how to Re-Use old remote control?

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Hello all- I have an old keychain to a jeep grand cherokee and I was
wondering how hard it would be to make a new reciever so I can use it
to do something cool like fire a 12v solenoid or something. Is it
easier to build this myself from scratch? I'm thinking maybe the
technology in the keychain is overkill for what I want to do but I
can't find any good schematics online... I just want as singe channel
remote control with matching reciever with a close range, like 10-30
feet to turn on a single battery powered device. maybe even less range
would be needed. I'd like to use as few components as possible, like
maybe a gimmick tuning capacitor,a resistor and a transistor or two...
I've searched the web pretty thouroughly but can't find anything...
I'd thought about taking apart a r/c car or wireless doorbell etc but
i'd rather make it myself. Thanks to all for your help.

-Carl

 

[Rich Webb]

Hello all- I have an old keychain to a jeep grand cherokee and I was
wondering how hard it would be to make a new reciever so I can use it
to do something cool like fire a 12v solenoid or something. Is it
easier to build this myself from scratch? I'm thinking maybe the
technology in the keychain is overkill for what I want to do but I
can't find any good schematics online... I just want as singe channel
remote control with matching reciever with a close range, like 10-30
feet to turn on a single battery powered device. maybe even less range
would be needed. I'd like to use as few components as possible, like
maybe a gimmick tuning capacitor,a resistor and a transistor or two...
I've searched the web pretty thouroughly but can't find anything...
I'd thought about taking apart a r/c car or wireless doorbell etc but
i'd rather make it myself. Thanks to all for your help.

You're probably out of luck since most (all?) modern automobile remotes
are encoded, where the transmitter and receiver have to be "matched."
See http://auto.howstuffworks.com/remote-entry2.htm

One option is this gizmo from over at All Electronics Corp.
<http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/item/RC-10/search/KEYCHAIN_REMOTE_CONTROL,_12VDC_6_AMP_.html>

They have a couple of others if you go up a level (or search their
site for "remote"). I'm sure that there are other sources out there
but I've been an All Electronics customer for years and been pretty
happy with their stuff.

Read the user comments on the linked remote unit for some application
and operating hints.

 

[Rich Grise]

Hello all- I have an old keychain to a jeep grand cherokee and I was
wondering how hard it would be to make a new reciever so I can use it to
do something cool like fire a 12v solenoid or something. Is it easier to
build this myself from scratch? I'm thinking maybe the technology in the
keychain is overkill for what I want to do but I can't find any good
schematics online... I just want as singe channel remote control with
matching reciever with a close range, like 10-30 feet to turn on a
single battery powered device. maybe even less range would be needed.
I'd like to use as few components as possible, like maybe a gimmick
tuning capacitor,a resistor and a transistor or two... I've searched the
web pretty thouroughly but can't find anything... I'd thought about
taking apart a r/c car or wireless doorbell etc but i'd rather make it
myself. Thanks to all for your help.

Well, if you know someone who has a spectrum analyzer, you could
borrow it to find out what freq. your fob is transmitting at, and
build a little receiver for that freq. Then, as long as it's not
spread-spectrum or something, your receiver will just give you
whatever pulse train the transmitter is sending out. Since you
only want on/off, you can filter those pulses out.

If you want to go the RC route, I have a couple of little
toy RC cars - the cars are about 1 1/2" long, with two channels -
Forward/reverse and right/left turn.

But the xmitter is on a single-sided board about the size of the
palm of your hand, in a box that you hold in both hands. (like
a 6" French roll.) They operate in the 27 MHz CB/RC band.

They were about two bucks apiece at the drugstore clearance
table one day; I'll send you one for, say, ten bucks for the
box and my time to pack it.

http://mysite.verizon.net/richgrise/images/RC_Car_03.jpg

Good Luck!
Rich

 

[Tom2000]

Hello all- I have an old keychain to a jeep grand cherokee and I was
wondering how hard it would be to make a new reciever so I can use it
to do something cool like fire a 12v solenoid or something. Is it
easier to build this myself from scratch? I'm thinking maybe the
technology in the keychain is overkill for what I want to do but I
can't find any good schematics online... I just want as singe channel
remote control with matching reciever with a close range, like 10-30
feet to turn on a single battery powered device. maybe even less range
would be needed. I'd like to use as few components as possible, like
maybe a gimmick tuning capacitor,a resistor and a transistor or two...
I've searched the web pretty thouroughly but can't find anything...
I'd thought about taking apart a r/c car or wireless doorbell etc but
i'd rather make it myself. Thanks to all for your help.

-Carl

If you don't want to screw around, you can try the
transmitter/receiver linked below:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290195158324

$6.60 + $5.00 shipping. 4 channels. Easy to apply.

This combination works very well in my digicam intervalometer/remote
project:

http://www.mindspring.com/~tom2000/Projects/AI-1_Remote/AI-1_Remote.html

Have fun!

Tom