How do I know if I can use a transmitter with Arduino? How can I control this?

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hey guys. I want to undertake a project for simple, cheap, home automation. For fun and for purpose.

I have several ceiling fans which are controlled by Hunter fan control modules that can change the brightness, fan speed..etc. I also have a spare 350Mhz RF remote. I would like to use this remote to control the fans from my PC/Web/Arduino. Right now, I'm looking for the niceest way to make the remote work.

Is there a way to rig this RF 350Mhz remote with Arduino? I don't see any serial port or digital line gizmo. Obviously I could get several remotes, set the dip switches appropriately, and then use relays to simulate button presses. Come to think of it, I could probably also use relays to simulate dip switch changes too. That should work. Is there a better way? Can the arduino "short" connections by itself without relays?

I've got a header for the buttons in red. I can jump the top one with any number of the lower ones to "press buttons"
I've got a header for the LED that no one cares about, also in red.

I've got a little three pin header. I don't know what it does.
I've got a little two pin header. I don't know what it does.
Both of these are obviously more than a power or ground between the two boards. They go to the inside PCB. I dont want to tear apart my remote to find out where they go unless it's worth it.

2

I couldn't tell by the pictures, but if the remote uses infrared controls like most TV remotes do, you typically would need to put an IR receiver and IR transmitter LED on your Arduino. You would then press the button, and run software to see what the control sequence that is sent, and then arrange the Arduino to send the same control sequence. There are various IR libraries to help you do this, including this one: A Multi-Protocol Infrared Remote Library for the Arduino

3

Thank you for the advice. I'll have to look into that when I get to the IR Blaster stage, which seems easier than this one.

I should have mentioned it's a 350Mhz RF Remote.