How about that!

[erick]

Point your mobile phone camera at the infrared transmitter of your TV remote and press a button on the remote. :nerd:

[MrB]

Yep, most camera's are IR sensitive, I use the demo security camera's at work to test universal remotes that customers return because they "don't work".
It's handy to show the customers that it's user error(they have programmed it wrong), not the remotes at fault.

[DavidU]

When ever I repair a remote control this is the first test I do.
Great effect isn't it. Did your package turn up?

[erick]

Surprisingly bright! And to admit, it wasn't my idea. It was a suggestion in the Yahoo Roboscope group to check if the infrared LED is working on the encoder of drive motors.

Sorry Dave, many thanks, yes it did and I have already sawed it to bits with my hacksaw!! I have more fiddling to do before I'm confident enough to post the result.