Do you remember the story of Alibaba and his 40 thieves, where Alibaba would go in front of the door of his house and open the door as soon as he said "Khul Ya Sim Sim"? Fortunately, there is no need to say a keyword to open a door, but there is a small device "Remote Control" that can be used to open the door of the workshop or change the channel of the TV or remote control without touching any gadget. It would never have been so much fun to watch TV while sitting on the couch and lying on the bed, if this little device had not helped to change the channel and turn the volume up and down. But have you ever wondered how this device is able to control everything remotely? In today's article we will learn about working remote and different types of remote. So what are you waiting for?
How does the remote control work?
The most interesting thing about the remote control is that there are not so many wires attached. It starts working as soon as you aim at the diameter you want to control! Much like magic. Remotes operate primarily using wireless signals, called electromagnetic waves. Not only your remote, but also radio, X-ray machine, microwave, etc. work using electromagnetic waves. These waves vibrate through the air and carry electrical and magnetic energy at the speed of light.
Most remote controls, as well as yours, work on infrared radiation. If you look at the top of your remote, you will see an LED bulb, from which these infrared radio waves emanate. The remote in your hand is usually a transmitter and a receiver attached to the TV or other device, which receives the infrared signal from the remote. When you press a button on the remote in your hand, an infrared signal from the remote travels through the air at the speed of light and the detector detects it.
The human eye never sees in infrared light, and even if you press the remote control too close to the eye, you can't feel anything. I wrote in an article discussing night vision glasses that not all light is actually visible and there are some animals that have the ability to detect infrared light. Rattle sneakers have the ability to detect infrared — and with this ability they find food through the infrared waves of hope from prey in the pitch dark. However, since this snake can detect infrared, don't worry about controlling it with your TV remote. Because the way the TV remote or any remote works is a little different.
Remote control code
If a remote is constantly generating only infrared signals, it will not work. Your TV remote has at least 20 buttons, so the remote control must be capable of generating a different signal for each of these button presses, and the TV can sense it. The remote control also works in binary like a computer. When you press a button on the remote it sends an on or off signal, where on means 1 and off means 0. The remote sends some pulses together and each button sends a pulse in a different way. Suppose you press the volume up button, then it sends an on-off-on-off signal, now converting it to binary stands at 10110. This means that when the remote receiver on the TV catches the 10110 signal, it will turn up the volume of the TV. In the same way, different signals are made remotely for different buttons and sent to the TV and the TV works accordingly.
However, different TVs and their remotes work on different signals. This means that the model 1100 of any TV changes the volume and the TV 1100 of any model changes the channel. This is why different remote controls are available with different models of TVs. The remote of your TV only works on your TV, your remote control does not turn the fan or lights on or off or change the music of your home theater. But if you can figure out which TV or which home theater is working using which code, it is certainly possible to create a remote that will help run all the devices. And this is how a universal remote works. Nowadays you can also run universal remote app on your phone. This app usually contains the remote operating code of all TV manufacturers and allows it to work on any TV.
Remote type
The remote that has been talking about infrared signal for so long is actually known as IR remote. The IR remote operates at very low power and can send signals over a distance of about 40-60 feet. Its radiation is very low but it does not have the ability to penetrate any thick wall like radio waves. So if your TV set is in another room, it is impossible to control it using IR remote from a separate room.
There is another type of remote which is called radio frequency remote or RF remote. Remote doors, various toys, high quality home theater, satellite receiver etc. are controlled with the help of remote working on radio remote technology. There are both advantages and disadvantages to using a radio remote. The problem is, your cellphone, walkie-talkie, WiFi, etc. all work using radio signals. And since the radio remote transmits radio signals without sending infrared signals, its signals can be intercepted with signals coming from different devices. However, the current modern RF remote signal uses a different frequency to prevent interference and sends the signal to the address where it will be received. The biggest advantage of RF remote control is its working range. It can control machinery at a distance of about 100 feet.
