Hi,

I have built am IR remote for my Canon DSLR. Its designed around a 16F676 at 3 volts, and uses Bruce's algorithm on the Rentron site to generate the carrier; the modulated IR signal is output from the same pin (no external gating of carrier and data). It works fine, except the range is a modest 8 feet or so. Assuming I've got the carrier frequency and the other timings right, from a strictly hardware viewpoint, which of the following (or a combination of which points) would help increase the range?

1) Use a transistor / FET to drive the IR, rather than direct.
2) Use 5mm IR LED(s) rather than 3mm
3) Reduce the existing 33 ohms in series with the IR diode.
4) Use 2 LEDs in series, rather than just one.
5) Configure more than 1 pic pins to give out the signal, thereby increasing the drive to the IR.

Although I have experimented with the above ideas, I am unable to determine which combination would finally work the best.

Any suggestions, guys?

Anand