I have this (http://www.ghielectronics.com/catalog/product/253) (along with the receiver).
(also using the Fez Panda 2)
I have tested the receiver with a TV remote and get a great distance of several meters and the receiver still picks up the remote.
But using the IR Transmitter Eblock I only get 4-6 inches. I am using a component shield also, have the eblock pluged into a digital port on there.
Should I get better distance than 4 inches?
This is normal for a small LED running off 3.3V. This came up here and an easy way to fix this is by using one of the LED eblocks (which has a transistor) and then replace the large LED with large IR LED.
Welcome to the community.
devhammer had a thread going about this not long ago. He did a couple things to improve his range. As I remember he changed the resistor and ultimately added an additional IR LED to get better range.
Welcome to the forum.
I was searching for that thread for you. Here it is:
awesome! Thanks. Ill read into this a little more.