WiFi IR Blaster (ESP8266) IR LED underpowered

Development Boards ESP32
1

Hi - I’ve got one of the above boards hooked up as per the [tutorial. I have managed to control my TV with it if I hold the IR emitter right up to the TV’s receiver but what I actually want to do is to control a wall-mounted fan heater. The fan heater just doesn’t respond.

Looking at the LED with a phone camera, I can see that the IR emitted by the heater’s supplied remote is fairly bright but the IR coming out of the ESP8266 board is so feeble it can barely be seen (except in a darkened room!)

I’ve tried it powered from my laptop’s USB port via a Beefy, from a phone charger hooked up to VIN, with my own custom code and with the IR Controller firmware project linked to in the tutorial page and always get the same dull, dull LED output, so I know it is unlikely to be a power or code issue.

Can anyone on this forum provide any advice before I scrap this whole approach and head down a completely different avenue? :x

Do I need to swap the LED - could it be faulty? If so, what should I replace it with?](SparkFun WiFi IR Blaster Hookup Guide - SparkFun Learn)

2

In a flash of inspiration, I decided to try hooking up a red LED in place of the IR LED to see for myself and indeed it does appear quite dim in visible light too - so I’m wondering if it’s the board not the LED. Would using a transistor to boost the brightness help?

3

Swap the LED for another like COM-09349, that should give you better performance.

4

Thanks - will give that a try!

5

Nope - a COM-09349 was just as dull. Coming to the conclusion my board is duff…