Ridiculously powerful and obvious TV-B-Gone

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furrtek
 
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:18 pm

Ridiculously powerful and obvious TV-B-Gone

Post by furrtek »

After a few years of regularly shutting down TVs with various versions of the TV-B-Gone, I wanted to see how far one could go without hiding anything.
I'm aware it shouldn't be a general rule since I only did the thing in 2 or 3 different countries, but until now, I find that the chances of getting caught follow some sort of gauss curve.

Hiding the device in an old phone, in clothes, or in food packaging only got me caught at a security check. Start of the curve.
Holding the kit like a phone and faking a conversation also worked a few times. People assume you're just using a weird phone and they don't think twice about it.
Just standing in front of a wall of TVs, pointing it or not got me kicked out of stores a few times. That was expected. Top of the curve.

Getting a bunch of hi-power IR LEDs in translucent boxes with other visible LEDs, mounted on a hockey helmet, with a glove remote... Didn't get me caught once. End of the curve.

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Nothing special electronics-wise: it's basically the kit with an audio update function, NiMh chargers, timing watchdogs and mosfets.
The enclosures are from Fibox and Velleman, boards are paper and epoxy stripboards. Batteries are 2x 7.2V 2.3mAh.
Also dual RJ11 connection for the remote and status LEDs on the goggles.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Ridiculously powerful and obvious TV-B-Gone

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Nice job! Looks like a good rig for making the rounds at the CES :wink:

maltman23
 
Posts: 134
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:54 pm

Re: Ridiculously powerful and obvious TV-B-Gone

Post by maltman23 »

Awesome! (But it really is a LifeRay!)

While you're at it, why not add some more IR emitters, and be the total Pro!

(BTW, I'm not sure how you've been busted so many times -- I've been turning TVs off since 2003, and have only been busted 3 times, and all three were from being totally obvious at pointing my TV-B-Gone at TVs with my arm extended all the way out.)

Cheers,
Mitch.

wtfwtfdef
 
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Dec 15, 2007 2:35 am

Re: Ridiculously powerful and obvious TV-B-Gone

Post by wtfwtfdef »

maltman23 wrote:Awesome! (But it really is a LifeRay!)

While you're at it, why not add some more IR emitters, and be the total Pro!

(BTW, I'm not sure how you've been busted so many times -- I've been turning TVs off since 2003, and have only been busted 3 times, and all three were from being totally obvious at pointing my TV-B-Gone at TVs with my arm extended all the way out.)

Cheers,
Mitch.

cool mitch. By 'busted' what do you mean exactly? That a passerby noticed you? That a clerk noticed you and thought you turned the tv off? That you were kicked out of the store? That they banned you and tresspassed you from coming into the store? You were arrested and jailed for 3 months?

maltman23
 
Posts: 134
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:54 pm

Re: Ridiculously powerful and obvious TV-B-Gone

Post by maltman23 »

By "busted", I mean that someone noticed me turning the TVs off. It was never a problem (since the only thing that happened was a TV got turned off).

Fallingdown
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 6:48 pm

Re: Ridiculously powerful and obvious TV-B-Gone

Post by Fallingdown »

haha love it!
Was thinking about making something like this but maybe not on a helmet :P Sadly I don't know that much about electronics so is there any way you could give a description on what components you used and do you drive the mosfets directly form the processor?
I just want the very basic like , what mosfets and how many per led and do you connect all mosfets to one pin or how does that work and also how you power the whole thing.
Can solder(been doing that for 10years) and can connect a led to a transistor without any problems. All I lack is a bit of info on how many transistors can one processor pin drive and how to know what component to choose.

maltman23
 
Posts: 134
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 4:54 pm

Re: Ridiculously powerful and obvious TV-B-Gone

Post by maltman23 »

Please look at the schematic for the v1.2 TV-B-Gone kit. One microcontroller output pin drives a PNP transistor which then drives 4 NPN transistors, each connected to its own IR emitter.
http://learn.adafruit.com/tv-b-gone-kit/download

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