Re: RF light switch

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

Here's another detailed study of indoor RF propagation at 914MHz. While it
deals with an office environment, much of what it says applies equally well
to the typical residence.

     http://sss-mag.com/indoor.html#tutorial

nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston) wrote:

>"P T" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>Please help me decide which RF light switch to choose:
>>Zwave
>>Insteon
>>or Zeebee ( not yet available)
>>Thank Ya'll
>
>My response would be "none of the above".
>
>For limitations common to all RF devices see...
>
>
>www.echelon.com/support/documentation/analysis/005-0171A_RF_White_Paper.pdf
>
>If, after reading the white paper, you are still interested in RF light
>switches...
>
>Insteon only uses RF as a phase bridge and (planned, but not yet available)
>in remotes that communicate with the phase bridges. The actual control is
>done by powerline. They have a white paper on their web site that gives the
>details.
>
>     www.insteon.net
>
>There are ZigBee (not ZeeBee) switches available from Control 4 and
>Crestron. Crestron has long had their own proprietary 418MHz and 433.92MHz
>RF devices as well. An advantage of the latter is that RF capable
>programmable touchscreen remotes (e.g. Pronto) can be used for control.
>Crestron has a good reputation for reliability but this comes at high
>prices. I haven't seen their pricing on the new ZigBee based devices.
>
>Lutron's RadioRA also uses proprietary 418 & 433.92MHz devices but their
>protocol is too complex for most programmable remotes. Like Crestron,
>RadioRA has a good reputation for reliability but is costly and needs
>closely spaced units.
>
>RF control makes more sense outside North America. The FCC and Industry
>Canada set very low limits on radiated power so range is very limited. Most
>of systems compensate by using various repeater schemes but these require
>lots of devices with relatively close spacing. (See the Echelon white
>paper.) Outside of North America, limits on radiated power are much, much
>higher and there are several suppliers of RF controlled switches with a wide
>price range.
>
>While ZigBee devices use a common, open source mesh networking protocol,
>most companies that supply hardware will likely have proprietary
>communications protocols meaning that interoperability will be unlikely
>between devices from different manufacturers.