Note: the above is a simple experiment I conducted. Unfortunately although it did function it was not very successful, therefore I have decided to accomodate White LED’s instead of Infrared.
Competition will be getting tight in the upcoming months, and when its time for “back to school” I’ll be working with my science teacher and metal shop proffessor.
Did you test your camera’s response with IR illumination prior to spending all that time assembling the board? That’s exactly the sort of thing that a breadboard is good for.
Many small cameras can see IR illumination when they’re staring down the throat of the LEDs, but don’t respond so well when it comes to diffuse reflection (using it as area or spot illumination, as in your ringlight board). black-and-white cameras tend to do better using diffuse IR lighting, because they don’t have the color-correcting filters that color imagers do, which often filter out a lot of infrared.
you will probably find that your camera responds a lot better using the white LEDs for illumination. It would still be a pretty good idea to slap together a breadboarded version first, just to make sure, though.
Yes, thats what I plan to do. the first test had to be the IR becuase I had little idea of how it would react. I researched on google and found out a good amount of LED’s I will need to aluminate the Camera’s vision.
Appreciate the good tips! 
Circuit assembled on protoboard: 2 hours
Same circuit on breadboard: <5 minutes
http://www.rthtg.net/i/breadboard.jpg
Embrace the breadboard.
The breadboard is good.
The breadboard is your friend.
Deffinately have to purchase one of those 8)
Solderless is your friend
You probably should have done more google research on cams and IR. Most cams have IR filters in them to filter out IR.
How do you have them connected? What value resistor are you using? Have you measured the current it is drawing? Because these are IR LED’s you obviously can’t see the output, but you can with a camera. If you only see a dim blue glow, then you may not have the correct resistor value to drive the LED’s hard enough. IR LED’s should provide plenty of illumination for the camera. However if you do read the proper forward current, probably 20-30mA and the camera doesn’t “see” the light there may be an IR filter as zoomcat has suggested. I have had good results with making IR cameras, but maybe I have just been lucky. 
It was only a 1k resistor, 2 LED’s per 1 resister and than connected altogether.
Do you know the turn on voltage for the LED? -and what’s your supply voltage?
The IR LED’s you bought from you. Im not sure what they were rated for, but all eight were run on a 9V battery. from research I realised if I removed the IR filter from my camera, it would help a lot.
You may or may not have an IR filter on the camera. I believe B/W cameras are sure NOT to have the filter. Just an FYI.
Good news, I found the part number for them. Lumex OED-EL-1L2. I found these specs.
940nm 1.4V @ 100ma, 60mW/sr, Angle +/- 30
So:
1.4 x 2 = 2.8vdc
9vdc - 2.8vdc = 6.2vdc
6.2/1000 = 6.2mA <- this is why they are not very bright, 6% of full power.
Now lets figure it for 20mA
6.2/0.02 = 310 ohms
Now for 100mA
6.2/0.10 = 62 ohms
Um… 
i see
Hopefully in the dark soon! lol
So bassically, It looks likw I’m going to need about 20-30v or so and about 2800mah? thats more than what the rover is running on 
Wutha… The math was done with a 9vdc source. Each string of two leds will draw 100mA. If you have 8 LED’s that’s 4 (2 LEDs in series) or 400mA.
However if you were to put say 4 of the LED’s in series, then the turn on voltage for the string is 5.6vdc leaving 3.4vdc across the resistor. So:
3.4/0.1 = 34 ohms. This method would draw 200mA with two 4 LED strings. ohms law…
Oh and this website is a great help. led.linear1.org/led.wiz
Plugging in the values provides these specs.
each 39 ohm resistor dissipates 390 mW
the wizard thinks 1W resistors are needed for your application
together, all resistors dissipate 780 mW
together, the diodes dissipate 1120 mW
total power dissipated by the array is 1900 mW
the array draws current of 200 mA from the source.
there it is, ive been looking for that…Oh and dont mind that other post, I was just pulling your leg, we dont have an sarcasm emoticons 
Doh!.. 
jk
Just finished a model of my Robotic Vision System (RVS). Dosne’t have to do with the LED’s, its something different. Details tomorrow.
UPDATE:
This project is about two months in. I finally got my digital camera from geeks.com, so here are some long overdue pictures!
Iso side
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/Italian_guy299/000_0005.jpg
Size comparison. (note both those controllers will control the robot)
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/Italian_guy299/000_0006.jpg
Mechs/Electro components
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/Italian_guy299/000_0007.jpg
Closer look
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/Italian_guy299/000_0009.jpg
Front iso
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m51/Italian_guy299/000_0008.jpg
Note: this robot is still very incomplete and really looks nothing like the models show (at the moment ).
well?
