I thought it would be cool and useful to build a radio controlled machine that could plow snow. The problem is that I don't know hardly anything about how to use radio control. I was wondering if it is possible to have 2 of the signals be analog instead of digital (so the wheels can have variable speed) but have the other signals be digital (for things such as lights)? All advice, pointers, and tips are greatly appreciated because I know very little about how radio control works. Thanks.

 

Yes, you can have both.

If you use an RC system that only has analog you can define (for example) one or more channels as being a logic "1" when the analog output is maximum and to be a logic "0" the analog output is small.

 

Are there microchips I could use for this? If its not an enormous circuit, I could assemble a transmitter and a reciever.

 

Yes there are, but getting them to work right can be very tricky, especially if you don't have much RF experience. Maybe a better approach and one that will get you what you want with the minimum cost and fuss is to find a remote control transmitter and receiver.

The example at the URL below is only one of many such systems available.
http://www.horizonhobby.com/category/radios/aircraft-radio-systems/aircraft-transmitters

If you can do some microcontroller programming you can get away much more cheaply with something like this (eBay item number: 262123832438) :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/433Mhz-Wire...832438?hash=item3d07cc4476:g:lksAAOSwo6lWNwlv

 

I have an arduino and a raspberry pi, so this may be a good solution.

 

Do you think it would work to have a mosfet act as a variable resistor i between the PWM and the antenna in order to change the amplitude of the wave?

 

That probably would not work thttp://www.princeton.com.tw/en-us/products.aspxhe way you expect. The 432 MHz transmitter mentioned in post #4 has a modulation input by which the transmitter can be modulated. I

If the PWM was intended to give you a proprotional control channel, a better way would be to send a number to the receiver, and the number would indicate whether the byte is an on/off signal and if so which channel, or an analog signal and if so which channel. A controller at the receiver would decode the signals and generate the corresponding outputs. If you look around you can probably identify remote control encoder and decoder chips that do what you need to do.

Priinceton Technology has several chips that might interest you. Check out their RF IF, Remote Control IC, and Encoder/Decoder IC offerings (right side of web page).
http://www.princeton.com.tw/en-us/products.aspx

 

How would i have the transmitter send a number to the reciever? Is the information transmitted by changing the amplitude of the wave?

 

Funny,Ive been thinking of a similae project.At t he moment I'm flaton my back due to a stroke .My thought was simple AM digital as in you key an oscillator on and off.In most countries if it is kept at low power it is legal. If this interests you maybe we can collaborate.PMme if are intestrd

 

I'm not even sure if I'll end up building this thing. I dont have the money to buy a radio controller and reciever and can't find any schematics for how to build a simple radio control system or how radio control systems use radio waves to transmit information. Hopefully you're having more success than I've had at finding what you need for your project.

 

@uraniumhexoflorite

We have a couple projects on the site that might help -- especially if you don't have much experience with these things. If you can source used materials off of Craigslist or ebay, it's just a matter of hooking up wires.

https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/building-an-rc-robot-using-a-wheelchair-base/
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/projects/building-an-rc-robot-using-a-wheelchair-base-part-2/

 

I did some research and found an answer to one of my questions. A friend told me that AM radio (Amplitude Modulation) transmits data via the amplitude of the radio wave. I was wondering if it's possible to transmit more than 1 bit of information a frequency. I'm planning on making this thingy from salvaged parts. I don't want to spend very much, if any, money on this project (I have a lot of random bits of metal and circuit components), which means that buying a radio controller is way over my budget.