-Gone kit today.
One problem, the right blue LED does not look like it is working when viewed through my isight camera. The other 3 LEDs work fine.
Is this a major issue? I have used the TV-B-Gone to turn on and off the 4 TV's in my house with no problem. Is is possible that the LED is defective, or broken? I am pretty sure i assembled the kit correctly and im positive i did not put the LED in backwards.

If my TV-B-Gone kit only has 3 functioning LEDs, will it work with less TVs? or will it have a shorter range? or...?

and one last question, do any of you know of a good plastic enclosure for it? I just want a small case that i can put afew holes in for the button and LEDs. Just something small and simple for now.

Thank you very much for the help!

[bl4h]

It should still work. Mine has all 4 IR LEDs working. I bet you probably soldered it wrong or something. Have you checked it with a multimeter to see if you put it in right?

[adafruit]

Hello,
I just received and made the TV-B-Gone kit today.
One problem, the right blue LED does not look like it is working when viewed through my isight camera. The other 3 LEDs work fine.
Is this a major issue? I have used the TV-B-Gone to turn on and off the 4 TV's in my house with no problem. Is is possible that the LED is defective, or broken? I am pretty sure i assembled the kit correctly and im positive i did not put the LED in backwards.
!

triple check: the matching transistor, and resistor are soldered in well as they will affect the LED

[paulfos]

Thank you very much the both of you!

It should still work. Mine has all 4 IR LEDs working. I bet you probably soldered it wrong or something. Have you checked it with a multimeter to see if you put it in right?

yea, i may have . With the multimeter where should i put the contacts and what should i be looking for?
(sorry, im very new to this )

triple check: the matching transistor, and resistor are soldered in well as they will affect the LED

Both are soldered in well, already checked that.

I just looked very closely at the LEDs and they are all in the correct way. There is a "break"/"gap" in the metal that runs through the blue/white "lens" of the LED. The "gap" is on an angle and all are pointing the same way, which confirms that they are all in the correct way. (yes my terminology is very wrong, stop cringing )

The solder points for the LED, and matching transistor & resistor all look great.
Could the circuitboard or LED possibly be faulty? Like I said, this really isn't my thing and am trying to learn. Please help

[adafruit]

you could try swapping two of the LEDs, that way you'd know if its the LED or transistor

[Franklin97355]

paulfos, while you are checking make sure the LED is in the correct way, they don't work if inserted backwards and it's easy to do. (putting them in backwards)

[paulfos]

Thanks for your replies!

It seems the problem is with the transistor.
ladyada, is it possible to get a replacement from you?

Before i go looking into getting it replaced, i would first REALLY like to know what function it does. Does only having 1 blue LED functioning mean that the device has limited functionality? or, will the range of it simply be shorter? or?

Thank you very much.

[lou]

The transistor switches power to the LED.

Functionality should be unaffected. Range will be reduced.

The two types of IR LED (blue and clear) have different radiation patterns. The one that the blue one serves will operate, but at half power. The pattern that the clear LED serves will be unaffected, but the patterns overlap, so the narrower one (which gets contributions from all four LEDs) will be affected minimally (reduced by less than half).

[adafruit]

[quote="paulfos"]Thanks for your replies!

It seems the problem is with the transistor.
ladyada, is it possible to get a replacement from you?
/quote]

if you bought a kit with a bad part you can get a replacement from support@adafruit
however, the kit works just fine with 3 LEDs, just slightly less range