I have used the HL IR receiver and a tsop38238 IR receiver at 38KhZ. I have been working on building a IR Hit received and have a working model. So i was thinking that perhaps the difference between a tamyia/HL 6.0 board and some other brand is they are using a different freq IR chip set. The IR receiver diodes come in different freq. So even if a 'Code' was being sent from the tank, the receiver is just a on/off switch type receiver. That output feeds a couple of transistors in a flip flop set up to drive some LEDs so they flash. I have pin 3 wired to a IC555 chip which is nothing more then a timer chip that controls how long my the output is on. Hit the diode with a IR signal, and pin 3 voltage increases. From what I can tell the IR Receiver is just a diode that detects a IR signal on the correct freq and that provides the output signal.

One reason so many people choose to replace their otherwise decent Taigen / Torro MFU boards with aftermarket ones that are Tamiya IR compatible is to have the interoperability in IR battling. These can only battle with others of the same brand or those using their MFU control boards. Nor can the “stock” Taigen / Torro battle with the older “stock” 5.2/3 HL systems. “Stock” Taigen/Torro and “stock” older 5.2/3 HL systems do not use the Tamiya IR codes and thus cannot battle with any of the other systems.

6.0/1 HL, Clark, IBU and a few others use the Tamiya IR codes. There are those that are Tamiya compatible meaning they use the Tamiya IR codes which are the leading codes used in IR club battles worldwide. I read recently that the frequency either emitted or received could be different from the various MFU, DMD, MFCB boards (Tamiya,HengLong,Clark,Taigen, IBU, etc.) from various manufacturers? I had assumed that IR was IR and regardless of the board manufacturer they could all 'see' or receive hits from any of the other manufacturers.

Tamiya rc tank battle system