Ragerin

I have sent you a friend-request, Boltz. Perhaps we can inspire each other. :-) Hope to hear about your ideas.

Thank you for your help! I think I have collected enough courage to try to make something. I've got a friend, who wants to help me with making the "chassis"/clip. He can make them in light metals and hard plastic. I will upload some pictures, during and finishing the project, to show anybody interested how it works out. :-) I have my fingers crossed. Hopefully before Christmas, it will be done and I have a more stable TrackClip.

Hey Boltz. Thank you very much. It was very clarifying. So based on my IR LEDs, which allows for up to 100mA forward current - the calculator website gives me a safe resistance value of 6.25 Ohm (when I input 80mA as you said). So I would for 15mA need another resistor. What do you think? Should I go for 15mA for the LEDs or should I yank them up to 80? Would the higher mA-value allow the TrackIR to better filter out the LEDs in contrast to ie. background lighting? P.S. What do I do about fuses? I don't want to fry my motherboard, because of any newbie soldering. :-) Should I go for a PTC?

Hey geert. Thanks for your reply. Yeah, I saw that "DelanClip", which is in fact another inspiration for me. :-) I hope that I can learn to choose the bits and pieces myself and do the necessary calculations. But thanks any way! Definately a solution.

Hello all. First of all - I am getting very inspired by all the amazing home cockpits in here. I really hope to be able to make something like them, one day. As I want to get started learning, I chose a simple, first project. :smartass: The deal is, I find the TrackClip Pro very fragile and I fear, that some day it will break! And there's just no way, that I could be without it. Heh. So I wanted to create my own TrackClip, from some more sturdy materials (maybe some lightweight metal or something...). But I never did any electronics before, so I would very much like some advice. A (crude) image is attached of my idea. Sorry for using homemade symbols - I have never done anything with circuits before. Also, a link to the data sheet of the IR LED's is below. I am thinking of using a USB-cable for power (just like the original TrackClip Pro). This gives me an output of 5 V. The IR LEDs I've found, have a forward voltage of 1.5V and a forward current of 100mA. They also have something listed as an "Off voltage" for 5V. What does this mean? So now my question is, what do I need to get for a resistor? I tried using this calculator: http://www.hebeiltd.com.cn/?p=zz.led.resistor.calculator But I don't know if I used it right. I put these numbers in: Supply voltage: 5V Voltage drop per LED: 1.5V Desired LED Current: 15mA Number of LEDs: 3 Based on the results, I have been looking at this resistor: ACS5S 39R J TR Resistance: 39 Ohm Rated effect: 5 W Tolerance: +/-5 % Can I use this one? Or do I need another resistor? Link to data sheet of IR LEDs: https://www1.elfa.se/data1/wwwroot/assets/datasheets/efSFH487P_data_de-en.pdf :helpsmilie: I hope somebody can help me, so I can learn how to do this in the future. Also, I apologize for my english, it is not the best. :music_whistling: Sincerely, Ragerin