Wireless tag

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ludom
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by ludom »

Willem4ever wrote:I'm currently looking into these products it operates at 2.4 Ghz and it is complete open source. My current setup consists of 3 tags and 1 OpenBeacon-PoE-II EasyReader.
Hi Willem,

I found this OpenBeacon project also, what should be the range between the active tags and the beacon? I would use this system to track persons in the house (if they are at home or if they are away), so i can trigger some events with this. I am wondering how the protocol of the beacon works, because i have to write my own PHP driver for this, but it's open-source so that should not be a problem i think :)

Do you have this setup already running at your side?
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Willem4ever
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by Willem4ever »

I installed it last weekend but have not done extensive testing. I expect the range indoors to be 25 meters. Most likely is depending on the structure of your house (concrete /steel). I also expect that you would need more then one reader at least in my house where there is a lot of steel and concrete.
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by Moskus »

Isn't that a common problem problem with 2.4 GHz compared to 433 MHz?

With more than one reader the OpenBeacon is getting rather "pricey"...
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Willem4ever
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by Willem4ever »

Well it depends what you want to do, do you like to know the whereabouts of an object (individual) within your house you have to limit the range. If you want generic presence you should have a longer range. I guess for longer range 433 Mhz would be better (although this frequency is polluted)
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by AshaiRey »

although this frequency is polluted
Is this an assumption because everyone says this or do you know this for sure by measuring this?

I also hear this all the time but measuring this showed me that there is plenty of room for atleast ten times the amount of devices here in my house.
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by Willem4ever »

Empirically, not measured. I had to throw out all my Oregon sensors because of the poor signal reception I was getting (worked fine for only few days) The RFXCOM solution: It works only reliable when the receiver and the rfxmeter where like 1 meter apart. I know this is extreme and perhaps just local and it probably also depends on the robustness of the protocol. It is just my experience and your milage may vary.

PS: Would be nice to measure though, you know anyone with proper equipment to do that ?
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by Moskus »

Willem4ever wrote:I guess for longer range 433 Mhz would be better (although this frequency is polluted)
Compared to 2.4 Ghz? I don't know about you, but my neighborhood is is literally crowded with WiFi networks. It's hard to find a clean channel...
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by AshaiRey »

Willem4ever wrote:Empirically, not measured. I had to throw out all my Oregon sensors because of the poor signal reception I was getting (worked fine for only few days) The RFXCOM solution: It works only reliable when the receiver and the rfxmeter where like 1 meter apart. I know this is extreme and perhaps just local and it probably also depends on the robustness of the protocol. It is just my experience and your milage may vary.

PS: Would be nice to measure though, you know anyone with proper equipment to do that ?
You could sniff for signals with RFXCom and RFreceiver.exe to see what is detected by RFXCom.
Or you can use a graphic frequency analyzer. It sounds expensive but you can have one for around E 30,- with an USB DVB-T adapter for televicion reception. Look into Realtek RTL2832U Software Defined Radio. This gives you a radio/frequency scanner ranging from about 200Mhz - 2.2Ghz on the cheap
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by Moskus »

AshaiRey wrote:Or you can use a graphic frequency analyzer. It sounds expensive but you can have one for around E 30,- with an USB DVB-T adapter for televicion reception. Look into Realtek RTL2832U Software Defined Radio. This gives you a radio/frequency scanner ranging from about 200Mhz - 2.2Ghz on the cheap
Woa, cool! I have to try that. :)
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by Willem4ever »

Just ordered an EZTV668 / E4000 at ebay ...
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by AshaiRey »

Fyi, i bought my Terratec Cinergy T Stick RC (Rev.3) stick at Dixons in the store for 25,- (NL)

Here's an example.

Used software is SDR# (SDRsharp)
What you see here is graphical overview of the frequency range from 433-435Mhz. This is a realtime screenshot. The red line in the middle is the frequency of the RFXcom transmitter.
freq.JPG
freq.JPG (60.11 KiB) Viewed 12913 times
The next images is a rainfall image. Vertical axe is the time axe with the newest information on the top and horizontal the same frequency range of 433-435Mhz. The displayed information is for about 25 seconds. At the bottom you see a transmission of RFXCom and the horizontal line in the middle is caused by a transitting motion detector. As you can see there aren't any other transmission in those 25 secs. When i let it run over a longer period of time this hardly increases.
analyze.JPG
analyze.JPG (25.49 KiB) Viewed 12913 times
I hope this help a bit.
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by Willem4ever »

Thanks for that - very enlightening - would be interesting to see and compare how it looks here.
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Re: Wireless tag

Post by roheve »

ludom wrote:
Willem4ever wrote:I'm currently looking into these products it operates at 2.4 Ghz and it is complete open source.
I found this OpenBeacon project also, what should be the range between the active tags and the beacon?
Looks interesting. I might want to try the OpenBeacon USB-I node ans some tags to experiment with.
Note however this:
www.openbeacon.org wrote:Our shop will be closed from January 2013 to 31th July 2013. Orders will be processed till 31st December this year.

BTW, how are your setups running?
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