Remote (radio) control but NOT of models

[speedy2]

Does anyone here know anything about radio-controlling things OTHER than
models? This means knowledge of r/c itself, rather than just buying transmit
and receive black boxes from a model shop!

In particular, I'm looking to make a remotely controlled 4 channel audio
mixer, which will have the manual slider pots in the transmitter, remote
from the mixer itself, which will in turn NOT have sound level pots moved by
motors or servos (too slow and too power hungry), but use fets controlled by
integrators from the receiver.

Can anyone suggest someone with knowledge of this sort of electronics, or
perhaps any book or publication that might help.

I know that if I had a lot of money, I could go to people like Strand
Electric and buy this off the shelf, but it is for a model engineering club,
where we have problems with the in-house sound system, which is too remote
(and uncontrollable) from our meeting.

If anyone can help - many thanks in advance for anything you can offer or
suggest.

Dave. G4UGT BSMEE, Bristol

 

[Michael D. Cencula]

speedy2 wrote:

Does anyone here know anything about radio-controlling things OTHER than
models? This means knowledge of r/c itself, rather than just buying
transmit and receive black boxes from a model shop!

In particular, I'm looking to make a remotely controlled 4 channel audio
mixer, which will have the manual slider pots in the transmitter, remote
from the mixer itself, which will in turn NOT have sound level pots moved
by motors or servos (too slow and too power hungry), but use fets
controlled by integrators from the receiver.

Can anyone suggest someone with knowledge of this sort of electronics, or
perhaps any book or publication that might help.

I know that if I had a lot of money, I could go to people like Strand
Electric and buy this off the shelf, but it is for a model engineering
club, where we have problems with the in-house sound system, which is too
remote (and uncontrollable) from our meeting.

If anyone can help - many thanks in advance for anything you can offer or
suggest.

Dave. G4UGT BSMEE, Bristol

I subscribe to Circuit Cellar, and it seems like they are always advertising
900MHz (and maybe 2.4GHz) wireless communications device pairs. Seems like
it would be simple enough to hook up your system similar to:

Sliders -> A/D -> wireless xmit ----> wireless rcv -> D/A -> amplifier

Sounds like a fun project.
Best regards,
Mike

 

[James Sweet]

"Michael D. Cencula" <junk3@cencula.com> wrote in message
news:bKzZb.3619$6t5.2608@fe3.columbus.rr.com...

speedy2 wrote:

Does anyone here know anything about radio-controlling things OTHER than
models? This means knowledge of r/c itself, rather than just buying
transmit and receive black boxes from a model shop!

In particular, I'm looking to make a remotely controlled 4 channel audio
mixer, which will have the manual slider pots in the transmitter, remote
from the mixer itself, which will in turn NOT have sound level pots
moved
by motors or servos (too slow and too power hungry), but use fets
controlled by integrators from the receiver.

Can anyone suggest someone with knowledge of this sort of electronics,
or
perhaps any book or publication that might help.

I know that if I had a lot of money, I could go to people like Strand
Electric and buy this off the shelf, but it is for a model engineering
club, where we have problems with the in-house sound system, which is
too
remote (and uncontrollable) from our meeting.

If anyone can help - many thanks in advance for anything you can offer
or
suggest.

Dave. G4UGT BSMEE, Bristol

I subscribe to Circuit Cellar, and it seems like they are always
advertising
900MHz (and maybe 2.4GHz) wireless communications device pairs. Seems
like
it would be simple enough to hook up your system similar to:

Sliders -> A/D -> wireless xmit ----> wireless rcv -> D/A -> amplifier

I'd even look into those digital potentiometers that are available now, IIRC
they come several to a chip and are settable with a simple serial interface
from a microcontroller, should be very easy to remotely control them.

 

[Richard Crowley]

speedy2 wrote:

Does anyone here know anything about radio-controlling things
OTHER than models? This means knowledge of r/c itself, rather
than just buying transmit and receive black boxes from a model
shop!

There are other (more modern, sophisticated, and easier to use!)
methods than the old pulse-width method used by the R/C model
people for decades!

In particular, I'm looking to make a remotely controlled 4 channel
audio mixer, which will have the manual slider pots in the
transmitter, remote from the mixer itself, which will in turn NOT
have sound level pots moved by motors or servos (too slow and
too power hungry), but use fets controlled by integrators from the
receiver.

There are several off-the-shelf RF transmitter and receiver modules
available for doing just this sort of thing. You don't wanna mess
with the RF stuff (unless that is your particular expertiese).

Can anyone suggest someone with knowledge of this sort of
electronics, or perhaps any book or publication that might help.

That is an almost impossibly broad question to answer.

If I were going to do such a thing, (which I considered a few
years ago), I would use an off-the-shelf RF transmitter and
reciever pair. I would use a small micro-controller (PIC, etc.)
to scan the sending slide pots, digitize their position with the
built-in A/D converter, and create data blocks (with error
correction) that would be sent over the RF link. I would
use another microcontroller to decode the data blocks and
control one of the several chips specifically made for digital
control of audio levels. Unless you have good audio circuit
design experience, I would NOT just use "fets controlled by
integrators". That method is used only in the very lowest
quality equipment because of its high potential for distortion,
etc.