IR led help

[andy_con]

brought a cheap cctv camera with 6x IR leds in it off ebay. i made a bird box to put the camera in to watch birds etc for my other half.

none of the leds work, ive taken it to bits and cant see anything wrong with it.

ive only got 9v coming into the box, anyone got any suggestions what i can use IR wise to light the inside of the box?

cheers

[300EVIL]

Did you check the LED's with a different camera to verify the LED's are emitting? I've seen some CCD's that are insensitive to certain IR wavelengths. What is the wavelength of your LED's?

I have a couple nest cams as well. They are fun to watch. I just cheated and bought a camera with IR LED's and mic in a water resistant package from home depot for $50. What's also nice is that the LED's only come on when the lighting through the bird box hole is too dark. This keeps the possibility over-saturation down.

[andy_con]

thats what these camera is suppose to do, the leds should come on but they dont. it comes with the leds built in

yes i used my phone it can see ir from a tv remote so im assuming it should see these ones.

but even if i put the cctv camera in a pitch black room you can clearly see the leds arent coiming on. theres no light whatsoever

and for the £15 i paid for it, it aint worth sending back to china

[300EVIL]

Ah, okay, I thought you bought the LED's separate. I'd say something in the circuit is bad then If you tested in a dark room. I'm guessing everything on the camera is SMT. Look closely and see if any components look like they are bridged. You may just need to touch up some soldering.

[andy_con]

i have looked lots and cant see anything wrong.

what else could i use??

[300EVIL]

Will if the camera works okay you could just build a separate circuit with light sense for an array of LED's. May actually work better if strategically placed in different locations in the bird box.

[andy_con]

i want them to be on all the time as there is no light in the box whatsoever.

what driver could i use for the leds? the only power going into the box is 9v

heres a couple of pics

[300EVIL]

it appears they are wired in series so, the whole array should run nicely with 9V.

[andy_con]

you recon?

wont they be like 3v each/

[300EVIL]

All 6 LED's in series would be like 0.6V. That may be two low so maybe two sets of three in series with a resistor per side.