Connecting up with old RF device

Hi, I'm pretty much a total beginner here. I do basic electronics for a hobby, I'm kinda mostly a programmer and been interested in looking to playing around with something like Arduino's for the mixing of the two bits together :slight_smile:

anyway.. I'm toying around with an old remote control toy which I believe the Remote uses an RF freq of 49.860 mhz. I'm wondering IF I could connect the Arduino to remote control to .. mm.. basically piggy back. and on the toy side, another Arduino connected to the receiver and well, the controls in the toy won't do anything with the Arduino commands, but the ardunio that is sharing the receiver, can use the signals?

I'm very unsure if this is possible or.. even practical.. in which case it's just a matter of sticking a SECOND RF transmitter in the control (for the Ardunio) and an second receiver for the receiving.

Thanks :slight_smile:

Connecting the receiver’s output to two things should be no problem.

However, connecting an Arduino to fire the remote could be a bit more tricky and a lot depends on the circuit of the remote you are using. Most remotes do not come with schematics so it will be a matter of probing about and seeing what sort of signals are on the remote’s push buttons that you want the Arduino to press.

Ah, that's sounds good. Thanks

I was more thinking of adding new features then getting the Arduino to send the same signals as the normal buttons. If I'm understanding your comment right.

I'm not sure if I could just 'plug into' the onboard one for transmitting.. or just the aerial.. Looking at the remote.. the main ic which looks like the only IC, is a M6411B-11 small 4-bit CMOS.. other then that.. most of the remote is fairly simple.. mm.. I don't have an oscilloscope or know how to use one if I did, but.. wonder if I could kinda 'record' the signals being sent and ID them all to pretty much recreate the remote.. sounds a bit too much out there for me though.. and pointless.. kinda just wanna piggy back.

was more thinking of adding new features then getting the Arduino to send the same signals as the normal buttons. If I'm understanding your comment right.

The big problem with that is that you don’t know if there are any unused codes in the set of codes that the receiver can interprete that you can add with the Arduino.

I'm not sure if I could just 'plug into' the onboard one for transmitting

Again it depends on the circuit. Basically you can’t just connect outputs together as they will interfere with each other. You can’t do anything with the antenna because that means anything you send to it will also blast into the other transmitter and most probably damage it.

ah yes... point.. I'm not as concerned about any unused code but yes.. It could easily overload it or something.. Better idea would be to just add a second aerial both ends or (and this is a bit too advance for me) have the Arduino receive the signals and decide if it should be passed to the original circuits or deal with it itself.. but that, like I said, too advance for me..

Thanks :slight_smile: this is helped a lot with learning and working out stuff

Better idea would be to just add a second aerial both ends

That also is not without its difficulties. You need to separate aerials by at least a quarter of a wavelength from each other and preferably a wavelength or longer to stop them from interfering with each other.