[vluft]

On a related note, the excellent DIY Perks youtube channel recently replaced toslink leds with lasers to do a wireless surround system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H4FuNAByUs

[dylan604]

What happens when your sub starts kicking so hard that your walls start to vibrate causing the line of sight to go intermittent?

[ragebol]

Then the audio drops out, so it's a self-correcting problem!

Also, the beam is a bit divergent, even if it vibrates the beam could still cover the sensor.

[actionfromafar]

Next step, point a TOSLINK laser at the Moon Retroreflectors!

[dylan604]

There was something posted not too long ago that bounced radio signals off of the moon that they then turned into an audio filter based on their testing on what it would do to the signal.

[mey]

The dark side of the moon on continuous loop would be an interesting project.

[gorkish]

The problem with DIY perks solution is that the manchester clock+data encoding is an amplitude modulated thing and isnt really very robust to using in free space. LED bulbs, sunlight, or all manner of other stuff can and will fuss with it. This is probably why he ended up having to go with lasers instead of just a big IR blaster against the ceiling. If he modulated the OOK signal onto some kind of carrier the entire thing would be a lot more reliable and as a bonus could probably ditch the lasers. This is more or less how the infrared wireless speakers and headphones of yore (80's and 90's) did the job.

[Neywiny]

So the problem with his solution is that he needed a solution to solve a problem?

[amluto]

If you mean a literal “IR blaster”, those generally modulate onto a 38kHz carrier. (I built an IR blasting device out of a 555 timer and an LED once, and it worked great, and no, I did not use precision resistors or capacitors. I admit I’m not actually sure whether a standard IR blaster contains a modulator or whether the device supplying the signal is expected to pre-modulate it.). You’re not going to get anything resembling acceptable audio quantity over consumer IR tech.

[pseudosavant]

Such a great video. There is a really good chance I use that technique for a remote subwoofer at some point. Really elegant solution.

[skerit]

A part of me wants to use his idea to set up some kind of wireless data connection just for fun.