Table Hockey in the dark?

August 5, 2009 11:12 PM

Table Hockey in the dark?

I was cleaning out my workshop today and came across two identical devices packed in separate bags, that for the life of me (or Google), I can not figure out what they are. There isn’t a pic link, because it really didn’t get to me until I got to work, and now I have hours to ponder with no answers.

Please me-fites, you’re our only hope.

They were in a crate filled with cables (computer, stereo, TV (Direct TV + Cable)). One end there was a 6-8” piece of black plastic shaped like a hockey stick, But with uniform thickness throughout, near the bent end (think: on the top of the hockey stick blade) there are 2 clear LED’s protruding from the plastic. On the other end (think; hockey stick butt end) there was a wire (approx 4 ft long) terminating with a 3.5mm male stereo jack. (Headphone jack). I hooked it up to my phone, just to see if maybe the lights would light up when sound was played, to no avail.

Anyone have any ideas? Or proof that you are the Google ninja?

posted by DrAlbin to technology (5 comments total)

Could be an IR blaster. They're used to control pieces of home theater equipment when it's in an enclosure or when there's a master controller managing multiple pieces of equipment.
posted by stufflebean at 12:09 AM on August 6

It's late and I was hasty. "... when *they're in an enclosure ..."
posted by stufflebean at 12:11 AM on August 6

seconding stufflebean. These are for relaying IR remote control signals to equipment that's hidden in cabinets.
posted by cosmicbandito at 5:24 AM on August 6

Tivo used to ship with these; it was used to send IR commands from the tivo into your cable box.
posted by jenkinsEar at 5:32 AM on August 6

Nthing.

The long stick part would go under your cable box [or VCR] and the hockeystick bit at the end would then bend up to point the two LEDs at the front of it.

There's a shorter version of it about halfway down this page: BBIR6.
posted by chazlarson at 8:58 AM on August 6