The company OpenSmart released this ASK sender with an unmarked transmitter chip and poor documentation.
The sender is sold as a kit together with a receiver board and is available in separate versions for 315MHz (US) and 433MHz (Europe).
The actual sender is located on a separate and much smaller board that is soldered onto a bigger bpard which only purpose apparently is to provide a PCB antenna.
While PCB antennas certainly are convenient and compact, they are not efficient, limiting the distance that can be reached. During build time and testing, make sure you do not touch the antenna or hold the breakout board in a way that covers the antenna.
The way how the transmitter board is piggy-backed into a relatively huge antenna board makes this solution the most clumsy of all reviewed.
Apparently, the company OpenSmart uses these modules in various combinations together with other boards to make them wirelessly controllable. For example, OpenSmart also sells wireless joystick and sensor boards that use the same fundamental sender and receiver boards.
The company OpenSmart advertises this board as “Long-Range Transmitter” and even as “LORA Board”. This board is neither able to transmit RF signals over long distances nor does it implement LoRa modulation. It is simply a cheap and very simple ASK transmitter.
The RF frequency of the board on is printed on the front side. The 433MHz version uses blue boards, and the 315MHz version uses red boards.
Technical Data
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Voltage | 4-12V |
| Frequency | 433MHz or 315MHz |
| Working Current | 40mA |
| Output Power | 27dBm/500mW at 12V |
| Modulation Mode | AM (OOK) |
| Transmission Rate | <4.8 Kbps |
| Transmission Distance | <50m at 5V |
| Size | 24x30x7mm |
With input voltages below 5V, the data transmission becomes unreliable. When powered with 12V, the claimed output power of 27dBm/500mW seems to be unrealistically high and demands further testing.
Pins
The board comes with three pins.
| Pin | Tag | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | SIG | Data In |
| 2 | VCC | 5V |
| 3 | GND | negative pole |
Library
The vendor suggests to use the VirtualWire software library.
Comments
Please do leave comments below. I am using utteran.ce, an open-source and ad-free light-weight commenting system.
Here is how your comments are stored
Whenever you leave a comment, a new github issue is created on your behalf.
-
All comments become trackable issues in the Github Issues section, and I (and you) can follow up on them.
-
There is no third-party provider, no disrupting ads, and everything remains transparent inside github.
Github Users Yes, Spammers No
To keep spammers out and comments attributable, all you do is log in using your (free) github account and grant utteranc.es the permission to submit issues on your behalf.
If you don’t have a github account yet, go get yourself one - it’s free and simple.
If for any reason you do not feel comfortable with letting the commenting system submit issues for you, then visit Github Issues directly, i.e. by clicking the red button Submit Issue at the bottom of each page, and submit your issue manually. You control everything.
Discussions
For chit-chat and quick questions, feel free to visit and participate in Discussions. They work much like classic forums or bulletin boards. Just keep in mind: your valued input isn’t equally well trackable there.
(content created Apr 18, 2024)