IR Control Kit Hookup Guide

Contributors:

jimblom,

Introduction

Infrared (IR) is a cheap and (as you'll soon discover) easy way to add wireless control to your project. The IR Control Kit gives you everything you need to take control of the extravisible light waves (or are they particles?), so you can remotely control your custom music box or build a controller for your TV or stereo.

In this tutorial we'll show you how to hook up all of the components included with the IR Control Kit, which includes:

SparkFun's custom-made Infrared Remote Control
A CR2025 Coin Cell Battery for the remote.
Two 38kHz demodulating Infrared Receiver Modules
Two 950nm-emitting Infrared LEDs
A handful of 330Ω resistors. You can never have enough current-limiting resistors.

Required Materials

In this tutorial, we'll be using an Arduino to both transmit and interpret received IR data. On top of the components included with the IR Control Kit, you'll also need these to follow along with this tutorial:

An Arduino (or Arduino-compatible board) and a means to program it.
A breadboard is optional but recommended to help with the hardware hookup.
As with the breadboard, jumper wires are optional but the recommended tool to wire between breadboard and Arduino.
The second of the examples uses a common cathode RGB LED to create a fun, IR-controlled RGB LED project. This is optional.
The third example uses a simple momentary push-button to trigger an IR code transmission. Optional again.