Char transmission using Virtualwire RF signal

Question

This is a really basic problem, but I haven't been able to resolve it myself and would really appreciate the help. So I've been struggling for a few weeks now to set up RF communication between two arduino uno chips. I have the transmitter and receiver hooked up to 5V supply, with the data pins connected to digital pin 4. My code looks like this:

Transmitter code:

#define rfTransmitPin 4 //RF Transmitter pin = digital pin 4
#define ledPin 13 //Onboard LED = digital pin 13
unsigned int data = 0; // variable used to store transmission data
void setup(){
 pinMode(rfTransmitPin, OUTPUT); 
 pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT); 
 Serial.begin(9600); 
}
void loop(){
 digitalWrite (rfTransmitPin, HIGH);
 data = digitalRead (rfTransmitPin); // Read the digital transmitter pin
 Serial.println(data);
 digitalWrite (ledPin, HIGH);
 delay(2000);
 digitalWrite (rfTransmitPin, LOW);
 data = digitalRead (rfTransmitPin); // Read the digital transmitter pin
 Serial.println(data);
 digitalWrite (ledPin, LOW);
 delay(2000);
 }

Receiver code:

#define rfReceivePin 4 //RF Receiver pin = digital pin 4
#define ledPin 13 //Onboard LED = digital pin 13
unsigned int data = 0; // variable used to store received data
void setup(){
 pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(rfReceivePin, INPUT);
 Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop(){
 data=digitalRead(rfReceivePin); //listen for data on Digital Pin 4
 if(data = HIGH){
 digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH); //If a HIGH signal is received, turn LED ON
 Serial.println(data);
 }
 if(data = LOW){
 digitalWrite(ledPin, LOW); //If a LOW signal is received, turn LED OFF
 Serial.println(data);
 }
}

This should be really simple, but for some reason I'm reading a continual HIGH signal from the receiver module. I'm trying to sort out the basic functionality of the RF tx-rx pair before developing code to send a char using the Virtual Wire library, but I can't even get it to function at this level. Since my code is so basic I'm convinced it must be a hardware issue and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

VIf you using Virutalwire try exemple in the library. You can't send simple digitata data with Rf. Best Regards Mikael

link Virutalwire

• vani11acoke: Hi Mikael, thanks for the reply. I've tried running the example transmitter/receiver code, and all I get is the setup printout on the serial monitor, the message doesn't come through.
• Carlmikael: hackshed.co.uk/rf-communication-between-2-arduinos
• Carlmikael: This will you show you how you use VirutalWire
• vani11acoke: Turned out to be a faulty receiver, it's all working as it should be now :-)
• Carlmikael: Glad you got it working