robotmaker
USA
Asked
— Edited
I am working on a design that has both WIFI and wired LAN 10/100 board to replace the bluetooth
WIFI has some good points as WIRED RJ45 lan does and both have bad points too
MAIN reason for me for WIRED LAN is that i have 4 to 6 tanks ,some saltwater and some fresh water,plus tanks for my gecko's and soon my ring tail lemur cage
on using one EZB for each one and using only one computer ,without the problems of using WIFI or bluetooth.
ONLY using a WIFI BOARD ,but this has outputs called PHY for network RJ45.
I could use WIRED NETWORK to ttl adapter,but having both is much better and there are ways to use both.
i got the WIFI board in and RJ45 JACK IN ,only now waiting on a small adapter board for RJ45 connector
wifi board with phy
most WIFI boards dont have PHY (ETHERNET) I/O, then a speciail isolated transfomer is needed
USB is mostly for short runs,with WIRED NETWORK its long runs
I completely agree with you on the ease of use with network points around a house.
every thing in my house in every room has network,a few have 1GIG LAN some have 10/100
I found i needed 1 GIG LAN for video server on my 3 large screen tv's with media server
I tried with 10/100 and video would miss or mess up.you need a special cable and GIG SWITCH
On other designs i use USB to TTL adapter board,do not like bluetooth at all,unless a certain robot i am making uses a special controller with bluetooth.
USB2 has a maximum length of 5M for Hi-Speed (480Mbps). If you wanted multiple EZB controlled kitchen appliances, USB could be used.
Most homes do not have wired ethernet installed in every room, for others (and that's what I'm getting at here) wired ethernet may not be the best option.
I'm not sure why you would need gigabit ethernet for media streaming, sure it helps if there are other processes going on in the background or multiple streams at the same time but otherwise 10/100 is fine - at least in my experience I had no problems with 10/100 and streaming HD movies while someone else listened to music or watched another movie, the only reason I upgraded my switches was because my internet was boosted to 120mbps and I wanted to get the most out of it. HD movies can be streamed over 54Mbps wifi without issues (although it's not recommended as if the speed drops you end up buffering).
As for special cables, Cat5E has been the standard for years now which supports gigabit ethernet, I don't even know where you could buy normal Cat5 cable these days and as Cat5e is cheap there is no point to Cat5 now. Check every CAT5 cable you have and, unless they are very old, I'm sure you will see CAT5E or CAT6 written on them.
But that's another story/issue entirely.
Bluetooth can be OK but is limited. Range is the main issue there. If the EZB came in a bluetooth and wifi variety I would pick wifi every time. But it doesn't and bluetooth covers where I need it to.
Wifi has it's problems but they are few. Range could be an issue if you have a very large area you wish to cover, but then you could simply extend it. The only other issue is wifi signals dropping. This is assuming the router is set up correctly otherwise there are a whole host of other issues to deal with but those are router issues not wifi issues.
For mobile applications with no onboard control computer the option of USB or Wired ethernet just aren't there.
But what about RF? That's one that's seldom mentioned. Have you looked in to that? Has anyone?
It's all food for thought and hopefully information for people to consider. If you, or anyone else can add to any of it feel free.
ON my streamming i found sometimes it loses signal and ethernet is fine
CAT5 not really for 1 GIG lan where cat6 is,when i buy it ,it says its for 1GIG line
SO when i added GIG lan i have no problems at all.my brother installs professional systems mostly TV and media streamers for the rich ,and he only uses CAT6 for same reason
REASON this idea came up is not for my project ,but others wanted WIFI instead of bluetooth
and for extra $9 in parts can easy add RJ45
ON ADDING USB its a lot harder to hide the wire,thats another big reason ,unless you have your EZB's connected close together
aslo i have 54mbps on my WIFI and still does more of the problem as 10/100 ,my cable internet is 300 mbps and at 10/100 is loses signal sometimes or go very slowly,with 1 gig lan is really good
i am thinking in UNITED KINGDOM may be its ok,
i think it needs about 150mbps to have no problems at all
I See WIFI posts come up alot on EZB forum
There are good points and bad points on each type of connection.bluetooth,wifi,lan and usb
I've noticed that a lot of the AV/networking specialists I deal with at work are starting to specify CAT7 cable... not that you can get much that'll need CAT7 but still, that's what rich people get for wanting to hire the expensive designers
I don't disagree, and when I moved in my house the first thing I did was installed the network cables for the LAN. But over here it's harder to retrofit a wired lan as houses were built from brick until only a few years ago, I believe a lot of houses over that side of the pond are timber framed which is much easier to retrofit.
It's those good and bad points I was trying to get brought up and expanded on.
Some lines i check it cat5e if not all.since i did it just a little while back,but you need a GIG switch to go with it or you are just using 10/100 lan ,my internet is 300 gbps ,so 10/100 switch wont work, i got a GIG switch for video and network 10/100 router and switch ,and on the GIG line i do have a 1 GIG lan card
Anyway, we digress...
WiFi module... the main issue I see with this is the virtual com port. When you have yours running stable please please please post info on the virtual com port and how to set that up.
I could easy test it now since i have the board,but i will wait till my other part gets here in about a week.
Bluetooth mostly for a very short range ,like in robot controllers,but same thing with metal studs and if in a room far away cant pick it put
most house builders use metal studs with drywall its easy and fire safe,it does block WIRELESS CONNECTION
Reason i found out is i went to make one of the rooms bigger i had to remove the metal studs and replace some of them and to had ethernet cable in too,mostly was fairly easy
So i think some homes might have it,its hard to tell unless you break the walls apart
I think the reason some homes use it ,is because of fire ,wood burns ,metal doesnt
havent seen too many homes on the outside that uses wood
Concrete seems to kill any type of RC signal. I know I cant remote start my car if it's parked in a concrete parking garage.
I work out of a large concrete and steal building and my cell phone signal sucks when I'm inside.
I have stayed in a lot of large hotels that have Wifi throughout the large building that are built on metal structures. Mostly the signal was real good however they probably have boosters or repeaters throughout the building.
Not based in science or deep research or tests. These are just a few of my long term personal experiences.
Concrete will greatly reduce any type of signal but not as bad as Cotswold stone does (and living close to the Cotswolds there's a lot of that round here which makes installing a wifi network for someone rather difficult).
Metal structures do hinder signals but a partitioned wall with metal studding isn't solid metal throughout the wall, the signal will still get around it. But it wont be metal studding on structural walls. Metal studding, at least this side of the pond is used mainly on budget builds where a lot of internal walls need erecting fast for little money, generally timber is used in most builds.
I stayed in a lot of hotels since i travel a lot,and found out most hotls seem to be pretty good
at libraries the signal is really bad,i found out burger king has a very good signal,and starbucks
Mostly why i dont like WIFI too much,internet is great ,and using a WIFI printer
But for a monitor or video you need a very stable singnal
Good news my board came in so will be testing this week,also looking at making a autoswitch for WIFI and bluetooth,if WIFI is down it switches to bluetooth and when WIFI is up it switches back
I see others are having trouble hooking up to TLG10UA03 ,I will find whyand best solution to fix it
and post my data
Other good news since i will be in china and near Shen Zhen, China ,where the elechouse factory is,i can see if i need help from them