[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?

[gorkish]

It works but it's not going to be very robust without a carrier.

[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.

[gorkish]

> anything resembling acceptable audio quantity over consumer IR tech

I don't know what you are on about. You can go to your local walmart and get IR headphones off the shelf that work exactly this way.