Make a Simple Wireless Remote Control Switch

The circuit of a FM wireless remote switch presented here is very easy to build and can be used to toggle a load anywhere within a radial distance of 50 meters. The above system is controlled through a mini transmitter circuit operating at around 100MHz FM waves. The receiver or the controller board which is the main part of the circuit is actually a readymade FM radio kit, suitably modified for the purpose. This circuit may also be retrieved from a cheap Chinese made headphone FM radio set (will cost not more than a dollar).

Let’s try to understand its circuit description in details.

Since the receiver circuit board is procured readymade, we will just broadly discuss regarding its circuit functioning.

Referring to the figure (click to enlarge), we see that the board primarily consists of two main stages.

The portion comprising of the inductors (can be recognized by the small copper coils), tiny disc ceramic capacitors, gang condenser and the 28 pin IC CXA 1619 is the FM demodulator section. Here, the signal transmitted by the transmitter is received (from antenna) and processed. The embedded information from the signal is demodulated and retrieved.

The other half of the board which consists of the IC 810 and the associated passive components is the audio amplifier stage. The demodulated information from the above stage is amplified here and can be heard through a loudspeaker. The maximum output of this amplifier is around 6 watts into an 8 Ohms speaker.

Normally, the two stages are connected through an electrolytic capacitor and an intermediate variable resistor or a pot (for volume control). The output is also buffered using an electrolytic capacitor, where normally the loudspeaker is connected. However, we won’t discuss the amplification, volume, speaker etc. as they are not involved in this circuit and are immaterial.

The above circuit board is suitably modified for the present idea; let’s learn about the simple manipulations or modifications that have been made to the above board with the following points:

• The volume control potentiometer is replaced by a preset. Its adjustment and the purpose will be discussed in the “testing” section of the article.

• At the output, the speaker points are replaced and connected to a buzzer coil (yellow in color at the right end of the FM board).

• The buzzer coil converts the received amplified demodulated signal into a concentrated pulsating voltage which is used to drive the Flip-Flop circuit (see adjoining figure and click to enlarge). The output from the Flip-Flop toggles a relay and the load connected to its contacts alternately on receiving the subsequent triggers.

The transmitter is in fact the wireless switch through which the above control or the receiver circuit may be switched ON and OFF. The below given discussion will explain regarding its circuit operation.

Looking at the adjoining figure (click to enlarge) we see that the transmitter circuit is very simple in design and uses just one transistor as the main active component. Basically, the configuration is of a standard Colpitts oscillator, where the feedback is received from a voltage divider network formed by C1 and C2.

C1, C2, C3 and the inductor together form the frequency determining components. Here it has been fixed such that the transmitter generates a carrier frequency of around 100 MHz.

The above transmitted carrier frequency can be directly used to activate and deactivate the receiver by alternately toggling the transmitters power supply. But, using only the carrier waves would reduce the range of the transmitter to a great extent and also the accuracy would become too narrow. However, by modulating it through an external frequency its range can be almost doubled.

Here, a small COB (Chip On Board) has been used to create the required frequency and is applied to the base of the transistor. This frequency modulates the carrier waves and makes it much stronger so that it may be received even from a longer distance. These COBs are readily available in the market with a wide range of music, tone, voice messages embedded in them. You may pick and procure any one of them, as here we are interested just in their frequency and not the information.

The next page will provide you with the parts list and construction clues for this wireless remote switch circuit.