Reed receiver

A reed receiver or tuned reed receiver (US) was a form of multi-channel signal decoder used for early radio control systems. It uses a simple electromechanical device or 'resonant reed' to demodulate the signal, in effect a receive-only modem. The encoding used is a simple form of frequency shift keying.

These decoders appeared in the 1950s and were used into the early 1970s. Early transistor systems were in use in parallel to them, but they were finally displaced by the appearance of affordable digital proportional systems, based on early integrated circuits. These had the advantage of proportional control.

The decoder of the reed receiver is based on the 'resonant reed' unit. This comprises a number of vibrating metal reeds, each one having a tuned vibration frequency like a tuning fork. These reeds are manufactured from a single tapered sheet of iron or steel, giving a comb of reeds of varying length. This resembles the comb used to sound musical notes in a music box. Like a music box, the length of each reed affects its resonant frequency. The reeds are powered magnetically, by a single solenoid coil and an iron core wrapped between the ends of the reeds.

A reed's resonant frequency is a mid-range audible frequency of perhaps 300 Hz. The solenoid is driven by the output of the radio control receiver, which is an audio tone or tones. If the receiver output contains the appropriate tone for the resonant frequency of a reed, that reed would be made to vibrate. As the reed vibrates, it touches a contact screw above its free end. These contacts form the output of the decoder. Decoder outputs are generally fed to small relays. These allow a high current load to be controlled, such as the model's propulsion motor. Using a relay also adds a damping time constant to the output, so that the intermittent contact with the reed contact (which is vibrating at the transmitter audible tone frequency) becomes a continuous output signal.

Each reed forms an independent channel and they may be activated individually or in combination, depending on the signal from the transmitter.

Reed system channels are an on/off output, not a proportional (i.e. analogue) signal. These could be used to drive an escapement, or rapidly switching a channel on and off could be used as pulse-width modulation to provide a proportional signal to drive a servo.

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