Completely New

I've never used an Arduino before, but I think what I am trying to accomplish is not very difficult. Essentially it is a remote with buttons where each button sends out a RF signal. When a specific RF receiver gets this signal, then it triggers a motor. I drew a crude picture of how I think it would look. I watched a video of a guy who had used these XBee devices. One sent a signal to another, and they both were hooked up to these shields which were hooked up to the Arduino Boards. While he was able to get this to work, I don't think all of that would be necessary for what I am trying to accomplish. I may be wrong, but if this can be done a simpler way (so without 2 boards and 2 shields and 2 Xbee's) what would need to be used? The reason I say this is because the goal is to have a large number of switches each sending messages to different receivers (in the attached diagram I only have 3, but probably in total maybe 6). All of these would add up pretty expensive. Thanks in advance for any and all help. Also I'm not sure if I need one transmitter for each switch or not, so I only put one in the outline.

Here is the picture:

Welcome :slight_smile:

I have downloaded a e-book called:

Make - Arduino Bots and Gadgets - Six Embedded Projects with Open Source Hardware and Software

In this book they are hacking a remote control (that controls outlets, see image) and make it controlled by Arduino. See if you can download that book too!

Thank you for showing me this. I looked at this book quickly and will have more time to look at it tomorrow, but from what I have seen chapter 7 seems similar to what I want to do. However like I said I am completely new to this, so I'll probably have my fair share of questions since this is somewhat different from my goal.

I made a 16 button RF remote control with a Promini and 434 MHz transmitter.
On a button press, the promini wakes up, sends the key pressed, goes back to sleep.

Receiver(s) must be awake all the time to listen for messages.

Powered from 1000mAH LiPo battery.
Blank spot was for MAX1811 battery charger chip.

434 MHz Tx/Rx parts like these
http://www.robotshop.com/433mhz-high-sensitivity-transmitter-receiver-pair-rxa30.html

Other inexpensive RF options exist as well:
http://www.mdfly.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=8&products_id=81

Search around ...

And here's a pair for $1.80... Mine work ok.
http://www.electrodragon.com/?product=433m-rf-wireless-module-a-pair-of-receiver-and-transmitter
For the parts count and cost they should sell for $.50 Ea But at least these are somewhat less expensive. I usually get my parts in 7 or 8 day's too.

Doc

CrossRoads:
I made a 16 button RF remote control with a Promini and 434 MHz transmitter.
On a button press, the promini wakes up, sends the key pressed, goes back to sleep.

Receiver(s) must be awake all the time to listen for messages.

Powered from 1000mAH LiPo battery.
Blank spot was for MAX1811 battery charger chip.

I looked at the book, and it seems like you have a better way and is closer to what am I seek to do. I want to get started with this in a few weeks (maybe 4-5?) and so would like to clarify some things. First of all would I directly program the receiver to activate the motor, or would I need something to tell the receiver what to do when it gets a signal? Secondly, it looks like you only use one transmitter in the picture. Is only one needed? If only one is, then did you use different frequencies to communicate with each different receiver? If so, would changing the frequency that each receiver would pick up be in the coding? If not how else would I set the receiver to only pick up certain frequencies to avoid interference? I really appreciate you replying to this and offering your help. Hopefully I can get this remote set up by the end.