This afternoon I did a bit more on the optical front. I repeated my outdoor range tests using a low-cost high brightness LED as both a baseband optical transmitter and receive detector. With around 10mA TX current into the LED I was able to copy a 1kHz tone at 20m with another high brightness LED as the detector, without any additional optics other than the LED's built-in lenses at each end.
A 100mm lens properly focussed has a gain of >24dB (nearer 30dB if correctly adjusted). Assume 24dB "antenna" gain at each end of the link and we will have 48dB system gain over the simple LEDs on their own. Based on these calculations my optical transceiver should have a range of at least 5km. If the gain of the lens is 30dB then the range could be as great as 20km. This is without using high power LEDs as the TX or using larger Fresnel lenses which would have even higher gain.
I now have the 100mm lenses I intend to use as well as 2 gun sights bought off eBay. The next step is to buy some drain pipe to house the optics. I have still to decide whether to build fully self-contained FM transceivers (simpler) or to build the optical transceive heads with separate transverters to use with the FT817.
30 Nov 2011
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Fascinating. Apart from a school 'open day' demo using a bike lamp and an ORP60 back in the 60's, I haven't done much with this type of thing.
I'm just starting out again and have made a simple baseband TX (Luxeon 1-watt led with 100mm lens)and a BPW34 receiver. I'm wondering if there is a relatively easy way to filter out 50/100 Hz buzz from street lamps etc apart from the usual T-notch or Sallen Key HPF? I can't see much info on this on the 'net. Thanks Andy G1HBE
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