However, I was wondering if there is a surface mount version of these chips since i want to make my project as small as possible. I have been looking around but am kinda swamped with all the options and i really dont need anything complicated since im only sending a 8 bit message through manchester encoding.
I see that there are transceivers for like 5$ that are surface mount, but i only need a one way connection so i was thinking it would be cheaper to get a smt transmitter and smt receiver to help save on costs.
one feature i would like would be if the transmitter or reciever could be set on different frequencies so that my connections dont interfere with each other. i saw some chips like the TI cc1050 that can be set to different frequencies.
Can anyone help me waddle through the tons of chips out there to something that would be easy, cheap, and small to incorporate into the arduino?
The RFM12B module is surface-mountable (or you can plug in with 2mm pitch headers), but is a full transceiver design rather than simple RF link. Check out all the stuff at JeeLabs.org for lots of quality information and Arduino libraries about this module (3.3V though). It might not have the range you need though, but is available on several ISM bands and is cheap.
Yea i saw that chip but its still kinda big? I mean some of the nordic trancievers (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/690) are TINY (5mm x 5mm)! I was hoping for a simple RF link in that kind of package so its easily implemented into my current circuit. Also, I am trying to stay away from transcievers since I only need one way connection and getting a rf link for 4$ sounds alot better than buying two transceivers (the cheapest i found was 4$ each) since i plan to build multiple boards so the costs add up.
You need all the RF circuitry as well as the silicon - crystal, the antenna matching circuit (the inductors make this hard to integrate with the silicon!) and possibly LNB/Power amp too if longer range is needed - look at the modules that use the nRF chip and you'll see its even larger than the Hope RF modules. In theory there can be substantially smaller RF modules (small xtal, minimal antenna-matching circuit), but I haven't seen any smaller than the 16mmx16mm of the HopeRF modules (not for a transceiver at least).
Designing an RF circuit from scratch using the nRF chip or similar would be doable if you have the right test equipment and understand RF design issues. An advantage of using stock modules is that they have been approved as complying with EMI/RFI regulations.