Hello everyone,
Latly ive been thinking about controlling a RC Toy helicopter using an arduino and a IR Transmitter hooked up to the arduino. So say for example if I pushed a button on the arduino it would send a signal to the heli and it would gradually go up in the z axis, etc....
I first need to figure out what type would be easy to use. Like a 2 channel or 3 channel,guessing a 2 channel. But I have no idea on how to decode the IR signals themselves or how to buy the right IR transmitter to transmit the signal from the arduino. I was thinking of taking apart the remote and digging out the transmitter to see if I could somehow hack into it and hook it up to the arduino. But im not sure yet. Any ideas or sites would be amazing. Thanks
Do you really mean a single-rotor helicopter, or a popular quadrocopter?
The right place for hooking in your control depends on your skills. Most important is the location of the helicopter built-in intelligence, required for stable flight.
In the easiest case the Arduino will fake the buttons and joysticks used in the RC console, if any. Quadrocopters often are steered (also) by tilting the console, what will be harder to fake.
Next comes faking the RC signals, based on your own commands. Therefore you need to know which commands can be sent, and how the related signals look like. Almost the same when you transmit the signals to the on-board receiver/controller by IR.
When you also want to replace the on-board controller, and send your commands directly to the on-board actors, you most probably will not only have to transmit your own commands, but also must add the logic to control and stabilize the heli.