lower-cost bluetooth alternatives?

dpopiz

Diamond Member
Jan 28, 2001
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bluetooth was designed to give very low-cost, simple devices smart wireless interfaces.

but what about even lower-cost simpler devices? has any real effort been made to develop a "smart" wireless standard for something like turning on a lamp?
 

Skyclad1uhm1

Lifer
Aug 10, 2001
11,383
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They're constantly looking into ways to make cheap alternatives, and you could use an infrared device for it. Besides... Why would you need such a thing? Infrared should suffice, as you usually don't need to turn on a lamp a few rooms away.

But if you'd consider bluetooth or a similar device for lamps you'd quickly run into a serious problem regarding either the frequencies or the nr of devices. Imagine turning on your mobile phone at work and it immediately detecting 20,000 lamps in the building and the buildings around it... Try finding one of the lamps in your room in that list. If you use different frequencies for it you quickly run out. There is only a small band available for use without restrictions and regulations.

Note: A lamp requires electricity. Most normal lamps get it from an outlet. As internet over the powergrid is possible, using IPv6 you could just give every lamp an IP address, and turn them on using a wireless internet connection. You could also schedule the turning on signal to be send at a certain time, and thus also start the coffee machine before you arrive.
 

harrkev

Senior member
May 10, 2004
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A new standard calld "Zigbee" is coming out soon. Dumb name, cool protocol. It sounds more like what you are after...
 

TheGoat Eater

Golden Member
Mar 20, 2005
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thegoateater.com
does bluetooth operate on the 2.4Ghz frenquency - because my 2.4Ghz phone gets interference when I had bluetooth operating on my computer - what can I do about this?
 

Skyclad1uhm1

Lifer
Aug 10, 2001
11,383
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Originally posted by: TheGoat Eater
does bluetooth operate on the 2.4Ghz frenquency - because my 2.4Ghz phone gets interference when I had bluetooth operating on my computer - what can I do about this?

2.45GHz. What you could try is telling you bluetooth device not to try and tell all other devices of it's existence, not to actively search for other devices itself. That might help. But chances are you will need to replace either the phone or the bluetooth device.