Minimalist IR pen: no soldering, under a minute, under a dollar.

My first instructable, hope it is useful:

If you want to test out the J.C. Lee (the J.C. stands for Johnny Chung, but he does kinda does miracles too...) or the Smoothboard program at www.smoothboard.net (light years ahead, because Boon Jin started where JCL ended, thanks tthe open source programming...) well... YOU NEED an ir pen.

I do theatre in English, and Magic/circus for ESL. and you can see my page (only the blog is in English the rest is in Spanish.) here.http://www.fifthbiz.com) I work with a lot of teachers that know a lot about teaching and nothing about a soldering iron. So I came up with this..)

So, for non-techies or impatient people here is a tiny pen with just one LED, a 1.5 volt watch battery, and some electrical tape that you can make in less time then it takes to play the MacGuyver theme music.

Not apt for using with small children (because these are easy to eat) this is a good STARTER pen, but I think you will want to upgrade.

Nonetheless, these ROCK for a screen with projector and wii-mote behind, and with one in each hand... and for testing the Wiimote IWB for the first time.

Materials:
http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FL3/HQXG/FXA3D45B/FL3HQXGFXA3D45B.MEDIUM.jpg

1. ir led at 940 nm (i used a Vishay TSAL6400) which runs on 1.2-1.6 v costing14 centimos of a Euro, as I'm in Spain, it would be under 20 US cents , I think)

2. watch battery at 1.5 v (50 centimos/70 cents)

3. Electrical tape

4. Scissors.

5. Mobile phone with camera, webcam or digital camera (to check things out.)

Step 1 Understanding and preparing the IR LED.

Getting the LED out.

Two basic concepts are essential.

1. The light is invisible to the human eye. (Infra-Red - below the red spectrum, the lowest visible light we can see.)

It is not invisible to a digital camera that is not protected against the IR spectrum, ie: mobile phone, digital camera or webcam, so we can use that to check things out.

2. The LED is polarity sensitive. �
You have to connect positive to positive, and negative to negative for it to work. The negative is the shorter leg of the LED. (To remember: Being short is negative for LEDs.)
http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/F0K/ARID/FXA3D45C/F0KARIDFXA3D45C.MEDIUM.jpg
Preparing the LED.

On my watch battery, the positive side was flatter. So I bent the negative side to use as my trigger.
http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FE0/0D2B/FXA3D45A/FE00D2BFXA3D45A.MEDIUM.jpg
I then made a "v" bend (two would be better) in the positive (longer) wire, that goes flat against the battery to keep the LED flat and stuck to the battery in the next step, instead of falling out of the tape.
http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/F30/NVOC/FXA3D458/F30NVOCFXA3D458.MEDIUM.jpg

Comments

[zapper067]

Fancy eating this.

[matt ledding]

I know... it is exactly swallow size for small kids.
Have to be careful, or make a bigger pen with little peeps around.

[kadoogan]

I found a nice "invisible ink pen" at the local Dollar Store that came with an ultraviolet LED built into the cap. It also cam with batteries and a press button to activate the LED.

The assembly came apart quite easily - nothing was glued or soldered. I simply pulled out the UV LED and replaced it with one I had from an old remote control.

Works like a charm but the battery life is very short.

I intend to attach AA or AAA batteries to it somehow in the long term.

I only mention this because it was one or two Canadian dollar(s) for everything except the IR LED, everything was included, and it was already configured as a pen.

This is the pen in question:
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.88

That link is provided just so you all know what the pen looks like, but I suppose you could order the pen there as well if you like.

There are several variations of this idea out there, and a host of LED flashlights that could also be used.

I liked this one because it was shaped like a pen and all you had to do was screw off the top and pull out the entire LED assembly, attach the IR LED and put it all back together - no fuss, no muss.

[shakespeare1212]

IR pens for as low as $7.50 shipping anywhere in the USA, resonable shiping anywhere in the world. $5.50, just $5.50 for gold standard pen itself. Visit Whalebone IR and Software today.

http://whaleboneir.com/mark5.html

If you have any questions or need help setting up a Wii interactive Whiteboard, just send an email to [e-mail]

[matt ledding]

um, James, or Shakespeare, I appreciate your enthusiasm, and and glad you are helping people make wii whiteboards. However, this is a website for people who like to make stuff rather than buy it. This instructable is meant as a gateway to get people making them themselves. Therefore, it probably isn't the ideal place to sell Whaleboner pens, and you might get banned for spamming. (which is a pity, because you can probably get a lot of ideas from here.) I also make custom pens, but the best IR pen is a "homemade by owner" pen.

[shakespeare1212]

Matt,
Thank you for the warning but I do make all of my IR pens myself, and setting up a Wii Interactive whiteboard, is enough of a DIY project in and of itself. Many people who are on this board also sell what they make, and where is the harm in that?

[matt ledding]

Have put up some other pens that I made, which might serve as a starting point for other creations for some of the makers here... in the last page of the instructable, they are commented on.

[thestyrofoampeanut]

 i dont see the point of this.....

[matt ledding]

If that was an infra-red light joke (don't see the point) sorry for the serious response... 

you can use it as a quick and dirty ir pen while you are trying out an wii  whiteboard like this (rear projected) smoothboard one

 www.youtube.com/user/fifthbizcom#p/a/u/0/nLbT-HAaspk

[thestyrofoampeanut]

 ok
i honestly didnt know what it would be used for, no joke
thanks

[matt ledding]

Well the pen IS a bit of a joke, I should probably put up some of my more serious pens... However I put it up to show how minimalist you can go for testing the wii whiteboard ecosystem. 

[dadrecipes]

dfasdfad

[Izzeh]

Hah I did this a fair while ago when I attempted a proper IR pen and my soldering iron fried itself (I always found that ironic). I did the exact same thing only using blue tac. Just as efficient, and as an added bonus it holds to your finger.

[ItsTheHobbs]

Haha.. IRONic.

[matt ledding]

Izzeh, that sounds faster and prettier, ... and I would add, definitely more cool than mine, if it sticks to your finger. (and I suppose you need to stick it to your finger to keep the end from coming off.) I will try it out. I love Instructables for the ability to evolve ideas... if anyone else has ideas for quick and dirty IR pens, I am looking forward to hearing them.

[pancho del rancho]

orale soy de mexico te chingamos en la spain vs mex war

[matt ledding]

Tecnicamente, soy de canada, asi que estamos todos chingaos en NAFTA. But let's focus on making stuff.

[pancho del rancho]

Hahhaha cool btw that ir pen thing can i switch it out of wii instead of tat blue one

[matt ledding]

the Led from the wii has a different angle of vision I think, but maybe you could... I think it'd be more expensive though... the LED is pretty cheap, and Farnell carries them if you have one in Mexico.

[pancho del rancho]

naw foo i live in da us man mexico just visting and would a tv light work

[matt ledding]

You need a frequency of 940 nm on the light (if you don't play with the wii light filter, but then it can give problems for games.) So maybe it would work, maybe not. Let me know!

[pancho del rancho]

okay but its my cuzez i broke 1 cuz i threw it so idk if he'll let me but ill try

[jimmytvf]

hola! yo tambien soy de españa, pero no se si nos dejan hablar en español, so let's talk in english. i don't know the real utility of this, maybe this kind of graffitis that glows, as the telefonica ad? if isn't that i don't know for what you want it saludos! PS. oh, i forget, if you want, i send you a pm with my IM to chat and so

[matt ledding]

Con esto y un wii-mote, tienes pizarra digital... que vale 2000 euracos por un colegio... o menos que 100 con esto. Esto es mas para probar el system, que uso diario. It is to make a wii-mote and this into an interactive whiteboard, or tablet pc... at a fraction of the price. This is to try the system and get it operative before upgrading your pen. (although I like challenging the pen concept in interactive Whiteboards... and the smaller the screen, the smaller the input device seems to be a good rule.)

[jimmytvf]

just after post this, i saw an instructable that makes what you say, is very very cool, only with a simple wiimote, but i have an idea to make it, nearly tactile, with a zip tie and a button cell. could be very cool, when i try the instructable of the wiimote, i'll post the instructable of what i say

[matt ledding]

cool... look forward to seeing it!

[itsaidhi]

i bought some led's the other day. i bought an ir one to, my plan was to fix my remote, which i later saw wasnt necessary. IR's are pretty cool, buy a whole bunch of them and you got nightvision for a camera.

[matt ledding]

Well, if you have a wii-mote and a 940 ir led, you can can use it on your screen or make a digital whiteboard VERY easily. Try it, there are a couple instructables here, so I won't go into detail.