I finally got around to posting my project on Hackster.io as I wanted to and as @mager requested . I know @ogiewon posted his version, but I wanted to post my code incase anybody else is having problems with the confusing Arduino library setup, I wish the IDE were a little easier to use…
At any rate, thanks again to @ogiewon for making this possible and here is the link. Feel free to ask any questions!
You posted this just a few weeks too late for my project…
I made a home theatre screen controller and soldered two relays (up/down) to the remote control instead of replicating its RF… because while I have a 433Mhz module, I didn’t have a 315!
The relays work fine, but not practical for a lot of buttons, obviously… And requires maintaining battery or other source of power in the original remote.
Guess I should give direct RF a try.
The use of the relays (successfully!) was still good basic Arduino education and experience.
Maybe I’ll post that on Hackaday.com or Instructables (TechShop offers class discounts to folks who post Instructables…).
Yea initially I thought of zombifing the remote but then I found the RC-Switch project… Sorry wish I hadn’t been lazy. One community member had luck with the same library for a ceiling fan so it’s pretty universal.
Nah… I was the lazy one…
I should have figured that out fitting my project with 315Mhz directly wouldn’t have been that hard with a little research. Sure… Just a tad harder than clicking relays, but less solder. The frequency mismatch was just disheartening.
The clicking relays are a tiny bit steam punk, though… Kinda cool. 
Well… that was a super easy upgrade / refactor of my project!
Got 315Mhz transmitter and receiver modules from Amazon ($8 - Prime); wired up the receiver to scan for the up/down/pause codes from my theater screen remote; swapped out the mini rats nest of 2 relays + old remote with the tiny 3-pin transmitter instead, and changed about 6 lines of sketch code to call the transmitter instead of toggling the relay out pins. No changes needed in my SmartThings Device Handler.
Done and done. 
Thanks for the inspiration, @keithcroshaw!
From the photo… your RC module has an extra antenna (the big one…)? My 315Mhz only has the two antenna coils next to each other.
I don’t have a range problem with my project … I suppose different brands / vendors of the RC modules will come with different antenna options?
Ah… there is a PCB hole label “ANT”. I thought that was for debugging 
(ha, ha, ha)!
They could have just thrown in the little spring antenna, right? Geesh…
Glad that helped! And yes I completly forgot to include the antenna in my Hackster.io build. I had to buy a bunch but it’s so cheap it didn’t hurt the wallet that bad. They boost the rang astronomically.
Hey just wanted to see if you could post some pictures and specifics of how your board is setup. Only get a brief glimpse of it so would like to know how you have it done. So we could duplicate.
I actually snapped this off and soldered it to my Particle Photon board since it’s easier to use with virtual switches which behave much more reliably than having a SmartApp in-between. Currently it uses IFTTT as a middle man which I’m trying to eliminate, hence why I haven’t posted yet.
I’ll still throw some pictures up tonight of where it used to be soldered, I’ll make another post so you don’t have to keep checking back.
Awesome. I do appreciate it. I have the exact same RF switches you were using and am looking to get them into my SmartThings hub
If you haven’t purchased anything, I recommend the Particle Photon board over the SmartThings shield. I’ve had more luck so far.
I have not purchased anything yet. Just getting into this actually just got my SmartThings hub a couple of weeks ago.
Basically looking for a way to utilize some of the investment I have made into the RF plugs to utilize with SmartThings and Z-Wave technology. Mainly for all the Christmas stuff my wife has that we need to power. I have about 15 of the RF plugs and their remotes would be nice to use those and do some scene scheduling with the ST hub.
Yea I just finished integrating 10 RF switches into my setup. I’m no longer using SmartThings Thingshield, instead I’m using Particle Photon boards instead which control multiple devices better. The Thingshield was never really intended to be a bridge. How much experience do you have with coding?
Some experience with coding. Mainly in Powershell but I have had to do some coding for some of the things i use. I also know a lot of programmers. So not to worried about that side I cna usually muddle my way through.
And just in case it helps here are some of the ones I have looked through today none of them are z-wave but some look like they have potential for z-wave compatibility. You may have seen these before but wanted to share. Slow time at work being the holidays and all.
Controlling it with the Arduino
http://www.msilverman.me/2014/01/interfacing-with-remote-controlled-outlets/
Wit the Raspberry Pi
Via Voice
Heres one that does IR too and looks like it could be easy to integrate
Those seem to all use the same principal although I wouldn’t be able to help you unless it uses the RC-Switch Library for arduino for Particle Core / Photon.
Some of the articles I am seeing are using the RC Switch library which seems like a no brainer since the hardest part of that was getting the library together. Although I need to familiarize myself with the Particle Photon boards. Like I said earlier pretty new to this but would love to get this automated via the SmartThings hub.
Again the SmartThings Thingshield isn’t really designed to be a bridge, the SmartApp that I used is much less reliable than the SmartThings Virtual Switch which reaches out to the Particle Cloud to talk to my Photon board. Using this method I’m able to make as many “Child” devices as I want that all pass a value (0=off 1=on) to a function name (Switch Name) in my Photon Sketch.
OK so utilizing the Particle Cloud to speak with the Photon board is enabling the remote connection?
Is there a way to get that integrated with the SmartThings or this is a parallel path?
And I do apologize if I am missing a point here still educating myself. So I want to make sure I am understanding correctly.
So the Particle Photon boards just speak to the the Particle Cloud out of the box, that’s the beauty of them, very little to configure there. Then after customization to your situation we load up our sketch onto the Photon board which is easy as well. Then in SmartThings we create New Devices in the IDE that are based on the device type I would give you, you type in 3 config parameters to the device, API Key, Device ID, and function name. Then boom! This dumb virtual switch in SmartThings gets smart and calls the Particle cloud to fire a function.
I’m not quite ready to release everything publicly but PM me if you want further details. I think this solution is much better than using the SmartThings ThingShlield and it will be accessible inside SmartThings as if they were z-wave switches, minus the little bit of lag and lack of local control if that ever really works anyway.
