Ahh yeah, LOTS of people using those chipsets on the microcontroller and other electronics mailing lists... lots of people asking questions like "How do I make an antenna" as they're going through the design process of laying out the board, and other folks asking, "What FCC requirements do I have to meet?"
Making a few of the RF engineers on those types of mailing lists look like utter geniuses... which is funny to watch. :-) It's EXCEEDINGLY low-cost. There's a great many experimenters using Zigbee modules for all sorts of homebrew things. -- Nate Duehr n...@natetech.com On Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:05 -0800, "Andrew Seybold" <aseyb...@andrewseybold.com> wrote: The technology for this I believe is called Zigbee—you can find a lot of info on the web—systems will operate on 900 (US only), 2.4 and 5.8 GHz now, other uses include full house control of lights, heating etc, each light switch in a home is also a repeater and it will be used in many new big office buildings where instead of running wires from lights to switches the lights will be direct wired with a zigbee node and the switches will control the lights, on-off, bright-dim using Zigbee—it is a low cost and very useful technology and we will be seeing a lot more of it. Andy From: repeater-buil...@yahoogroups. com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Joe Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 5:13 AM To: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] PG&E Smart Meter Program I worked on an antenna problem recently on a 900Mhz spread spectrum meter system here in Connecticut. I only spent an afternoon, but the technology is fascinating. Two way communications from selected sites to the meters will eventually be implemented. If the customers meter does not have a direct path to the site it can relay it's data through another meter that it has connectivity to. Kind of like a big mesh network. Every meter is also a repeater. It is eventually going to be a two way network, not just for meter reading. The power company will be able to control the load of devices in the customers home or business location (presumably for a discounted rate) as the power company needs to adjust demand. A good example would be to shut off your electric hot water heater for 5 minutes. This would probably have no direct effect on the customer, but would be a great cost saver for the power company. Using spread spectrum and 900Mhz, the range of this system is amazing. Very few meters are in dead zones. These bad zones only need a meter strategically placed on a high building or power pole to become a repeater. Very impressive system..... 73, Joe, K1ike References 1. mailto:aseyb...@andrewseybold.com?subject=re:%20[Repeater-Builder]%20PG&E%20Smart%20Meter%20Program 2. mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com?subject=re:%20[Repeater-Builder]%20PG&E%20Smart%20Meter%20Program 3. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/message/95578;_ylc=X3oDMTM1dnE0bmpoBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwNDE2OARncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwNjMxMDgEbXNnSWQDOTU2MDYEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDdnRwYwRzdGltZQMxMjU4MDM4MzUwBHRwY0lkAzk1NTc4 4. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/members;_ylc=X3oDMTJlOGs0b2Q2BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwNDE2OARncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwNjMxMDgEc2VjA3Z0bARzbGsDdm1icnMEc3RpbWUDMTI1ODAzODM1MA--?o=6 5. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/files;_ylc=X3oDMTJmYmZwNTg4BF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwNDE2OARncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwNjMxMDgEc2VjA3Z0bARzbGsDdmZpbGVzBHN0aW1lAzEyNTgwMzgzNTA- 6. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder;_ylc=X3oDMTJkMm5mMmxlBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwNDE2OARncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwNjMxMDgEc2VjA3Z0bARzbGsDdmdocARzdGltZQMxMjU4MDM4MzUw 7. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Repeater-Builder/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJkNWlqbGJzBF9TAzk3MzU5NzE0BGdycElkAzEwNDE2OARncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwNjMxMDgEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDbnRwYwRzdGltZQMxMjU4MDM4MzUw 8. http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=14ki0kkms/M=493064.12016295.13793596.10835568/D=groups/S=1705063108:MKP1/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1258045550/L=/B=u3frOkPDhEI-/J=1258038350214640/K=6OyI5yxsHPKlH69r.16ojQ/A=5898841/R=0/SIG=11kkq36go/*http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/parentingzone/ 9. http://groups.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTJjajF0YW1nBF9TAzk3NDc2NTkwBGdycElkAzEwNDE2OARncnBzcElkAzE3MDUwNjMxMDgEc2VjA2Z0cgRzbGsDZ2ZwBHN0aW1lAzEyNTgwMzgzNTA- 10. mailto:repeater-builder-traditio...@yahoogroups.com?subject=change%20delivery%20format:%20Traditional 11. mailto:repeater-builder-dig...@yahoogroups.com?subject=email%20delivery:%20Digest 12. mailto:repeater-builder-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com?subject=unsubscribe 13. http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
