An Overview Of The Simple Pyro RF Receiver (27 MHz)
Building a simple RF transmitter and RF receiver as it turns out is anything but simple. There are many pitfalls such as your measurement equipment (DMM/Oscilloscope) lying to you. Even worse, since the inductor in our tuned circuit for the receiver is open and not shieled, our bodies can effect the LC tuned frequency simple by move your arm near the receiver. However, even with all these potential pitfalls and annoyances, the transmitter and receiver did work together as we had hoped and success was consistent.
What To Do Now
After building this rf transmitter and receiver and getting it working, there are many other routes to explore from this starting point. The first and foremost would be hardening both designs so that their RF circuits are protected from outside influences. Second would be to test out the different achievable ranges with different amplifier stage configurations. A third route to take would be to test out how easy it is to send serial data over a link like this, it would need to be low frequency (2400 baud) but I'm pretty sure you could get it working!
Conclusion
The purpose as we originally set out with, was to build an rf transmitter and rf receiver pair that turned an LED on when the transmitter's button was pressed. In that 'simple' goal we were successful. In addition to reaching that goal, we have learned quite a bit about the different components in an RF transmitter and RF receiver that are necessary to build up a continuous wave signal to be transmitted out of an antenna. So what are you waiting for, get building to make your own!
If you have any further questions, I implore you...don't be shy, take a look at the forums or ask a question there. I check them out regularly and love getting comments & questions.
Building a simple RF transmitter and RF receiver as it turns out is anything but simple. There are many pitfalls such as your measurement equipment (DMM/Oscilloscope) lying to you. Even worse, since the inductor in our tuned circuit for the receiver is open and not shieled, our bodies can effect the LC tuned frequency simple by move your arm near the receiver. However, even with all these potential pitfalls and annoyances, the transmitter and receiver did work together as we had hoped and success was consistent.
What To Do Now
After building this rf transmitter and receiver and getting it working, there are many other routes to explore from this starting point. The first and foremost would be hardening both designs so that their RF circuits are protected from outside influences. Second would be to test out the different achievable ranges with different amplifier stage configurations. A third route to take would be to test out how easy it is to send serial data over a link like this, it would need to be low frequency (2400 baud) but I'm pretty sure you could get it working!
Conclusion
The purpose as we originally set out with, was to build an rf transmitter and rf receiver pair that turned an LED on when the transmitter's button was pressed. In that 'simple' goal we were successful. In addition to reaching that goal, we have learned quite a bit about the different components in an RF transmitter and RF receiver that are necessary to build up a continuous wave signal to be transmitted out of an antenna. So what are you waiting for, get building to make your own!
If you have any further questions, I implore you...don't be shy, take a look at the forums or ask a question there. I check them out regularly and love getting comments & questions.