Such as? Not that I'm terribly interested, but you might *suggest* a better part, considering from his post he appears to not be adept to all the design possiblities. Optek might be another good solution, as is Sharp. I have a sample of a Sharp part, but its expensive and my application is a one-off. I'm still debating on using it or a motion detector. The application is to detect when a golf ball drops into a hole. Thinking IR is better suited for his since the motion detector depends on temperature changes. Cedric Chang wrote: Why are you using the Vishay ? I think there are better parts than the Vishay ? cc On May 15, 2008, at 8:56 PM, Zachary Noyes wrote: Hi piclist. I'm working on a robotics project and I want to know how to use a Vishay TFDU4300 Infra red transceiver module for part of a motor encoder. The module has what looks like two black hemi-spheres mounted on a chip (transmitter and receiver). I can't tell from the data sheet: will the IR wave from the transmitter bounce off of a plate (encoder disk) in front of and parallel to the chip and reach the receiver? I also need to put this onto a PCB project that will be replicated. It seems unstable to try to put this chip on a PCB board and then mount that next to a motor. Does anyone know of a better way to design a motor encoder that won't get damaged by the motor? I've tried a design using a high brightness LED sending light to a photo detector sending a voltage to a comparator with an offset, but that seems to complicated and I still have the problem of how to mount a PCB board next to a moving machine. Thanks. --Zach -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist