These are not much use for Obstacle Avoidance unless you are doing it in the dark. There is no filtering/frequency modulation on these. They will not work in the sun or bright light. Unless you are using them to count an internal wheel hub they have limited use. The unit itself works well enough for what it is, but it isn't of any use for obstacle avoidance.

This IR Detection module worked as advertised. Yey, to get the best performance, some "blinders" need to be added to the LED and the photo transistor. This device has an extremely wide sensor field. At first I thought there was something wrong with my code. The code was perfect, and when I stepped back to reaach an item that had falled to the floor, the detection worked as I had hoped. It seems this device has a field of view of about 60 degrees at a distance of 120 mm which is about 6 inches. This can cause a lot of frustration if you are not aware of the wide spread. I will post photos in a few days of simple solutions using heat shrink tubing and transparent plastic rods which will narrow the field of view of this device. Otherwise this obstacle avoidance system works great. I was able to have system work at 120 mm. I suspect the range is much greater but the problem becomes the field of view. If this is to be used in bright sunlight, and IR filter must be used.