| Depends on the remote, but most will do 20 yards just about - try your own remote from the TV and see how far away you can get before it doesn't work ... you might be surprised!
The lap timer's eye is just looking for an IR beam, simple as that. A tv remote actually encodes some pulses into it (think morse code) but a lap timer isn't that picky, from what I understand - as long as it sees something it will trigger.
You could make your own out of some parts from RS or Maplins, and it would probably cost you less than a fiver. All you'd need is a small box, an IR LED, a resistor, a battery connector, maybe a switch to be really posh and some soldering skills! |