I have no trouble with my 433MHz transmitter, but I would like to know how to drive it without a library. Basically I want to know how it actually works and not just rely on the library. But of course whenever I google it, I just find people talking about how to use the libraries.
it's very complicated - search for "ASK modulation" which should be on the datasheet of that 433MHz you have.
that's the part the library does for you.
a senior might correct me, but i understand it's like software encoding/decoding between the TX/RX pins.
http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=433Mhz_RF_link_kit
I can add to retronet_RIMBA1ZO, that the ASK modulation means that the transmitter can only be turned on and off, nothing else. That means you almost can not get any information transmitted, until a library is used to switch the transmitter on and off with a certain special sequence.
The term 'ASK' is Amplitude Shift Keying, that is a over-the-top name for something that can only turn on and off.
Those cheap receivers have a automatic gain. So they can not be used to detect if the transmitter is on or off. They can detect a certain special sequence of pulses, but you need a library to recognize that sequence.
The VirtualWire library is very good. The receiving part can handle a few noise pulses, it uses a checksum, a balanced transmission signal and so on. That library does the modulation, so the library turns the transmitter on and off.
stoopkid:
Basically I want to know how it actually works and not just rely on the library.
As others have pointed out, it is more complex than it looks on the surface. If your goal is only to understand how it works, one great place to look is in the library itself, in both the documentation and the source code. If you really want to write your own routines, you will likely end up with pretty much the same code as you will find in the library, as the author of the library has done a pretty good job of optimizing the transmission for best reliability.
Edit: Hmm... I didn't mention thatthe library I am referring to is VirtualWire.