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Wireless transmission/noisy environment question

From: Robert Gorbet   rbgorbetuwaterloo.ca
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 12:33:12 -0700

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I have an art installation which consists of two components
needing to communicate with one-another at a relatively low
data rate (a few kbps will do).  In previous installations,
the components were connected with 500' of cat5 cable and we
used RS485 drivers on either end of this cable.

In an upcoming installation, the only potential route for the
cat5 would be within a few feet of high-voltage power lines
on power poles, and it would have to cross over an electric 
streetcar route at 6' above the streetcar power.  We are a
little concerned with noise.  :-)

Questions:

1. should we be concerned about noise, at those data rates?

2. should we be concerned with the magnitude of potential
spikes damaging the receiver electronics?

3. if we consider wireless, what is the cleanest solution?
I am thinking RS485-aware radio modems, but there may be
other solutions.  Would this solution be just as sensitive
to noise in this environment?

4. what should I expect a plug-and play (i.e., rewire the
MAX xmit/rcvr chips to the modems instead of the cat5, and
press go) solution to cost?

5. does anyone have any experience with RF modems in this
kind of noisy environment?

Thanks much!
Rob.
___________________________
Robert Gorbet, PhD, PEng
Dept. of ECE, 
University of Waterloo
200 University Ave. West
Waterloo, ON  N2L 3G1
+1-519-888-4567 x3489


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