I want to know what ways are there to transmit data using LED's that are available to us today.
I currently can find only one reasonable resource for this topic, which is this:
http://www.siemens.com/innovation/en/news_events/ct_pressreleases/e_research_news/2010/e_22_resnews_1002_1.htm
Is there any other information about this or resources I can use?
What is the highest frequency can you blink a under $5 led at?
What about a photo diode or photo transistor that can respond at such frequencies for under $5?
My aims are to have anything above 10KB/s but under $5 or so, with range that includes line of sight and it would be no more than one or two feet away. Am I just going at this entirely wrong and should instead use a RF solution? I am gearing towards visible light because it seems cheaper, does not give me the headaches of RF, and most certainly looks far more interesting than a RF or IR design, since you can actually see the process. 😛
Best Answer
A project from the Czech Repuplic called RONJA gets 10 Mbps through more than a kilometer of open air with ordinary red LEDs. It uses a specialized amplifier design to drive the LED, but if all you want is to modulate an LED at a few 10s of kHz, then just wiring it to an output pin of a microcontroller will work.