Radio Control Help Please (Arduino)

Question

I am trying to upgrade a my robot I built. I Have a IR remote control which has about a ten-twenty foot range. I am buying a new chassis and everything but I am having trouble understanding the basics of Radio control. I have googled "Arduino RC", but it is way to complicated for me. I understand the basics of Arduino coding and the bare bones of remote control but it gets a bit complicated.

My Questions are : Is their a easy trick I can learn with the Arduino to help get a radio controlled robot? ( Like in this tutorial with pressing a button and putting the numbers in the code)

Is their a tutorial some where that explains a lot about Radio control that is easy and no complicated?

(Any other suggestions for radio control)

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks!

Ben

vandia · Accepted Answer

Hi Ben!

First, since it's not clear from your post, I wanted to make absolutely sure you know there's a difference between radio (RF) and infrared (IR).
-IR typically has wider ranger and has a much lower energy cost, but requires a line of sight from source to sensor, with something transparent as a protective shield in some cases.
-RF can work through many materials, if you need to cover the sensor, or need to control it from different directions, where a clear path to the sensor is not practical or doable.

Which you are using typically doesn't change your programming, other than sometimes what files must be included, because you're typically just reading a value from the digital port it's plugged into. It typically returns a number or other data to the Arduino based on the sensor being used to receive the remote. I believe there are packages for reading data from those sensors, but I always prefer to use a remote that just returns a digital number.

When you use one of them, you can just use a "Case" statement, based on reading/testing what each button's value is in the serial monitor, example here if you need to know how to use the serial monitor: https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/adafruit-arduino-lesson-5-the-serial-monitor.pdf

Once you (figure out/write down) what each input from the sensor for your remote returns digitally (let's say you press "up", and it returns "3" in the monitor, you write a case statement for input 3, and do the instructions either by writing them directly under case, or calling the function/statement. A case example if you need it can be seen here: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Reference/SwitchCase

Sorry if this seems a bit wordy, but I reading sensors directly when possible is usually better to customize than returning data from a package/parser, which I'm guessing is what you looked up and found to be confusing.

Also, please remember to select a best answer, for whichever you believe is the best, rather than leaving the topic open.
Good luck!

COMPACT · Answer

IR control is Radio control using the Infrared wavelengths. Adapting to other forms is easy if you understand how the IR control works. Using other wavelengths may entail different encoding methods better suited to their frequency ranges. I cover IR radio control in one of my VY Canis Majoris posts. Just holler if you're interested and I'll repost it for you.

jw0752 · Answer

Hi Ben, Jeremy Blum has a great book called Exploring Arduino. http://www.exploringarduino.com/ Chapter 11 covers using Xbee Radios to set up a wireless link. This would be just a beginning but once you have a link you can begin to program the functions of your robot. Keep us posted on your progress. John

WarrenW · Answer

Essentially the Radio link can easily be setup, the structure of the data can be preset to an array of data bits and these bits can be used by the receiver to turn on/off the controls. Pretty simple for on/off control. Now if there is a need to get a proportional system running, e.g. steering via a pot or speed control you will need to transmit a little bit more in the way of a complex signal as the analogue value of your input will need to be transferred. Again that can be handled in the structure of the data that you define and the analogue signal could then be extracted and used to drive a PWM servo system of sorts. Great to see another member exploring the Arduino platform. I am still getting to grips with mine. Cheers Warren.

hank_the_electric_explorer · Answer

Thanks for clarifying this should be pretty darn easy. -Ben

Radio Control Help Please (Arduino)

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