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Turning Your Home Wiring Into a Giant Antenna
An anonymous reader writes with this IBT snippet: "Imagine if you could run a wireless sensor device for years without ever having to replace the battery. Turns out, the idea of a battery-less wireless device might not be too far off. Researchers at the University of Washington and the Georgia Institute of Technology developed a small node sized device that uses the residential wiring from a building or home and transmits information to and from almost anywhere else from within. The device is called Sensor Nodes Utilizing Powerline Infrastructure, or SNUPI. It uses basic copper wiring as a giant antenna to receive wireless signals at a set frequency. When the device is within 10 to 15 feet of electrical wiring, it uses the antenna to send data to a single base station." (For "node-sized," think "size of a breakfast cereal prize.")
Just run a wire out back to the railroad line and attack to a rail.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
This is actually a pretty cool idea. It means in any populous area you wouldn't need wireless hubs or cell towers anymore, just the whole city would be humming.
Of course, if there is indeed any higher risk of cancer from radio waves, well... I pity everyone who lives there :)
here is one someone knocked up a 120 years ago.
They already get upset enough about HomePlug style ethernet-over-power devices.
Smart money says that SNUPI is a backronym because they wanted the name to be catchy.
IF this is widely adopted, place your bets on how long it takes for snoopers and sniffer to start stealing your sensitive data. I'm guessing a scant week after a city touts a complete success at a city-wide installation a report will come out on how a scammer scams that town out of kajillions.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I'd like to see one of those frenetically sealed batteries. Or maybe just see a video of the battery being sealed.
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
I have tried internet over power lines and it never worked for me.
FTA: These devices are for "communicating back to the bay station." Think the author knows anything about wireless?
These powerline 'type' technologies are like just bad bad news for Hams and shortwave enthusiasts as it wipes out the bands, unless notch filters are employed, which I doubt it.
Im sorry, what is a breakfast cereal prize?
It's something that you plug into your UCB port.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
I have been working in a DSL company a few years back. For DSL systems, the AM signals could be an issue since they can couple into the long twist pair lines and then, be fed into receiver. So far, I got the idea to utilize the long wires (phone lines, power line, etc) to perform short range radio communications or sensors with other devices. Problems? Many. Overall, it is very hard to control, i.e. taking a lot of noise/interference and emitting a lot of energy (could affect other devices).
^(oo)^pig~
For those of you who have never eaten or purchased pre-sweetened "kids" cereals, popular breakfast cereals marketed to children in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West often have a little toy stuffed in them. A famous (infamous?) example that may be an urban legend is a plastic whistle that once came in Cap'n'Crunch cereal boxes that (allegedly) blew a tone of 2600 Hz, the exact frequency needed to place free phone long-distance phone calls on AT&T's POTS network.
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(For "node-sized," think "size of a breakfast cereal prize.")
Don't know about yours, my node is way bigger than this.
What a great idea. The whole building as a huge super-conductive antenna designed and built expressly for the purpose of pulling in and concentrating spiritual turbulence. Your girlfriend, Pete, lives in the corner penthouse of Spook Central.
Mark my words! Do this, and many Shuvs and Zuuls will know what it is to be roasted in the depths of the Slor that day, I can tell you!
How can this ever be approved? I imagine this can cause all sorts of problems. The power grid in a normal house is not designed for this, same thing goes for the ethernet over power crap. There are all sorts or regulations about keeping net pollution down, and using it as a transmission medium goes directly against this.
For "node-sized," think "size of a breakfast cereal prize."?
For those of us that haven't eaten cereal that comes with prizes for at least 40 years now, can you express that in more traditional units, e.g. volkswagens, libraries of congress, or common US coins? Alternatively, you you just give the fucking dimensions.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Another bit of brilliance:
WTF? What the holy hell does that even mean? And other unanswered questions: what on earth is this useful for? What kind of sensors do they intend to attach to this, and what is intended to be done with the data gathered? And: "a node-sized" device? Ok, so how big is a node?
Hint for the International Business Times: for your next story, try assigning a reporter who has some kind of a fucking clue what's being talked about. And for Slashdot: try reading submitted articles before you push them to the front page, in order to avoid embarrassing yourself.
I know, must be new here.
Sounds like they are using the frequencies reserved in the US for R/C control, which require no license. Also, since they are using the power lines as a receiver, not a transmitter, HAM enthusiasts shouldn't have a problem with it. For the very limited niche it is designed for (home data collection), it's a cool system.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Eventually some lucky upstart will shoot it down as well, but programmers everywhere will forever remember it as one of the greatest builds ever released.
For "node-sized," think "size of a breakfast cereal prize."
Is that a European or African cereal prize?
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
When I was 11 I got a Heathkit Crystal set kit for my birthday, it came with a variable capacitor a diode a small Bakelite knob a phenolic tube a spool of enameled magnet wire a square of plywood, solder, screws, a little piece of sandpaper a pair of fanstock clips with a monophone headset. I had to buy a soldering iron. Let me tell you I was thrilled, and I even entered it into the science fair.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
Fortunately, it fits in the slim type-A connector rather than the bulkier type-B slot which is more typical for data dumps. -l
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In the UW paper, there was no detailed description of the powerline inside the test home. What was the wiring? I'm guessing it was NM cable (a.k.a. "Romex"), or wire in nonmetallic conduit. If a home is wired with wire in metal conduit or armored cable (f.k.a."BX"), the grounded metal enclosure probably has an adverse effect on performance of the SNUPI system.
It's not an urban legend. It's how John Draper became known as Captain Crunch. One story about him that wikipedia says may be an urban legend:
The Captain Crunch whistle's frequency is where hacker and security site 2600.org got its name.
Free Martian Whores!
No, the other way around. Atari were old Captain Crunch fans.
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I've heard the story repeated -- a lot. However, I've never seen the claim backed up by real evidence that the whistles ever existed. Since the whistles in questioned allegedly existed in the 1960s, before I was even born, I added the disclaimer that it may be an urban legend.
Now, produce one of these whistles, and I'll redact my disclaimer.
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Neat - I wasn't lucky enough to get a crystal set but did get various other kits. I knocked up a two-way radio with a mate once. I feel sorry for youngsters these days, they just get iPods. Perhaps Jobs should think of an iCrystal kit.
I don't have one, but I do remember them. The Wikipedia article on the cereal has citable references. And a little googling turns up photos of the whistle.
Free Martian Whores!
I had a crystal radio kit as a kid, too. I don't remember if it was a Heathkit or not (although I remember my dad building several Heathkit projects), but it was still a very cool project. I do remember being disappointed it wasn't louder, though, lol.
:)
Now that you've stirred up the memories, I want to build another crystal radio
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
I recall stories of products that served to make an antenna out of the electrical wiring of your house or even the chicken-coop wiring in the backing of old stucco-surfaced walls. they functioned as advertised, but seeing as neither was designed for the purpose, they're both woefully unprepared for the accidental circumstance of a larger EMF pulse. recieving a signal incurs resistance, resistance heat. too much signal can suddenly cause your house to explode into flame.
PS AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHHH entering this comment was a exercise in frustration, what the FUCK kind of script is preventing me from typing, hilighting, or rightclicking in the edit pane randomly and for 30 seconds at a time?!?!?!?
When I was in college, kids in the university's then-tallest building would not bother getting cable service, which the dorm was pre-wired for. But despite not having cable service, they plugged their TV's into the cable jacks anyway -- and it increased their OTA reception fourfold. The cable wires running through the building served as a huge 100-foot antenna.
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
The benefit this project brags about is how the wireless nodes will consume so little power that the builtin batteries will deliver power longer than their 10 year shelf life. That's not really "eliminating batteries" as they claim, because actually eliminating batteries would mean the sensors would have an indefinitely long life, not one limited by the shelf life of the batteries.
But since the nodes are using the building electrical power network for transmissions, why not just plug them directly into the power wires? That would indeed truly eliminate the battery entirely, except maybe a rechargeable for backup. And if plugged in, why bother with wireless at all?
--
make install -not war
A trivial upgrade, assuming you have the right building materials. Just use some cold-riveted beams with cores of pure selenium, magnesium-tungsten alloys, and gold plated bolts, and it'll be working in no time.
I worked for Radio Shack about twenty of the thirty years from 1967 to 1997. (Finally got time-off for good behavior.)
Several times through the years we sold various types of 'whole-house antennas'; all were advertised to provide stunning VHF reception. A couple even advertised they'd work on UHF. The units typically were simple high-pass, LC-based (inductor / capacitor) filters.
The capacitors were in series with the AC line supply and would frequently short.
Older tube-based TVs weren't too badly affected. As the tuners moved to solid-state devices, the stores received about one claim every couple of months for TVs damaged or destroyed by failed 'whole-house antennas'.
Imagine if you could run a wireless sensor device for years without ever having to replace the battery. ... a small node sized device that uses the residential wiring from a building or home ...
So, if we're already surrounded by a dedicated hard-wired power delivery infrastructure, we don't need batteries if we use this thing.
Or you could just plug the damn thing in.
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
You had a DIODE!? Shit, I only had a galena crystal and a catwhisker. Lucky me, I had a cypress tree house about fifty feet off the ground, and ran a wire down to the swamp below. We were less than a mile from a big AM transmitter in Jax, FL, and you could listen to the earphones like speakers! But my science fair project lasted one operation. It was a Van der Graaf tower generator running a huge rubber band off a phonograph motor, on a plastic tube about three feet long with an aluminum pot on top. Went off like a rifle shot when it arced over, freaked out the science teachers. http://amasci.com/emotor/vdg.html
The Xtal Set Society: http://www.midnightscience.com/
Cool -- thanks for the link!
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
Im sorry, what is a breakfast cereal prize?
It's a small gift (usually miniature plastic toys of one kind or another) frequently found in boxes of children's breakfast cereal. That's been pretty common since I was a kid in the 1960's, if not longer. I got all kinds of things: wish I still had them, they'd probably be very collectible today. I remember a glow-in-the-dark compass (that actually worked!), a whistle that had spinning fan blades that made an awesome siren sound, tiny figures of soldiers, superheroes, plastic cars, boats, tanks, all kinds of stuff. Once I even found a miniature flashlight. I only used it a couple of times before it broke, but it was fun while it lasted. Anyway, I think the idea was to encourage the kid to work his way through the box of sugary crunchy starch as quickly as possible so his parents would have to go buy more. Cap'n Crunch and Apple Jacks were my two favorites.
Not sure what they put in kid's cereal nowadays, but I'll bet it's not half as much fun.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.