Have you ever tried using a remote control and stopped to wonder how that little gear controls your gadget?
What Is a Remote Control?
Remote controls are hand-held, small electronic devices you use to control gadgets from a distance.
How Does a Remote Control Work?
Remote controls work with a receiver and transmitter.
The receiver is within the gadget to be controlled, and the transmitter is in the remote control.
Image Credit:Raimond Spekking/WIkimedia Commons
As the names imply, the transmitter sends an encoded signal, which the receiver decodes and executes.
A transmitter is made up of a set of buttons, an integrated circuit board, and batteries.
Buttons
Remote control buttons are usually made from rubber.
Image Credit:Raimond Spekking/WIkimedia Commons
The backside of each button has a thin conductive layer made from graphite.
The conductive layer connects the buttons with the printed circuit board.
You press the buttons to input commands.
It has a programmed integrated circuit, power supply connectors, transistors, and a transmitter module.
Batteries
Remote controls are usually powered by one or two 1.5-volt batteries.
The batteries provide the power the integrated circuit board needs to generate signals after you press the buttons.
Image Credit:Peter Hebels/Wikimedia Commons
Capacitors help to draw energy from the batteries into the circuit.
The circuit is completed when you press the buttons.
you oughta be in the line of sight of a gadget to use its IR remote control.
The IR light is simply specific binary codes generated when you press the buttons.
The microprocessor then executes the command.
RF remote controls have RF transmitter modules that transmit the radio frequencies after generation from the integrated circuit.
