IR receivers are little diodes with a photocell that are tuned to detect to infrared light. They are usually used for remote control detection – every TV and DVD player has one of these in the front to listen for the IR signal from the clicker.

To use, connect pin 3 (all the way to the right) to 5V power, pin 2 (middle) to ground and listen on pin 1. It doesn’t do any decoding of the signal, just passes the ‘raw data’ along.

Features:

• IR Remote Control Receiver 1838
• Wide operating voltage range: 2.7V to 5.5VDC
• Built-in Filter at 38KHz
• Simple interface
• Average current consumption: 1.5 mA
• Maximum pickup angle 90°
• The maximum working light intensity of 500 lux