Nice project, keep us updated!
I thought about the exact same thing a while ago, I am looking forward for more information.
But perhaps a p60 host is not perfect in terms of throw, what about a zoom to throw torch? Sk68 or so…
Okay. I’ll bite. What’s your intended use-case for this? IIRC, the original TBG-type devices were pranks that would toggle a nearby TV or bank of TVs (say, at a sports bar or a electronics store). With a high-powered IR LED and proper optics, you’re extending the range to perhaps 1000 feet. What’s the goal? To drive down random streets on Superbowl Sunday turning off people’s TVs from afar? Or perhaps driving down those streets during the day turning TVs on while the owners are at work? Or perhaps your neighbor has a rear projection TV or projector with a $150-$300 metal halide bulb that you wish to damage by toggling power on-and-off all day while the owner is work?
Seems there are lots of malicious (and, in that last example, arguably criminal) uses for such a device. I’m having difficulty envisioning a non-malicious use. Please enlighten me…
The goal is to use this for the exact same purpose as the original TV-B-Gone - mindless pranks. I don’t really have any specific justification for building the thing in a flashlight form factor, but here’s basically what I had in mind:
- increasing IR intensity (focus and power) increases my chances of getting a usable IR signal through an outdoor window - efficient household windows reflect most of the IR hitting them in order to prevent heat loss. This allows pranking from outdoors.
- Lots of IR power also means I should be able to fill a room with IR light - ideally I’d be able to set the thing on a table at a sports bar, pointed pretty much anywhere in the room, and get enough bounce/scatter for it to work on any TV in the room. Currently I have to hold and point my handheld gadget at the TV I want to turn off, which increases my chances of getting caught.
- If I do get caught, “dude, it’s a flashlight. I carry one with me all the time.”
- Now that I’ve ordered parts, I can say this thing will cost 1/2 the price that the handheld gadget did and take a lot less time to put together.
Sure, it can probably be used for all sorts of terrible purposes, like burning out a HID projector lamp as you mentioned. But I won’t be doing that - I’ll be using this for mindless pranks mostly, and maybe getting even with an electronics or department store if they piss me off.
Wish I thought of that. A twist-to-zoom form factor with a few indexing marks made into it would be pretty nice. Maybe next time… I’ll see how the P60 works out for now.
Everything I come up with will be posted here, if others want to take it and mess with it - try different form factors etc, excellent - I’m all for others taking my crappy stuff and making it better 
I have no idea how long DealExtreme’s free shipping takes to Canada, but updates to follow then.
On a completely unrelated topic, I’ve also ordered bits to build a XM-L flashlight in one of the same WF-501B bodies. I’ve decided to mod the driver (same AVR driver) with a 3-axis accelerometer, and have it work in such a way that you simply rotate the light when you’re holding it to adjust brightness - no modesetting or anything, and it remembers the last brightness it was at. Don’t know if this has been done already, but it should be a good bit of fun to implement.
That sounds awesome!
Parts are starting to come in.
DX was frustrating to order from - I paid for a bunch of stuff that appeared to be in stock, and surprise surprise, most of it wasn’t in stock. Ended up cancelling most of the order and placing a new one, just to have it happen all over again. I’ve got reflectors, LEDs, drivers and batteries so far. Still waiting on a flashlight body.
The P60 reflector housings are pretty crappy. There’s a ton of play when they’re threaded together, and there’s less space between the reflector and the pill’s LED mounting surface than I hoped, probably 1/2mm of space between the two when they’re fully screwed together. And you can’t unscrew them much because there’s not much thread to begin with. I originally planned on using a PCB for the LED, but I’ll probably have to solder the LED straight to the pill and use a ring of kapton tape to insulate the wires from the pill, and maybe bore out the LED hole in the reflector.
Wish I had access to a lathe, I’d make a new copper pill for the reflector with more depth and better LED heatsinking.
Things are looking good on the driver - the 2800mA driver appears to be an authentic Nanjg 105C. I’m replacing the narrow-SOIC ATTiny13A with a wide-SOIC ATTiny85V, which means bending the leads on the new part into “J-leads” but it fits. Also, a 4x2mm ceramic resonator solders perfectly to the mode stars on the back. Code’s 100% done for it.
I’ve yanked the IR filter out of an old point-n-shoot digital camera, which looks like it’ll do the job for setting up the beam.
Updates to follow as everything else comes in.
So, this is really just to piss off other people who you don't know and don't care about, just to entertain yourself, because you're bored? Is that about the gist of it?
Sounds like fun. Hope someone you do it to, is able to catch you at it.
Love to see pictures. Turning a attiny85 into j leads is a good idea. :bigsmile:
Since everything is free shipping on dx it helps to buy each item in a separate order, annoying for a bunch of items but that way one delayed item doesn’t hold up others.
I actually did the J-lead thing in my day job - there was a shortage of SPI flash a few years back, and we found ourselves unable to buy a 16Mbit flash in a narrow SOIC. We ended up J-leading wide SOICs and hand-soldering them on a couple hundred boards.
Well, the original idea was conceived when a bunch of us were at a local "sports themed" restaurant. The table next to us had a few hooligans who were watching soccer on TV and cheering whenever anything would happen, being obnoxiously loud, being inappropriate with the waitress and generally being inconsiderate jackasses. I thought "man, I wish I had a remote for that TV - I'd turn it off right before something interesting happens." So I did some digging, and found the TV-B-Gone project had been done - and was open source!
I haven't found myself in the same situation since I built my pocket one. But I will admit using it a few times - mostly turning off 'decorative' TVs in storefronts, and a few TVs scattered through department stores with product ads on loop.
edit: But yes, I'll confess that this build is the result of boredom :)
Starting to come together - only part I’m missing right now is teflon wire.
I did order PCBs to mount the IR LED on, but these IR LEDs are quite tall and with the LED sitting on top of the PCB, the P60 reflector wouldn’t screw together. So I decided to solder the LED directly to the pill - I tinned the LED and pill, got the pill hot (the solder blob sticking off from the LED is where I had my iron placed to heat the pill) and placed the LED with tweezers. Result:
The Kapton tape is there for insulation for the wires, I’ll cut a few more pieces and cram them in there. I’ll probably pot everything when I’m done to make sure nothing moves.
Installed the Tiny85V microcontroller in place of the Tiny13A. There was plenty of pad available so I bent the leads straight down instead of J-leading, this makes attaching programming clips easier.
And the ceramic resonator’s added to the bottom, to make the AVR frequency more accurate. This is a 4MHz, 4.5mm resonator with built-in capacitors, the center lead (piece of a resistor lead) going to the ground ring is for those capacitors, and the outer leads attach pretty much perfectly to the stars.
Star #2 will be used for NA/EU mode selection. Leaving this star alone makes the flashlight transmit North American TV turn-off codes, connecting it to the ground ring or the first star makes the flashlight transmit EU codes.
I’m currently proofing the software on my AVR Dragon, once I’m happy with it there I’ll slap the light together and cross my fingers.
Nice work.
Update:
Software’s 100% done/tested on my AVR Dragon. Using an ordinary through-hole IR LED, it’s happily turning off my living room TV.
So I put the flashlight together, and it turns out the LED’s cathode is connected to the heatsink pad on the bottom… probably should have made sure first that it was isolated. End result was a direct driven LED with a 1.3V forward voltage. LED’s blown.
I have PCBs I can mount the LED on, but the LED+PCB combo is too thick for the pill/reflector to thread together. I’m starting to think that P60 wasn’t the ideal form factor for this project.
Use just one layer kapton as insulating.
Or use thermal compound glue this insulate too.
I have often seen that some guys glue the LED with a small amount of thermal glue on a piece of hampackage or with similiar clean smooth surface. After that it is totally covered with non insulating material…
I had a p60 p7 dropin and there was the Pill than kapton than big drop of thermal grease…
Have you spare LEDs or do you have to wait 5 weeks for another package?
I’ve got two spare LEDs. Bought the parts to build 3 of these things, knowing full well I’d mess one up somehow 
I’ll probably do the kapton thing. The LED doesn’t dissipate that much power - it’s getting driven by 2.8A at about 1.3V, and the duty cycle’s only about 20% outputting codes. So less than a watt of dissipation.
Once I get this design tested/perfected, I might try and find a LED star capable of holding an Osram SFH4725S. More expensive but the IR output power is about the same, and it’s in a better package for flashlights than the 5 chinawatt DX special.
I wonder if the arrival/departure screens at air ports work on remotes.
That could cause a lot of problems.
Alright Tyler Durden…don’t give TSA any reason to target us 
Not the intended use of this thing, and hopefully they’ve thought of that.
Most recent TV I turned off was in a department store, playing an “eggies” ad.
Action shot! The video looks purple because I’m using a camera with the IR filter yanked.
I decided to omit the kapton tape and just glue the IR emitter directly to the pill with Arctic Alumina. I used a thick layer and managed to keep the base isolated. I’m cleaning up the AVR code now to share it.