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mdf

mdf

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#240772 25-Sep-2018 14:20
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Hopefully straightforward (perhaps blindingly obvious) query re soldering antennae.

 

I bought this RF tranceiver set, due to a positive review here (scroll down to Qiachip). I've tried wiring this up to a Raspberry Pi (using a t-cobbler, rainbow cable and jumper leads) and using rpi-rf. To start, I was just trying to see if it worked by poking the antennae into the relevant hole. While rpi-rf did detect some codes at random times, these didn't seem to correspond at all to when I was actually pushing buttons on a couple of different RF remotes.

 

I am hoping (since it's the easiest solution) that this problem is just do to the antennae and if I solder them in I might have some success. However, before I do so, I was wondering if there was a right way (and therefore likely many wrong ways) of soldering these in? Do I just stick the 90 degree bit in and solder with the through the hole method? Is there are reason for the odd kink in the tail of the transmit antenna? Some of the pictures I've seen on line seem to have an antenna loop soldered in at a couple of points, not just a single one.

 

My actual goal is to control a central heating system that uses RF remotes. I've had several failures so far, including this one, a $1 RF transceiver set and a Broadlink RM Pro. If anyone has a bullet proof solution with fewer jumper cables, I'm open to that too.

 

 


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elpenguino
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  #2097150 26-Sep-2018 22:48
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I would imagine the kink is to stop you inserting too much of the lead through the hole - only the bit between the very end of the wire up to and including the first bend should be inserted.

 

The boards and aerials are probably designed to be as small as possible in one dimension so they fit in a pocket fob. i.e. the aerials don't need to stand straight up relative to the PCB.

 

The antennae shown are unbalanced and that means they only have a single connection at one end.

 

If any aerial is connected at more than one point it is probably due to it having a ground connection. You would probably get more range from that type of aerial but you would need to know a bit more about your devices first.

 

So yep, in the hole and solder away.

 

It appears from the data sheet that you need to feed a data stream into the 'data' pin on the transmitter and extract and decode this stream on your receiver.

 

If that's what you need, great. OTOH there are simpler remotes, in the garage door style where when you press a transmit button (1 to 4) , the corresponding logic pin on the reciever toggles in level. E.g.

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/DC12v-10A-relay-2CH-wireless-Remote-Contro-RF-Remote-Control-Switch-teleswitch-4Transmitter-1-Receiver-Learning/32507194875.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dcQqGwg

 

 

 

What do you want to achieve?





Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21




andrewNZ
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  #2097174 27-Sep-2018 06:20
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The bend is do the antenna is on the same plane as the pcb, rather than poking out like a giant component.

Rightly or wrongly, I solder the antenna so it lies across the back of the board. I just make sure it doesn't short anything out.
I might have even put a little heat shrink over it first.

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