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The NoCat Wireless Access Point/Night Light
cascadefx writes "O'Reilly's Hacks page has a really great article about a wireless access point that was on display at the recent Emerging Technology Conference. The folks at NoCat.net rigged up a Siemens Speedstream series access point with a low power ultraviolet light to create a wireless lightbulb. Just screw it in place and combine powerline ethernet with a wireless network... and a light, to create a wireless lightbulb. Ubiquitous networking, here we come."
I was hoping that it was a way to wirelessly power a lightbulb. Oh well, pretty cool design anyway. :)
How many times do I have to tell you, turn off the network when you leave the room!
Neck_of_the_Woods
#/usr/local/surf/glassy/overhead
"...a low power ultraviolet light..."
Now maybe us pasty-white geeks can get a decent tan!
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
... but over here, we just call it a flashlight.
This might seem obvious, but since the network would only work when the lights are on, this would be something of a problem for a very large number of applications where this might actually be of use; for instance, in outdoor spaces where the lights are off during daylight hours.
A workaround, I suppose would be to have a relay in the unit capable of switching the light on and off via network control, X10, or similar while the actual circut remains operational. That would be a likely needed feature on any commercial unit.
~GoRK
Does it mean I can now see the wireless signal?
-illumina+us "I put on my robe and wizard hat..."
Ricochet nodes are very similar, except that they plug into street light photocell connectors.
when the X10 protocol is already usable, easy, and cheap.
Why should I argue rationally with someone being irrational? I'll just mock them instead.
It's an accesspoint that's hardwired into a lamp base alongside a fluorescent (not UV) lamp bulb.
Receives electricity plus ethernet data from the existing lighting circuit.
Nothing new here... carry on.
Everybody who thinks that powerlines are a great way to run ethernet through your house forget that all of the wire is unshielded thereby creating a large antenna. This typically results in static noise on frequencies up to 80Mhz. I also wonder how hard it would be to just listen to the
3 /isplc2003a 7-4.pdf
network and attach to it. I am still amazed that
the FCC lets any of this trash through. If you
are not convinced go here:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/HTML/plc/
And no this does not just affect amateur radio.
Ever thought about radio astronomy
http://www.qsl.net/jh5esm/PLC/isplc200
That's about the coolest thing since sliced bread, or at least O'Reilly books... The lead in made it sound like something out of Tesla's imagination, wireless power sources and what not, but it's very cool anyway. What sort of range could you get on a device like that, ie how many would it take to fill a conference hall or large resteraunt?
I don't think powerline will take off. Here's why.
1)Price. I can get a wireless network of comperable or better speed cheaper. The powerline adapters are $80 and only do 14Mbps.
2)Late to market. Although they were promissed for years they just recently got good speeds (>1Mbps). I own an older home, I was considering this tech as an alternative to pulling wire( a huge pain in my house). But, 802.11b got to a resonable price to performance ratio first.
The only advantage I see to powerline is covering long distances in large buildings with no existing networking cabling. Does anyone else see a reason this tech would take off?
Imagine when you tell your girlfriend that you want to leave the lights on when you get down to business - she'll think it's kinky and you get to leave the webcam connected!
Have you seen my stapler?
would be to design a 802.11 repeater. A Accesspoint that simply relay's all traffic it recieves to the other accesspoint and the same in reverse.. this would make setting the whole thing up easier. 1 accesspoint and then 4 repeaters spread out around the first makes a nice coverage map for a large area.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Fiber to the home is too expensive.
Why not dishes from our houses to a main receiving dish. Much like satellite setups. Don't understand why this is taking so long.
it's a couple pieces of off-the-shelf hardware doing what they were designed to do. what's 'really great' about the article? there are no hacks involved in using hardware for its designed purpose.
Sucks when the Bulb burns out and you were downloading that 600MB file from the internet for the past 6 hours.
:)
Of course if would really suck if you didn't have a replacement bulb
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
swell i can just see the target audience for this thing.... the captive Xtasy poppin mosh pit surfin rave crowd that's lookin to surf the net and check their mail..
Pulling wire is the most fulfilling home improvement project you can undertake.
When you realize you can have gigabit capability in any room in the house, even the never-used bathroom in the addition, let me tell you, it's a great feeling.
Of course I have gigabit capability, but not enough bananas for a 32 ports of gigabit switching goodness on my rack. But even my 10mbit/100mbit hybrid of discarded switches from the office beats the unreliable 802.11 bulldink.
WAP, Shmap.
Wires are where it's at.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Don't confuse in-house PLC with distribution line (eg. from the power company) PLC.
From the same article:
"To date, with hundreds of thousands HomePlug systems sold, ARRL does not have any complaints of interference."
The ARRL is worried about PG&E selling broadband via this technology, not your average low-end linksys or siemens user.
I just read the article quickly- there's absolutely nothing about a UV light.
That is a regular FL bulb, and though the slashdot story seems to suggest/imply it, the light itself is not being used in any way/shape/form for data transmission/reception. This is simply "toss a small AP inside a tupperware bowl and add a FL light." Wow, what brilliance(pardon the pun.)
I see this as solving a problem that doesn't exist- it takes an electrician all of 15 minutes to add a plug off an existing junction box if you want the AP up high by your lights, and with 802.11g, you can cover an entire cafe from practically any wall socket in the place.
Continuing with the "truly a stupid idea" bit, FL tube bulbs like that get VERY hot(almost as hot as a regular bulb). Cooping one up in a tupperware bowl is a damn fine way to start a fire, or at least kill both components- probably the AP first; if it's electronics don't give out, the transformer's thermal fuse will(that's if it has one- many cheap transformers don't, and will happily melt down, short when the insultation melts, and start a fire.) The UL would die laughing at anyone who even tried to submit it for testing...
Please help metamoderate.
Rather then operating mechanical switches, I see the future, it will all be digital controled from a central console. No longer will you need to get up to turn on the light, you can do so from the convienence of your keyboard.
If you want a snack, just access the approperate access gateway, wether it be the fridge door or cupboard, open it from your centralized location, and poof.
It would only be a 10 - 25 meter walk at most, depending on the size of your place, and location of your centralized gateway. Just imagine, need some cream for your coffee, march to the PC, open the fridge, go to fridge, march back to PC, close fridge. Oh, forgot the sugar, march back to the pc, open cupboard, get sugar, and march back to pc, close cupboard.
Modern convience at it's finest!
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
I'd rather have a small (size of a PCMCIA ethernet card) WAP dongle that plugs in a modem line and/or ethernet line for use with my wifi enabled laptop and PDA.
Looking at the tech specs you need a 120W/C, and we us 240 in the UK.
Wonder if they will release a UK version.
They self-organize and pass the packets to the one machine with a wormhole into the real Internet. Most are just fancy, router/repeaters.
Of course the wormhole into the Internet is important if you want to actually download important things like blog rambles or pr0n.
Here in the UK, a company called Tele2 (http://www.libertybroadband.co.uk/) provide satellite-based internet access. We use them at my office, as we have a large mill building, not quite close enough to a BT exchange to get ADSL.
We get 2Mbps synchronous access, with no contention from other customers, since each site gets their own satellite (and hence node).
I'd guess there must be someone offering something similar where you are?
Wireless may be the only way in the states because of costs of laying fiber.
You know, I just followed my own link and discovered they aren't selling the satellite access any more (apart from the fact they've renamed) and are now doing standard wireless only. Hey ho eh? What a plonker I feel about now :)
Sprint Broadband had this years ago (they bought out a company called SpeedChoice that started it). They operated in a couple of markets - Phoenix and Denver I think - and apparently it wasn't successful enough to continue the service.
Wireless microwave works pretty well if you have line-of-sight to the tower, which is not that hard in mostly-flat areas. The hard part is making it commercially viable.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Maybe Siemens should just add an outlet to their access point?
So how many network engineers will it take to change a wireless lightbulb?
:)
802.11 is not a valid answer.
A fluorescent bulb emits UV internally which is converted to visible light by the phosphors on the inside of the glass.
Interesting idea, but putting any computer equipment on a switched outlet is not real bright (ha). If you are rewiring the lights to have a seperate switch, then you don't need this anyhow.
-jake
That's what my college uses to get us internet access in the apartments. They have a huge tower right on top of a dual T3 connection that uses a high-bandwidth wireless link to feed all of the buildings. It really works quite well. All of the on-campus apartments have 802.11b access that we pay for with our rent.
My only beef is that their packetshaper keeps cutting me off the network. One second, I have 60% signal strength and the next, it drops to 0. It hovers at 0 just long enough to disconnect me from EVERYTHING and it does this at least 3 times every day.
The FCC has been asleep on the job for over ten years. In addition to interference issues they've been asleep at the switch for HDTV and corporate ownership of radio and television.
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
As various people have pointed out, the light bulb is a fluorescent, not a UV bulb, and the network stuff isn't there to control the light - the network stuff is there to provide 802.11 to the big room, and the light fixture was the convenient place to mount it.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
How many geeks does it take to screw in a network?
"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers." Carl Sagan
Everybody who thinks that powerlines are a great way to run ethernet through your house forget that all of the wire is unshielded thereby creating a large antenna. This typically results in static noise on frequencies up to 80Mhz.
And that's NOTHING compared to the noise generated on the wiring by connected non-communication appliances.
- Motors. (Especially brush-type, such as vacuum cleaners or hair driers.)
- Switching-type light dimmers.
- Arc lights (fluorescent, "neon" gas discharge tubes, vapor-capsule, etc.)
- Welders.
- Switching-regulators in electronic appliances.
- DIODES in power supplies.
- ANY load turning on or off.
Heck: Even an incandescent bulb produces broad-spectrum audio-through-radio interference on the line - though nothing like what a defective bulb produces as it flickers. (And an old carbon-filiment lamp in a closet has been known to knock out radio reception for much of a city block.)
Be prepared for a LOT of packet corruption - meaning a lot of packet loss plus enough that get past all the redundancy checks to corrupt the actual traffic - if you ever attempt to use a power line for network traffic.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Wireless microwave works pretty well if you have line-of-sight to the tower, which is not that hard in mostly-flat areas.
Or hilly/mountainous ones - if you put the tower on a high point. Only misses a few local "holes" - at which point you can add a fill-in relay on a local high point.
Where it falls down is places that are both rugged and sparse. Like the Sierras for example. But wired gets 'way expensive there, too.
What REALLY kills it is competition from companies with the infrastructure already in place - like cable and DSL-over-POTS-copper. You gotta get enough customers all at once to be profitable or they'll eat your lunch while you eat your investors' funds and then starve.
It's hard to undercut the guys with infrastructure in place - and impossible to undercut the volunteers who hang an AP on their DSL or cable and leave it open.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
a better solution... would be to design a 802.11 repeater. A Accesspoint that simply relay's all traffic it recieves to the other accesspoint and the same in reverse.. this would make setting the whole thing up easier. 1 accesspoint and then 4 repeaters spread out around the first makes a nice coverage map for a large area.
802.11b repeater? Sure. Very simple. 2 access points + crossover cable. Make sure to set the APs to different (compatible) channels, and have fun.
Moderate drunk! It's more fun that way!
Now I can irradiate my kids as they sleep via a night-light that emits EMR around the same frequency as a cell phone.
Dan East
make the lighting part out of LEDs.
They made an access point small enough to fit into a light bulb. So now you can have an lightbulb that provides wireless internet. Pardon me, but that's not all that original. Pretty obvious in fact. The only really cool thing was that they got the hardware small enough.
;)
Now, when they make the lightbulb itself get power wirelessly (without radiating tons of power to everywhere else as well), then I'll be duly impressed.
-----------
I sig, therefore I was.
Try looking at the picture next time. Even the text says so ... and the entire device just managed to squeeze inside.
Infuriate left and right
In any case, I kind of don't see the point. Why not just a a wireless repeater? With 802.11a/g that's a lot faster than this, and it means you don't have two separate networking technologies to hassle with. And usually, you want to cover an area completely anyway, so all wireless access points need to overlap, which mean that they can act as repeaters.
Most streetlamps run 110v/240v up to the housing, where the photoelectric hardware (night/day sensor) does the actual switching.
Ricochet (the pre-802.11 wireless service now reconstructing itself post-bankruptcy) used this to their advantage, convincing towns to pay their meager electric usage in exchange for shiny new lamps/posts, with their repeater units embedded therein.
the general idea is fine but the thing that this guy rigged up is dangerous. It could have been done better and safer..
Back to the workbench for a safety overhaul.
"Ubiquitous networking, here we come."
Followed by Ubiquitous law enforcement.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Think these people ever heard of an outlet adapter? You know, the little thingy you screw in a light bulb socket that has two AC outlets, one on each side, and a light socket between. If they had used one of those, no "hacking" would be required!
Before even reading the writeup, I was hoping this was going to be about someone converting one of those little green glowing night lights everyone uses to little micro access points that have a range of just a few feet.. great for apartment dwellers and security-concious people living in condos.
Intelligent Life on Earth
Imagine if you will that you have an old home where running CAT-5 in the walls was going to be one of those nightmare projects that you just _so_ didn't want to face. Since your file servers live on your (currently CAT-5 wired) trusted internal network, the AC/Powerline version of this device (minus the wireless access point) starts to look pretty appealing!
:-(
That is until one question occured to me. What _exactly_ stops my TCP/IP ethernet traffic from heading out past my breaker box and to my neighbors on the same side of the big step down transformer that feeds my street?
So far, the answer I've come up with is: Absolutely nothing.
Which would mean using IPSEC on every connection, and so much for my internal network being quite as "trusted" or behind a firewall. Shielded conduit, CAT5, and a whole lot of plaster, here I come.
Whose approved rates ?
:>
US approved MW irradiation is about 1000x the Russian legal norm.
Some lucky places don't even have one.
Others have something in the extra-crispy-human range.
Where, oh where, are those nice, kind, generous, humane, caring corporations going to set up receiving antenna crops ? Near Manhattan ? In the Midwest ? In reservations ? In wildlife reserves ? On top of logging reserve forests ? Over in Mexico ? Oh Dear !
Xcept they won't be able to know it, on account o' runaway cataracts / dislocated retinas / macula fovea (or the other way around) / runaway cheloids (maybe literally), etc.
Wireless microwave works pretty well if you have line-of-sight to the tower, which is not that hard in mostly-flat areas.
Or hilly/mountainous ones - if you put the tower on a high point. Only misses a few local "holes" - at which point you can add a fill-in relay on a local high point.
Yeah, well, there's microwave internet where I live, but nearly everyone I know lives in one of those "holes" because it's so hilly!
Jory
Fans of this logical style might wish to study Monty Python: A lesson in logical thought"...
But Uncle Fester had a wireless lightbulb in 1967. But he couldn't transmit while it was on, except in Morse code.
I have one of those! It's called my laptop.
Har de har har.
Though from experience, it does come in handy to provide light during a blackout...
if only i could get a permanent wireless power source to power my laptop, i'd be set with true wirelessness