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Coming Soon: ZigBee Control by PDA

Posted by timothy on from the wireless-torchiere-is-a-zigbee-pole dept.

palmtops writes "The new ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) wireless protocol designed for home automation is getting a lot of exposure lately and got some more exciting news today. Wired Home Weblog has a brief mention and press release about the first ZigBee SDIO card that allows your home to be controlled by your PDA. The card was introduced by C-Guys at Cebit today and will definitely add a whole new dimension to home automation."

4 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Good times ahead by Geogriffith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't we all look forward to the day when we can turn off the lights, not by primitive methods like getting up, but simply clicking upon our computers? And then there will be problems of "house-hacking", when teens with wifi will roam the neighborhood, causing your lights to flicker, your oven to overheat, and your fridge to stop running. Convienience can only go so far. Is it really too hard to get up to turn off a light (or get a smaller lamp, if you're arthritic)?

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    Quoted for redundancy.
    1. Re:Good times ahead by CynicalGuy · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Is it really too hard to get up to turn off a light (or get a smaller lamp, if you're arthritic)?

      Yeah for some people it is hard to get up to turn off a lamp. They're called disabled. Asshole.

    2. Re:Good times ahead by colenski · · Score: 3, Insightful

      could someone explain why Zigbee and the other newer alternatives are better than X10?

      'cause X-10 doesn't scale. It only transmits on 1 phase of the power, and you need a phase coupler to ensure it covers a moderately sized house. In practical use, you'd be hard pressed to get it to work consitiently in a > 3000 sq ft house.

      Oh yeah, and there's no security layer, so it's possible to turn on your neighbor's lights when you turn yours on if they choose the same "channel" as you.

      I am an X-10 pro certified installer and I think X-10 is neat (and cheap) but it's old. Really old. Really, really friggin old. Time to shoot it in the head and come up with something better.

  2. Re:Zigbee != IEEE 802.15.4 by kc8apf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I fail to see how that page disproves the GP. IEEE 802.15.4 is a standard for the data link and physical layers. ZigBee is an application layer that sits on top of IEEE 802.15.4. You can run any application layer you want on it. In fact, http://www.dlpdesign.com/ is selling a ZigBee compatible 802.15.4 transceiver that is loaded with a protocol based on Freescale's SMAC application layer.

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    kc8apf