Hi. I am not sure if this is the ideal place to ask this question but here goes, any help on it would be much appreciated. I want to build a simple remote controlled circuit, purely to make a switch remote controlled and wondered what the best way to do this would be. The remote won't be in the line of sight of the receiver so any kind of IR solution wont work. I have been looking at RF transmitters/receivers on Maplins website but I am not sure how to go about including said parts into a simple circuit, and my web search has been little to no help. It seems like a simple enough task, I just want say the ability to press a button on the the transmitter side of things and an LED light on the receiver.

Any help of tips would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jamie.

 

No IR is a shame because you very likely have an old piece of equipment with a remote that you could gladly scrap.

RF remotes are more rare, or are they. Look for a cheap remote control toy.

If you want simple then adapting a broken toy is the simplest way.
If you don't have any then you must not have kids. Hopefully you have friends with kids. Ask them to see if they can look through their toybox for a broken toy with a remote control.

Now if you literally want to build it all yourself then how well set up is your workshop is the first question. Do you have an Oscilloscope with over 45MHz resolution? That is the kind of thing that will be helpful to know.

 

try looking through the remote control section of this site www.rentron.com, they provide circuit schematics and parts, so maybe you can gather the parts you need if available from Maplin...

B. Morse

 

Many thanks for all the help and suggestions. I had thought about modifying an existing product to give me what I need, in particular a simple wireless doorbell which I have done before with good results. However I would really like to tackle the challenge head on and build it from scratch for a couple of reasons: firstly I want to try and make the transmitter as small as possible (admittedly the doorbell transmitter may already be the smallest) and secondly my application will be as follows:

Two transmitters, small as possible, when a transmitter switch is pressed the correct LED on the receiver is lit. If I understand correctly looking at this http://www.rentron.com/Files/TWSAKIT.pdf could I have two transmitters, of the same type model etc., build the simple 4-bit transmitter and receiver circuits, using the first transmitter with channel 1 and the second with channel 2. Would that then allow me to use just one receiver module?

Cheers,

Jamie.

Edit: I don't have an oscilloscope, but I am hoping this won't be a problem with these off the shelf transmitters and receivers. Also as a side note the distance between transmitter and receiver need only be 10ft or less.

 

The kit you linked to on that PDF is a bit overkill for what you want to do, try this one >> http://www.rentron.com/remote_control/R8_4BIT.htm Although it gives you 4 inputs, atleast you will have extra for adding other functions later on... and this kit is a bit easier for the beginners...

B. Morse

 

Thanks again for the reply, the set you linked to certainly seems ideal. Being in the UK I am going to go for this encoder/decoder however http://www.maplin.co.uk/media/pdfs/N49AU_N50AU.pdf I am presuming with a paired set of RF transmitters and receiver this will do the intended job.

Many thanks for all your help,

Jamie.

 

Yes, those should work with any paired RF TX/RX modules.... you should look into the Linx Technologies RF transmitter/Receivers... they are a little easier to use than those TWS modules, with the Linx modules, you do not have to mess around with tuning the modules unlike the TWS modules which have a trimming capacitor that is used to tune them and can break real easy.... (I have used the TWS modules once before, I had nothing but issues with the interference and all, I had switched to the Linx modules, and have been using those in all kinds of RF projects without a hitch)

B. Morse