Also, I’ll sell a bare modded driver for $12 for those who want to mount their own LED.
I’ll clean the AVR software up at some point and release it open source (CC BY-NC-SA license), for those who want to tweak the driver code, add “IR flashlight” modes, etc… or build their own drivers from scratch. The AVR software uses my own code, but uses the raw IR codes from the TV-B-Gone project which is CC BY-SA licensed.
One after the other.
They’re arranged in order from most common (Sony, LG, etc) to least common. It takes close to a minute to bang out the full set of codes, but in my experience most TVs turn off after 5-10 seconds tops.
3 more PCBs built:
I’ve got one of them mounted to a small aluminum plate, being driven with a constant 1A. Top surface of the PCB is probably in the 40-50C range, uncomfortably hot but not “burn you” hot. Going by the 11deg/W junction to case number, 3.4W of drive power and 145C maximum junction temperature, I’d say the PCB’s working fine.
Building drivers tomorrow. If you want a LED/driver pair or a P60, fire me a PM. 3 available.
Update:
Got 3 more drivers built, but my cheap eBay SOIC clip is busted. I’m gonna solder wire straight to the IC leads to accomplish programming in the short term, and buy a proper 3M clip eventually.
Sending these out will be held up by a day.
The first thing to do with those Ebay SOIC clips, before you even use them, is to take it apart (push out the hinge pin) and glue the lower pins in place. I use superglue.
Those clips are made with the pins in two pieces. If you don’t glue the lower half of the pins down, they will ride up into the clip. If you try to push them back down, it bends the upper part of the pin and it will no longer make contact.
Discovered that, I’ve now got a dab of epoxy holding the fingers in place.
Problem with my clip is that the little ‘fingers’ that grab underneath the chip and keep the clip in place have worn down, causing the clip to slip off the chip with the slightest movement. Doesn’t help that I’m clipping onto a wide SOIC, and I suspect this clip was intended for narrow SOICs.
For this use you can even use a breakout board to program the controllers as you are soldering them in anyway…
I use a board from DX on which I have soldered an ISP female socket, it accepts the wider type of soic8 as well…
Just hold them with slight pressure in place with one finger while you burn the firmware in them. Afterwards you can solder them on the driver…
Bad luck with soic clips seems very common…I gave up on them
Yes, those clips are pretty useless for the wide SOICs. I used to try holding the clip in place with one hand, but that doesn’t work very well. I now use a cable with a bunch of HP logic analyzer SMT pin grabbers on it.
I think that this may also do a good job… looks like it is for wide SOICs…
Not a bad idea, unfortunately I need an oscillator attached to a couple of pins in order to burn/verify the fuses, since I’m using a ceramic oscillator.
I wish SOIC test sockets weren’t so expensive, I’d build a board specifically for programming these.
Keeping those pins in place during programming looks painful.
I’ve got a logic analyzer at work with pin grabbers, good idea… I’ll give that a shot.
Actually they are quite cheap. Search Ebay for “SOIC socket”.
I have some of these and they work quite well. I made a PC board that converts the 8-pin AVR pinouts (it also can take a 28 pin DIP ZIF socket for TINY 13/85, etc and MEGA328 and TINY2313’s). the 10 pin ISP header so no special cable was needed (I hate soldering cables).
The .150” wide ones are less than $3. I bought 5 for like $10.
THANK YOU! Just bought 2 of each. I can hack a resonator onto one and plug it straight into the prototyping area on my AVR Dragon for programming.
Won’t be here in time to finish the current batch of TVBG drivers unfortunately. Never got a chance to program them today, too busy at work.
Two drivers programmed now - I ended up soldering bits of resistor lead to the pins, and clipping onto them with logic analyzer clips - I J-leaded the leads fairly tight to the package so I couldn’t clip onto them directly.
I programmed the oscillator fuses on a 3rd one and it dropped dead, I’ve probably got the resonator installed wrong, gonna go debug that now.
I wish the Tiny85 came in a narrow SOIC…
After a lot of this…
We have this!
Didn’t bring a P60 host into work with me today, I’ll test the P60s tonight and if all goes well, they’ll be in the mail tomorrow to the two texans. Werner, I’ll mail out your PCB+LED and bill you with whatever it costs to ship.
Arrived today, already put it in a dropin.
Works good only some seconds until my TVs switch off, I have tested it through a window from 5m and it works too. Maybe I will find a test object for longer range test in my neighbourhood this evening.
I used a op xpe dropin from fasttech, but the bottom is not plain…used it anyway.
The led is a bit of center, I need to look up how the beam looks like tonight.
Ready to play in the skyray host I used.
Awesome ! I’m also interested in one of these but using a keychain flashlight with 14500 or CR123A battery would be much better and stealthier.
Yep of course, I have also thought of a 16340 light. But for the first attempt the p60 is a good thing as it is easy to build and anywhere available for cheap.
Do you have anymore for sale and will you ship to the UK?
Werner - good to hear it’s working! I’d say take it to a shopping mall next for some range testing 
Also, grounding the second from left star on the driver changes from NS to EU codes, which might work better in your neck of the woods, let me know how well it works if you try it.
Omega17 - My most recent youtube video is actually a Ultrafire 602C host from fasttech, a cheap Ultrafire nonprotected CR123, and my oslon board/driver. Works pretty great.
J - Other than two completed lights here, I’m all out.
Sounds like I’ve got a few other people interested, and I’m out of parts, so I’ll get a buy on the go. I’ll sell modified drivers (supply own LED), oslons on my 16mm PCBs, P60 drop-ins and possibly fully assembled lights. I’ll figure out prices etc. over the next few days.
Thanks, I’d really be interested in a complete drop-in
I grounded the star, but I have no TVs to test because all TVs are common here are international e.g. Philips, Samsung, Sony…
Philips TVs work very good just some seconds to switch off/on. Sadly I have forgotten to strive to the neighborhood last evening and after it gets dark all people close the windows…