RF Transmitter/Receiver Without Arduino?

[_Nate_]

Hi, my name is Nate and I'm a growing electronics enthusiast. I love to come up with new ideas for projects, and recently I found an rf transmitter and receiver for arduino on ebay. The specific one I'm talking about is at the bottom of this thread. I have looked up many tutorials on how to go about using this, and all of those I could find involved arduinos. Lots of them. One to give off the signal and one to receive it. However, I would like to find out how I can wire these transmitters and receivers to transmit things like audio or just power input to turn on an led at a distance, without arduino. Can someone help me with this?


\/ My rf transmitter&receiver \/
https://www.amazon.com/SMAKN®-433Mhz-Transmitter-Receiver-Arduino/dp/B00M2CUALS

 

[Bluejets]

Why? Arduino only cost a couple of bucks and there is support for them.

 

[_Nate_]

Arduino is a bit more than a couple of bucks, and I want something smaller and sleeker.

 

[Bluejets]

I use pro mini on many occasions, yes a couple of bucks and small and sleek. Anyhow, you consider you know better then go for it.

 

[kellys_eye]

Here's an advert for FIVE Arduino (mini's) that work out at $3 each.....

If you want simple RF on/off, buy a wireless doorbell system.

 

[_Nate_]

Not what I asked for.

 

[kellys_eye]

Nearly all transmitters will require a digital signal of some form - unless you build your own - therefore the requirement to encode and decode is going to be an integral part of the system hence the use of an Arduino (or other similar) device.

You can get simple powered mains sockets (adapters) that you plug in and use thir remote control for switching things on/off but for anything more complicated than 'on/off' you're looking at 'modulation' which, as stated, is invariably digital.

Even simple on/off devices these days have a digital aspect although to the user this is transparent but, as far as the actual signal is concerned, is certainly there. Without it there is too great a risk for interference - false operation - so you either accept the technology as it is or your design your own.

 

[(*steve*)]

The small transmitter and receiver modules that you see are often far more than just transmitters and receivers -- especially those that operate in the 2.4GHz spectrum.

Most plain transmitters and receivers you'll find are in the 433 MHz band (like this). Most of these are simple CW transmitters (you turn them on and off rather than modulating then.

Modules like this are much more complex. The chipset understands a communications protocol that can automatically acknowledge messages and retransmit if they are garbled. There reason they are used with microcontrollers is that they provide an API that is used to control link level behaviour. They have the bandwidth to send audio, but you would do it by sending a bitstream, not an actual audio signal.

When you look at modules like this, you're going another step up in complexity again. These will add their own microcontroller and probably a digital to analog converter to convert a bitstream into audio (or vice versa for a transmitter). These need all the smarts to do the link level stuff, plus understand the Bluetooth protocol and how to establish a connection.

So, what is it you actually want to do? Knowing that, we may be able to assist you in finding the correct type of module.

 

[_Nate_]

So I mainly want to do this:
Hook up an electret microphone to input into the transmitter and then have it output on a speaker in the receiver. How do I do this?

 

[kellys_eye]

The simplest method would be to use a basic FM transmitter and receive on a portable radio. Many schematics exist for such devices - 'bugs'.

But the form of transmitted signal (signal power/range/frequency) depends on the rules/regs of your country and may require licensing. Far easier to get a set of PMR handhelds.