Where would I start if I wanted to build an RF remote but have no experience with anything like that?

Question

Where would I start if I wanted to build an RF remote but have no experience with anything like that?

Answer 1

You can buy one for a few dollars.

Are you planning to build one that works with your TV? or are you building a transmitter and a receiver?

That's important because the ones you use at home transmit a complicated code when you press the button, so that when you press volume up on the TV, your AC doesn't see the signal and turn off.

An IR transmitter is just an IR LED a bunch of buttons, and a ROM that translated the buttons that you press into the correct code that you appliance understands. Different kinds of codes are used, some use different IR frequencies, some modulate the IR with audio signals, some pulse the IR on/off with a digital code. The last is the most common.

see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_cont...

Answer 2

This involves construction of a radio transmitter.   Depending on the frequency, power, and country you live in, you may require a license in order to build or operate that.

If you limit your power source to a 9V battery or less, and your frequency to the ISM (industry / scientific / medical) bands, you might be able to manage without a license.

If you live in Canada, check sd.ic.gc.ca.

If in the USA, check www.fcc.gov.

Next, you can either purchase modules like ZigBee from suppliers like Digikey, or you can attempt to build your own.

From scratch, probably the simplest transmitter would be an oscillator around 540 kHz (bottom end of the AM broadcast band) connected to a low power amplifier, and an antenna.  You can use this to indicate two states: on and off.  Connect to a pushbutton to transmit.

For something more advanced, try encoding a bit stream from a serial port using two audio frequencies, and then broadcasting the alternating frequencies over the AM transmitter listed above.

For more resources, (in increasing order) ask a local amateur radio operator,

or register at your nearest community college for :

1 course at night school,

2 year Electronics Technician diploma or

3 year Electronics Technologist diploma,

or at any University for 4 year Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree.