Need help with infrared flashlight, please take a look

[protocol217]

I bought a infrared flashlight ( ICO-P is marked ) with 5 wire jack, but i don't know how to get it to work, the man that i bought it from says it needs 4-5 volts to work, but he don't know how to wire it. I did disassemble it and found a board inside, three wires from the board are going to jack, the white wire from the jack is screwed to the case and the fifth jack pin is empty. Here are some pictures of it.
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i think that this ir flashlight was on some vehicle, now i want to get it to work for my camera.
Please help me to get this thing working, thanks in advance.

 

[Teufelwolf]

It is made by this company
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Seems to be a very old model. It is a IR light for a police car camera system. Nice find if you can get it working.

 

[protocol217]

thanks for the quick reply, i hope i can get it to work.

 

[rumpfy]

As far as I can judge:
#704 RED Positive supply
#701 NEGATIVE supply
#703 GREEN some kind of pulse output
#705 ORANGE IR LED drive anode side(current flows out of this pin to the LED)
#706 BLACK IR LED drive cathode side (current flows into this pin from the LED)
#702 not used but connected to the base of the BFY64
T701, T702 probably pnp small signal types.
T703 probably npn small signal type
T704 (I thinkT704) possibly the same as T703
BFY64 PNP power type.
I was able to construct a circuit diagram.
Got a feeling the supply voltage required is greater than 4.5 volt. Check with ICO as teufel says to get the pin connections to the jack.
circuit seems to be a pulsed LED driver. The white wire is a grounding wire to earth the case.
When you get it going, teufel will check it out for you on his new scope!
hope this helps.

 

[protocol217]

Thanks for the reply rumpfy.
I tried it on 5 v dc:
#704 RED Positive supply
#701 NEGATIVE supply
it didn't work, then i tried with 12 v dc and again nothing, i watched it with a camera so that i can see the infrared beam.

I am not an expert with electronics i am a beginner, so can you please suggest what you would do to get it work.
And i have two of them one is intact so if the first one die a can always try another one.

 

[rumpfy]

see if you can get some operators manual from the manufacturer as per post #2. This should tell you what voltage is specified and what connections are for the jack.
Find out what the led type number is.
You will need some test instruments. Do you have a volt/ohm meter; if not you may have to get some local help.

 

[protocol217]

OK i sent an email to ICOP and explained my situation and asked for user manual or some kind of explanation for the 5 pin jack and voltage. now waiting for response.
as for a volt/ohm meter i have this one on the picture: will it work for this?

 

[rumpfy]

beautiful.
just what the doctor ordered!

 

[rumpfy]

Just a bit more on the meter.
Looks very interesting; I've never seen one like this with 20,000 ohm per volt and no selector switch.
Firstly, I guess the meter has 2 battery sets; one set is a single or double 1.5 volt , and the other is a 9 volt. You might like to check this.
To measure ohms (or continuity), or the infra red diode, connect one test lead to the ohms connector at the bottom LHS. The other lead goes to ohm x 1. When you short the test leads together, the meter will move to the right side of the meter scale. Set it on 0 ohms by adjusting the 'reg' control. the top scale will read ohms. One of the test leads will be negative with respect to the other. For testing a diode, the negative lead connects to the cathode of the diode. This is, I believe, the black lead on term #706. Anyway, one way you get conduction, the other way you get no conduction. It is possible that the ohm-meter, by its design, doesnt have sufficient internal voltage from the battery to get any conduction in the diode. So, if you use the ohm x 10,000, you should be able to get conduction. To use ohm x 10,000 transfer the test lead from the bottom LHS to the V pf ohm x 10,000 terminal, and transfer the top lead from ohms x 1 to the Hz, pF x 1 ohms x 10,000 terminal. Check the LED unit again. If you get conduction this time, the needle will swing pretty much all the way over to the RHS.
Note on the ohm scale, that 50 (45?) ohms is at the centre of the scale. Assuming the voltage source for the ohmmeter function is 3 volt, the the full scale current when setting the ohm reading with 'reg', will be 60 milliamp. For checking diodes in general, such a high current may damage a diode such as a red or green led. For checking such diodes, use the ohm x 10 scale, by moving one test lead from the ohm x 1, to the ohm x 10 terminal. This will place a 500 ohm resistor in the ohms circuit and the test current will be only 6 milliamp.
The 'LOW ohm connection terminals are interesting too. It is conceivable that there is a 5 ohm resistor as part of the current shunt which is used for the low ohms range. This would be effectively a 'ohms divided by 10' scale.
The good old analog meter is VERY useful for measuring the conduction characteristics of diodes generally. To do this needs a linear voltage scale starting with zero at the full scale position (just like the ohms range) and the ohm-meter battery voltage at the rest position of the pointer needle. Connect a diode to the test leads, and if say the meter needle stops at half scale, you can say the the diode forward voltage is 1.5 volt (half the battery voltage) and the diode current is 30 mAmp (half the full scale ohms test current). Then change the ohm range to ohms x 10, and check the forward voltage and current. This type of test will tell you about the conduction characteristics of the diode you are examining.

 

[dr pepper]

Maybe the green wire is on/off.
That board looks as though it might generate a toneburst, limting its use for photography.
A constant current circuit for the emitter might be a better idea.

 

[protocol217]

i will do what rumpfy said and post the results.

 

[protocol217]

OK, so i was away a while but now a am back.
The meter does not have 2 battery sets it only have one large 3 volt battery and on the side it have 220 volt connector. i tried to short the test leads together when set to ohms and then meter goes to another side of the scale but when i try to adjust the 'reg' control nothing happens so i think its not working (the meter is very old, but the battery is new ). i will buy a new digital one and try then.
and i opened the infrared diode and it has no standard diode inside. i think it is a ir laser because when i type in google pictures infrared lasers i get pictures of what i have here. inside that black cylinder i found an black ir filter behind that a round metal washers with a milometer hole in the middle, and behind that there is a laser part ( black two milometer square with two dots above it ) that glows infrared i think. so i am thinking can i use an infrared laser board for this ir diode-laser that i have? if not then i need to find a way to make it work with this original board. and i didn't get an answer to the mail that i sent to icop.
So is there any new idea on how to get this to work.

 

[rumpfy]

1. Not surprised at your not getting anything from your letter to icop.
2. Dr pepper's comments may be close to the mark. There does appear to be a constant current source in the icop pcb and maybe there is some kind of synchronisation from the camera part to switch the laser on when needed.
3. your meter, if it has only a single 3 volt supply, suggests to me that maybe an external supply is needed for the high ohms (ohm x 10000) and probably another kind of supply for the low ohms range. Dont fret about this yet; just concentrate on using your ohm/volt meter on the ohm x1, ohm x10, ohm x100 and ohm x 1000 ranges. the other test lead for ohms uses the ohm connection point.
4. got a bit confused by all the stuff about whats in the laser part. Your photos of the pcb and the ohm meter were great, so repeat that trick with whats in the laser bit.
5. buying a new digital meter is a good idea and probably will enable you to fix the analog meter.
AND; a note for Dr Pepper
Did you trace out the circuit board?

 

[dr pepper]

Nope, I'd made an imaginative assumption that the to5 can was part of a constant current circuit, and the 3 to128's were a oscillator and buffer circuit.
Coupled with another assumption that the device transmits either a constant tone so that any shift in freq caused by doppler effect can be detected or maybe a 'chirp'.
At the age of the device I'm wondering if the emmiter is 'electronic' or maybe just incandescent, ie a bulb with a ir filter, the presence of the latter being necessary with a lamp as the source.
If the green wire isnt a on/off it might be a 'lamp good' signal.
Can you post us some images of the gubbins you mentioned inside the emmitter, being into photography your pictures are very good.
I have some 10mm infra red power leds, they'd probably work well in that housing and produce more light for less power.

 

[protocol217]

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on the first picture where is the main part i noised that those 2 little wires are cut, i think they should be whole i will look at the other one that i didn't experiment with.
if this one is broken i think its because i tried it with 12 volts of dc but no worries i have another one.

 

[JimB]

if this one is broken i think its because i tried it with 12 volts of dc

If you connected the "main part" directly to a 12v supply by the red and blue wires, you destroyed it.
The two little wires are not just "cut", more like vapourised.

Are there any numbers or letters on the "main part" ?
I would expect that it is some standard part from a semiconductor manufacturer.

JimB

 

[protocol217]

yes i connected it directly to 12 volts, but i have another one that is intact, and there are no numbers or letters on the main part.

 

[protocol217]

i took the yellow part out of the plastic and find out that it has 3 leads and 2 are connected - orange and blue wires
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and i found this: https://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2012/04/opto-diode-od-250-infrared-emitter.html
it looks like mine only mine has that 2-3 millimeter black square.
the orange wire is connected to that dot above the squire that has those little cut - "vaporized" wires and the blue wire is connected to the third pin - lead of the diode.
the second dot above the squire is not connected, that's the shortest pin - lead of the diode.
EDIT* from https://optodiode.com
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that looks like mine but it has 3 dots and more than 3 pins.

 

[dr pepper]

I was incorrect with my thinking it was incandescent, it certainly looks like a led, or possibly a laser diode, from the pic it looks more like a detector but thats a guess.
I like the picture with the lens over the cam.
When you say you have 2 of these, are they both emmiters or are they a pair as in 1 emmitter and 1 receiver?, could be.
You might get a better image if you point a infra red remote control at the package instead of a white led torch.
Take a meter (your new one) put it on diode test and put it accross the device's pins, what is the voltage.
If your meter runs off a 9v battery put it on resistance and connect it to the diode in a darkend room, 'look' at the diode with a infra red sensitive cam, you might have to try the connections both ways, theres probably enough current from a meter on resistance and voltage if its powered by a 9v battery to light the diode, only very dimly.
You can probably connect this to 12v through a resistor, but we need to know the forward voltage.

 

[protocol217]

OK, i got my new meter below is the pictures of: another diode - the working one and my new meter.
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now on the meter i got 3 holes where should i put the two testing leads and for testing the diode how should i put the main regulation on the meter.
meter uses a 9 v battery.