RF TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER

BY HEMANT RAJ KUMAR

HISTORY OF RF MODULE
The first primitive radio transmitters (called Hertzian oscillators) were built by German physist Heinrich Hertz in 1887 during his pioneering investigations of radio waves. These generated radio waves by a high voltage spark between two conductors. These spark-gap transmitters were used during the first three decades of radio (1887-1917), called the wireless telegraphy era.

Contu.
Earlier technologies were replaced by vacuum tube transmitters in the 1920s, because they were inexpensive and produced continuous waves, which could be modulated to transmit audio (sound) using amplitude modulation (AM) and frequency modulation (FM).

RF MODULE
The RF module, as the name suggests, operates at Radio Frequency. The corresponding frequency range varies between 30 kHz & 300 GHz. In this RF system, the digital data is represented as variations in the amplitude of carrier wave. This kind of modulation is known as Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK).

RF vs IR
Transmission through RF is better than IR (infrared) because of many reasons. 1- Firstly, signals through RF can travel through larger distances making it suitable for long range applications. Also, while IR mostly operates in line-of-sight mode, RF signals can travel even when there is an obstruction between transmitter & receiver. 2-Next, RF transmission is more strong and reliable than IR transmission. RF communication uses a specific frequency unlike IR signals which are affected by other IR emitting sources.

RF TRANSMITTER RECEIVER MODULE

This RF module comprises of an RF Transmitter and an RF Receiver. The transmitter/receiver (Tx/Rx) pair operates at a frequency of 434 MHz. An RF transmitter receives serial data and transmits it wirelessly through RF through its antenna connected at pin4. The transmission occurs at the rate of 1Kbps - 10Kbps. The transmitted data is received by an RF receiver operating at the same frequency as that of the transmitter

CONTU.
The RF module is often used alongwith a pair of encoder/decoder. The encoder is used for encoding parallel data for transmission feed while reception is decoded by a decoder.

PIN CONFIGURATION

PIN FUNCTION OF TX/RX

Pin No 1 Function Ground (0V) Name Ground

2
3 4

Serial data input pin

Supply voltage; 5V Antenna output pin

Data
Vcc ANT

Pin No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Function Ground (0V) Serial data output pin Linear output pin; not connected Supply voltage; 5V Supply voltage; 5V Ground (0V) Ground (0V) Antenna input pin

Name Ground Data NC Vcc Vcc Ground Ground ANT

RF MODULE KIT

WORKING
An RF transmitter generates radio frequency waves in its circuits, and to this 'carrier signal', it adds the information part by modulating the carrier signal. This composite signal (carrier plus information) is then fed to an antenna (aerial).The aerial induces a corresponding signal into the atmosphere, by altering the Electric and Magnetic fields at (obviously) the same frequency. The impedance of 'free space' is few tens of Ohms to a few hundreds of Ohms. The power emitted by the transmitter can vary from a megawatt or so (for VLF signals) to a few watts for handheld devices.

CONTU..
An Rf receiver receives the signal from the atmosphere, from its own aerial. The receiver aerial is often quite simple, and the signal level is typically of a few microvolts.This it tunes in (gets rid of unwanted signals and amplifies only the wanted ones).

The receiver circuits then strip the information part of the signal from the carrier part, and amplify this to a useful level for audio or video.
The actual signal into the loudspeaker will be a few tens of volts. In spite of the inefficiency of loudspeakers, (often only a few %) the signal eventually appears at a level that may be heard. A background radio will be a few milliwatts of power.

RF PARAMETERS
Tune Frequency Connection Connection to a control object which provides the current transmitter tune frequency in Hz. Tune Frequency Frequency value (in Hz) used for comparison to determine which radios will receive the transmission signal. Note: A zero value of frequency disables transmission. A frequency value of 1 to 100000 provides a clear communication channel, with no attenuation, powerloss, or occulting effects.

APPLICATIONS
vehicle monitoring remote control small-range wireless network access control systems wireless home security systems

industrial data acquisition system

radio tags reading

FUTURE OF RF MODULES
Alpha Transmitter / Receiver Modules Paired FM Transmitter and FM Receiver Modules Data Rate up to 115Kbps Range up to 300 metres FM Frequencies available: 433, 868 and 915MHz Wide operating voltage 2.2V- 5.4V

THANK YOU