Radio Control Help Please (Arduino)

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!

Don't confuse the poor fellow!

IR is only a tiny portion of the RF spectrum (and thus has a narrower bandwidth by definition).

It's the small area of the RF spectrum below red visible light which Herschel discovered in 1800 when doing prismatic experiments.

With all due respect, going into the information you just did I feel would be more confusing and impertinent information for someone just learning....

For most practical purposes, RF frequencies used refers to VHF and UHF when it comes to electronics. While you're not wrong, I felt what I told him would be most pertinent to helping him get on the right track, at least moreso than a history lesson of a broader scale.

Happy Friday!

No it doesn't!

Practical electronics the whole RF spectrum from 9kHz to just under 300GHz. (Submarines probably use ULF below 9kHz.) and above light frequencies such as X-Rays.

e.g. 90kHz for radio location, 535-1735 kHz for Broadcast Radio, WiFi = 2.4GHz,

Infrared is just located above RADAR frequencies.

No it doesn't!

Practical electronics the whole RF spectrum from 9kHz to just under 300GHz. (Submarines probably use ULF below 9kHz.) and above light frequencies such as X-Rays.

e.g. 90kHz for radio location, 535-1735 kHz for Broadcast Radio, WiFi = 2.4GHz,

Infrared is just located above RADAR frequencies.