@clock @stman @50htz @vidak @theruran @forthy42 Another problem with #IR is also that it's suffering from extreme attenuation at the slightest moisture.

• Like how water filters our red first, so you can imagine that the slightest rain or fog will block it.

Which is why I recommended to use multiple different visible light wavelenghts in parallel instead, so worst-case you got slow 10 Mbit/s blue-light only connectivity.

• Because degraded throughput is better than no connectivity!

Using like Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, White...

• I don't expect you to copy the #IrDA spec - besides high-power invisible light is kinda dangerous for bystanders - but I merely referenced it as means to see how this was done in the past and if any of that is salvageable...

Reverse-Engineering the Tamagotchi IR Connection https://hackaday.com/2026/01/10/reverse-engineering-the-tamagotchi-ir-connection/
#ReverseEngineering #ToyHacks #Infrared #Irda #Tamagotchi

@PurpleJillybeans This printer was fantastic. I believe I had the 5p. It ran great for years and then I foolishly gave it away in the mid-2000s.

Recently, I looked at buying another one because of the built-in #IrDA until I saw the eBay prices. Yikes!

Hopefully I can find one locally for a more reasonable price someday.

Latest Hindi News: Ban on making health insurance expensive, big decision of the government
https://hindi.vaartha.com/national/ban-on-making-health-insurance-expensive-big-decision-of-the-government/72032/
#HealthInsuranceBan #InsurancePremiumCap #GovernmentDecision #HealthInsuranceNews #InsurancePolicy #IRDA #DigitalClaims #InsuranceReform #AffordableHealthcare #InsurancePremiumsControl #HealthPolicyUpdate #IndiaHealthcare

@paulrickards And yes, I too prefer #IrDA for #privacy and #simplicity when it comes to transferring small amoubts if data (i.e. Pubkeys)…

@paulrickards does it at least do #VFIR or #GigabitIR?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IrDA

• Speaking of #IrDA, does anyone make decentpy fast Transcievers that can actually do more than USB 1.1 speeds and work on #Linux?

Continued...

I only see two HP Deskjets with #IrDA sensors.

450ci
995c

As far as I'm concerned, that's a wrap for HP unless someone else can add to the list.

Oddly, I can't find a single Epson printer with an IrDA sensor. Did they not make a single one?

Moving on to Canon.

#Printer #Printers

Continued...

Here are some HP Photosmart Inkjets that have #IrDA sensor built in.

The dates are approximate and for my reference.

1000/p1000 (1999)
1215 (2000)
1218 (2000)
1315 (2001)

#Printer #Printers

Continued...

So far I have been looking at monochrome HP #LaserJet printers. I feel I have a fairly comprehensive list here.

Each of these are confirmed, by either looking at original manuals or pictures, to have an #IrDA sensor.

The dates, taken from various sources, are probably not exact and are used by me as reference only.

5P (1995)
5MP (1995)
6P (1996)
6MP (1996)
2100 (2002)
2100M (2002)
2100TN (2002)
2200 (2001)

#Printer #Printers

I'm trying my best to compile a list of printers (Inkjet, LaserJet or thermal) that have a physical built-in IrDA sensor.

I am NOT including ones that just have a port and require an adapter.

If you know of any please feel free to list them below

#Printer #Printers #IrDA #AskFedi #AskMastodon

@adisonverlice I mean, I could see something like an #IrDA or #BLE / #WiFi thingy that basically exchanges packages kinda like a bulk delivery that one just slaps onto a device.

• Kinda the #DataMule idea some folks suggested to do with like( informal) (mini)bus services in the global south to get large amounts of data to areas that have no internet or only slow narrowband connectivity at best.

A ground-based alternative to #BlockstreamSatellite would be kinda cool espechally since they use #Shitcoin (#Bitcoin) and transfer of data is just absurdly expensive by pricing.

@despens EMBRACE #IrDA INSTEAD!

@stman @50htz @vidak @theruran @forthy42 Yet somehow we've to deal with changing conditions and pretty shure you too have to admit that having a link that may throttle due to weather is better than having no link or poor reliability because it needs perfect conditions.

Optical PtP links outside of laboratories have to deal with changing and adverse conditions and somehow you gotta have to communicate between the units if they loose contact or that the error rate is too high so they need to renegotiate a lower link width.

• Espechally since this ain't like EuroDOCSIS where interference is minimal unless people actively sabotage things.

I'm also referencing #IrDA because they did already do some fundamental research.

• And whilst I was looking I found out that there's also a lack of newly-made IrDA transciever chips like the STIR4220 so designing a new one (even if it's just an FPGA reimplementation) is desireable for a lot of "legacy" applications as well as secure data exchange on short distance.

@stman @50htz @vidak @theruran @forthy42 merely doubling the baudrate per wavelenght compared to #RONJA can yield 100MBit/s at 5 wavelenghts, whilst offering us better link budget & range.
https://infosec.space/@kkarhan/114719599251092905

Not to mention #IrDA as a protocol could be repurposed as a diagnostics / link renegotiation channel and even as ultra-long-range / narrowband & broadcasting (PtMP) solution (see #IrLAN)…

Note that the maximum possible range achieveable under lab conditions will be way better than the real-world outputs, simply because not only does humidity and rain exist, but where it doesn't (i.e. deserts) thermal stress and expansion is moving things out of optimal alignment over the day...

• And in a lab you don't have things potentially disturbing it.

@riley Oh, you'd be surprised where I've found #WiFi #deauthers...

Espechally since even quality ones are cheap...

Plus I'm shure I could easily 4x the bandwith of #IrDA if I were to use 4 different transciever pairs with different colour filters at the same time, which is basically "CWDM at home"

@riley Case in point, #IrDA on optical bandwiths would work excellent for #DataExchange on #airgapped systems with minimal risk of violating #TEMPEST or similar standards, thus making RED/BLACK seperation in various projects on mine simpler.

• Not to mention it's trivial to spoof or merely jam #wireless #RF like #NFC]* and thus denying the ability to use these, whereas it's harder to block a line-of-sight without being identified as root cause of it.

@riley Also using visible light for FSOC avoids all the "spectrum compliance" and "licensing" issues whilst making it impossible to ban, unless one were to ban colour filters and lights!

Having access to said #specification for #IrDA is also beneficial for #RetroComputing as IrDA was a modestly successful tech and could thus be used for #bridging...

@riley it's not just about being able to reimplement the spec which in terms of SIR is a trivial way to make 9600/8/N/1 half-duplex connections but also to read the rationale behind their decisions.

• Also being able to overcome the limitations of #RONJA and #IrDA as systems (as far as possible) is desireable.

(i.e. there are less sources of green and blue light in nature and water doesn't attenuate blue light even remotely as much as red, so there's that benefit)...

@riley The #IrOBEX standard is part of the whole #IrDA specification...

The most interesting part is the #LowLevel stuff, cuz theoretically one could just apply that to any optical system ranging from consumer LEDs to Laser pointers to fiberoptical assemblies.

• But most importantly I do think that IrDA would work great at a diagnostics / negotiation system for the revised #RONJA PtP link that @stman is working on, aiming to do 100 Mbit/s Ethernet with cheap COTS parts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA

As IR will be extremely quickly attenuated by the slightest amount of atmospheric moisture (aka. rain and fog) using visible light spectrum is an easier workaround.

• Plus that tech he's working on could yield a better short-range, contactless data exchange protocol where WiFi, and Bluetooth are not desireable and where passive security-by-design is desireable.

@stman @vidak @50htz @theruran @forthy42 as for "protocol" I'd recommend to take a closer look at #IrDA since there are a shitton of cheap transcievers and implementations available and it would allow this to be reused for a secure P2P data exchange and secure contactless networking solution that is inherently harder (if not basically impossible) to eavesdrop on compared to #Bluetooth and #WiFi.

• Plus it'll be a potentially better alternative to #LiFi for #Broadcast useage.

Not to mention I've not seen any IrDA devices >4MBit/s in the wild, with most being 9600bit/s #serial links fir the most part, and having a direct optical data exchange that takes literal seconds instead of minutes would really have a lot of good use cases i.e. in medical fields, where having a fully sterilizeable computer is kibda important and having a docking cradle with a charging coil and optical "port" would really be appreciated.

In fact ITU G.9991 (G.vlc) & IEEE 802.11bb are worth looking into as well just to see advantages and disadvantages...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IrDA
https://en.mikipedia.org/wiki/Li-Fi