Re: Electronics Challenge!

[Keith Doxey]

But Powerline Comms is also the one medium most likely to give
problems.

Ethernet can only be congested by other ethernet traffic and extra
cables and the use of intelligent switches can reduce the effects of
that.

2.4GHz Radio suffers congestion from bluetooth, 802.11b, Wireless
video senders and people "nuking" their supper in the microwave.

X10 Powerline suffers problems due to all manner of equipment adding
noise to the powerline as well as equipment attempting to filter
noise from the powerline, either self generated noise in the case of
switch mode PSU's or equipment trying to stop crud getting in.

Attempts to get higher speeds on the powerline involve using higher
carrier frequencies at which point any filter capacitors anywhere on
your mains wiring become even more effective short circuits to the
data signals.

How many times have we seen people complaining that X10 "just stopped
working". We are constantly adding more electronic kit to our homes
and ever tighter EMC regulations mean more and more filtering of the
mains is taking place to clean up the power supply.

RF methods can be interfered with by other stray signals and whilst
intelligent software and controllers can repeatedly resend failed
messages to ensure they get through it gets slower. As the traffic
increases, so does the risk of collisions giving rise to even more
traffic.

At the end of the day, the only reliable method of connection is a
dedicated cable. Dont get me wrong, Powerline, RF and IR all have a
place but my preference is for hardwired reliability.

Keith


--- In <a
href="/group/ukha_xpl/post?postID=AODMi1CTWV2ddZmsTrDy4uPgFXgg4ZLGiHtC0m_oe3OXk1jNLeRWXumHq-qzwdAasqYE_FvkCTMOCW0haECo">ukha_xpl@xxxxxxx</a>,
"Ian Lowe" <ian@w...> wrote:
> Powerline Comms is a big one.: there are a great deal of people who
simply
> do not have cat5, and for these people, wireless or powerline are
really the
> only options.
>