IR-pen again…

Wednesday, 11 June, 2008

After my last post on using the Wiimote as part of an interactive whiteboard, and the follow-up on building an IR pen, I have now found that it is not quite so easy to get ahold of as I thought. Having been around quite a number of stationary shops, I have come to the conlusion that no one sells an IR pen. A few online places do, but they are not easily dismantleable.

So having paused to think, I hit upon this as the simplest solution:

1. Get a normal LED keychain light. As cheap as 25p each!

2. Get an IR LED and replace the bulbs (79p).

3. Attach to your set of keys and voila, an IR pointer!

P.S. You obviously can’t see if the bulb is on (!) so to test it, point it at a digital camera and see if you can see the bulb on on the LCD screen.