360 Wireless Clashing With Wal-Mart Tech

vladcole writes "Xbox 360 kiosks are getting shut down by some Wal-Mart employees sick of having their handheld inventory devices and printers malfunction, according to this compilation of Joystiq reader reports." From the article: "There's no reason to get worried about the Xbox 360 launch date (there, we recognized the elephant in the room), but the breadth and frequency of these reports point to a compatibility issue between the Xbox 360 and Wal-Mart, at least." Next Generation confirms that Wal-Mart is having issues with the 360 pods.

Comments

Wireless networks?

[vertinox]

So if I have an xbox 360 will it affect my remote control changing channels... Oh wait... ;)

But seriously, think this would have an effect on wireless networks/devices?

Re:Wireless networks?

[alienw]

I would think the reason stuff like that is happening is because they are preproduction models. They may not have done things like figuring out the shielding and stuff, so there could be quite a bit of RF interference coming from them. Once it gets past the regulatory agencies and such, it should not produce any more interference than any other electronic device. It's actually quite amazing how much RFI a poorly shielded computer can produce, so it's not surprising their wireless scanners are getting knocked out.

Re:Wireless networks?

[Guspaz]

What the Slashdot article neglects to mention is that Microsoft has already fixed the problem .

They had a fix within 24 hours and started rolling it out. It didn't affect wireless networks in general, only some specific point-of-sale systems.

Anyhow, to sum up, problem was fixed before launch and wouldn't have affected consumers anyhow.

Re:Wireless networks?

[tklive]

nice job.

so MS used this not only for promotion but for some last minute testing too, to get a feel for what real life customers would face. That is kinda neat .

besides atleast in this case you really dont know if the issue could be with the freq used by wallmart scanners, they are known to cut corners wherever possible and *might* be using non std devices. This could be the case with the consumers too and i guess MS have factored that in now...

Re:Wal-Mart's Tech Skills

[thesandtiger]

Wal-Mart has some of the best tech in retail, actually. Just because they *sell* cheap crap doesn't mean they *use* cheap crap.

If you want to know what other retailers will be doing in 5 years, take a look at Wal-Mart's tech. There's a reason people are willing to work in their tech group for the low wages - it's because they learn a LOT.

All other valid slams on Wal-Mart aside, their tech is most definitely good stuff.

Cause of malfunction..

[BlackMesaLabs]

the 360's communicate via airborn chair transmission. Some stray chairs are bound to hit the odd bystander.

Got FCC?

[rush3k]

I believe electronic devices have to comply with relevant FCC specifications before they are released into the market.

Re:Got FCC?

[MBCook]

2.4 GHz is unlicensed, like 900 MHz and a few others (27 and 49 MHz are also, I think). As such, they only need to comply with part 15 (can't knowingly cause interference, and this device may cause unwanted interference), and I believe that there are other rules (I'm guessing can't use more than 500 mW of power, etc.).

In the same way that a cordless telephone may interfere with your WiFi, this is allowed to happen. When anyone is free to make anything use that band, stuff like this is bound to happen. It really isn't that bad. This is one reason why it is nice to have licensed frequencies where people can't go messing around (ex: FM and AM don't have that problem because they are protected).

In short, yes they are allowed to do that. Now I find it STUPID that this system wasn't tested before rolling out. I can't believe that if it was tested that they would miss such a problem.

Now if they used wired controllers (they are permanently attached so that shouldn't be a problem) then I would think that would solve it (WiFi is optional on the 360, IIRC). Now if doing that they STILL had problems, then I would start looking into if they really comply with Part 15.

Re:Wal-Mart's Tech Skills

[MBCook]

And that makes perfect sense. You can't get to be Wal-Mart's size and keep prices so low without some SERIOUS IT infrastructure to keep things going. They have just-in-time inventory, if I remember, among other things. They are one of the big pushers for RFID because it will help them so much.

Wal-Mart is way up front in technology for major retails in the US (and I would expect the world).

Re:issues smissues

[Electrum]

And 3 years from now, your PC will not only play Call of Duty 2 at ultra high, but whatever other games you want which look even better.

Assuming your CPU is still fast enough and you spend another $300 on a new graphics card.

360 will be stuck with whatever it could play when it came out.

And your computer will magically get faster over the next three years? Games on consoles do tend to get better over the life of the console as developers gain experience with the console. It is much easier to optimize for a fixed platform.

Re:Wal-Mart's Tech Skills

[karnal]

No kidding.

I work for a rather large company, and when Wal-Mart came in and said "YOU WILL USE THIS RFID, TO OUR SPECS" our fearless leaders said "Anything you want."

Now, for our overall industry of the company I work for, Wal-Mart could take a flying nose dive. But, for our division? It would be suicide to not have our product out there.

So we installed their system. To their specifications.

For those of you with no Wal Mart..

[LordJezo]

Here are some pictures for those of you interested.. The Wal Mart down the road from my house Phillipsburg, NJ

Eh? Telzon problems?

[Crescens]

These are the Symbol units, right? When I was working at Best Buy years ago we had the same problem with 2.4GHz cordless phones. Our previous phone stopped working and when we replaced it the phone pretty much made the Telxon units useless anywhere around the phone. Ended up just replacing the new one with yet another 900MHz phone.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's the exact same thing.

Strange packet data..

[bjb]

I went to a WalMart the other day and sniffed out the traffic. Maybe someone knows what the 360's protocol is doing?

<SOH>ALLYOURBASEAREBELONGTOUS<EOH>

Very strange...