On May 5, 2008, at 4:49 PM, Eric Smith wrote:
It were me,
I'd probably look into Bluetooth- or Zigbee-based serial
extenders.
I'm not sure about Zigbee, but the useful range of Bluetooth is very
short. There are claims of over 30 meters, but as far as I can tell
that must be under laboratory conditions, e.g. in a faraday cage.
In the real world, more than about 3 meters line of sight works
poorly,
as does non-line-of-sight at any distance.
It's also not likely that Bluetooth will be around for much
longer. Zigbee solves many of its problems, it's much easier to work
with, and is gaining popularity fast.
Tony, you might look into the XBee modules from Maxstream. The
are serial<->Zigbee bridge modules that are very easy to configure
and use. They are also cheap at ~$20/ea. They may solve your problem.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL