You might be better off with an interruptor type sense,
like they used to use on garage door safety systems
(maybe still) - co-located emitter and detector, and a
far-end mirror. The emitter has the beam shape optics
and the detector some concentratring optics perhaps.
I think getting 49-1/2' of passive infrared detection
range is a real stretch. But a laser diode or well focused
high power LED source, you can get much more range
(because much more initial optical power).
Infrared LEDs would make it human-invisible other than
the hardware.
By interrupter we mean that rather than look for IR (heat) radiating from an object to trigger the alarm, instead a beam of light is generated and targeted at a sensor along the path being tested. If a body comes between the light source and sensor it breaks the beam and therefore triggers your system. The advantage is much greater range from a very simple and inexpensive system and if you use IR LEDs as the source, it is invisible to the eye. The drawback is it works in straight lines so if the boundary has curves you have to bend the beam with mirrors or break it into smaller sections.
Brian.
People are talking about photo electric sensor in through beam mode, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoelectric_sensor
In contrast to your linked laser pointer / LDR sensor example, reliable sensors are using a modulated (pulsed) light source. This allows to suppress ambient light and simple tamper attacks.
That is exactly the thing but it only has a range of 10m (about 30 feet) so you would need more than one to give the 50' length you need.
With a little effort you could make one with the same or longer range for a fraction of the cost.
Brian.
I wouldn't 'tweak' a commercial product, I would start from scratch.
I assume this is just a one-off project and not for mass marketing so I would suggest you get hold of an old scrapped TV or VCR and salvage the remote control receiver from it. It will work just as well as any commercial detector product and they normally have the necessary pulse filtering built into them. For the transmitter you need a high output IR LED and an NE555 timer IC. The range is mostly determined by the radiation angle and detection angle of the optics, you need lenses or reflectors to focus the beam as narrow as possible.
The idea is the NE555 produces high current pulses at about 38KHz frequency and these drive the IR emitter LED. The LED flashes 38,000 times a second!
The receiver sees the presence or absence of the pulses and gives you a high or low output that can be used to sense whether the beam has been broken or not.
The reason for pulsing at high frequency is that IR light can come from many sources, including sunlight so you need a method to distinguish your beam from background sources. In the IR receiver modules there is a filter to reject anything that isn't flashing at that speed and a timer circuit that keeps the output steady between the pulses if they are present.
You will find it easiest to use a laser LED to produce a sharp narrow beam instead of a normal LED and optics but they normally operate in visible red light so the beam would be easy to see.
Brian.
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