RF & Wireless Protocol Reference
Frequencies, modulation, chipsets and bench tips for every common wireless standard
RF & Wireless Protocol Reference Sheet
Comprehensive reference covering RF frequencies, IR protocols, NFC/RFID, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and mesh networking standards. Filter by category or keyword, then click a card to expand modulation details, chipsets, and diagnostic tips.
Working Out What You Are Looking At
Most bench work starts from a physical clue rather than a datasheet: a printed frequency on a case, a crystal marking, a chip number on a receiver module, or nothing at all beyond “the remote stopped working”. This sheet is arranged so any of those clues gets you to the rest. Filter by category when you know roughly what family a device belongs to, or type a chipset such as EV1527 or CC1101 into the filter when you have a part number and need the band, modulation and typical range that go with it.
Region tells you the band
Sub-GHz gear is split by regulation, not by capability. 315 MHz dominates key fobs and garage openers in the US and much of Asia; 433.92 MHz is the equivalent workhorse across the UK and Europe. Higher up, 868 MHz is the European ISM allocation and 915 MHz the North American one, which is why an imported LoRa node may simply be transmitting somewhere your gateway never listens. If a device was bought abroad and has never worked here, suspect the band before you suspect the hardware.
Fixed code, rolling code, or neither
Cheap remotes built around EV1527, PT2262 and their clones send a static code word every press, which is why a capture-and-replay test with an SDR reproduces them exactly. Automotive and modern garage systems use rolling codes such as KeeLoq, where a replayed capture is rejected by design. That distinction decides whether cloning is a valid repair route or a dead end, and it is worth establishing before spending an afternoon on capture work.
Antennas and duty cycle bite more often than chips
A quarter-wave whip is roughly 23.8 cm at 315 MHz and 17.3 cm at 433.92 MHz, so a snapped, shortened or randomly coiled wire costs range immediately — usually the real cause of “only works from a metre away”. On 868 MHz remember the 1% duty-cycle limit: a node that transmits far too often will appear to work on the bench and then behave erratically in service. For anything you cannot pin down, an RTL-SDR parked on the suspect frequency while you press the button settles the question in seconds.
If you have a remote in hand and do not yet know whether it is even radio, start with the IR vs RF identifier — it will hand you straight back here with the right category selected.