The RC Shield

VSL’s first product is in development, we’ve dubbed it the RC Shield. It is an Arduino shield which allows users to add remote control capabilities to their projects. The shield will come with a 5 button key fob that is linked to 5 GPIO pins on the Arduino. We’re also throwing the idea around of adding an IR LED to allow control of IR devices such as TVs, Stereos, and what not. So far we’ve made one prototype, which works but we need to rearrange some components and do a little general house keeping on the circuit.

First rev of the RC Shield

We’re pretty happy with how it came out, except once we attached it to the Arduino we noticed that our barrel connector for the 9V battery was right over the Arduino’s USB connector. We’ll move it in rev 2. You get a surprisingly good distance off this little surface mount splatch antenna.

Doh! DC barrel connector over the USB, not a good idea…