UPB question

[Rustytek]

During EHX I learned a lot about UPB and thought of a question after the show. UPB has the ability to communicate over the distance of a mile, what happens if you install UPB devices in every home in a large residential community? To elaborate - In a large, zero lot line, community (with UPB installed in every home) you would have LOTS of UPB traffic over the power lines. If you have 5000 homes (a guess) with 60 UPB devices in each home you would have a total of 300.000 devices communicating. Let's say every house decides to turn on a single light at sunset (6:00 pm). That would mean it would take 83 seconds for all devices to send the SINGLE "on" signal. Now imagine, if everyone turn's on entry lights, walkway lights, and an indoor light. We are now looking at 249 seconds (4 minutes +) - this is not even waiting for a response (not sure if response communicates and same part of sine wave). Now, put motion detectors in everyone's house. Will this cause communication delay's? I realize some clocks will not be set exactly at 6:00:00, but with all these devices, won't there be more and more lag with extra devices?

I am interested in UPB and am not bashing it. I just have question' about it.

 

[Steve]

Well, there are a few possible answers to this question.

1. You can move to the country with no neighbors for a few miles and then you won't have to worry about it <_<.

Ok, seriously. I understand your point although I will go out on a limb here. First, I think 60 devices is a lot more than an average house, even a large house in some cases. I would guess most zero lot line homes would be on the average to below average size range. So I think it is a bit unrealistic you will have anywhere near those numbers. Ok, so UPB has a Unique Network ID. UPB devices reject packets with different Network ID's so the question is if this still affects timings. There may also be a way to firewall or filter your home if needed. I really don't see this as a real world problem, but perhaps either Brad will reply here or you can contact him at [email protected].

 

[elcano]

I guess that the step-down transformer supplying power to your house would work as a low-pass filter. This means that only low frequency signals like the 60Hz power current would pass without much loss, but high frequency signals like the uPB 40volts peaks should be highly attenuated.

Looking at my neighborhood each transformed do not feed more than 20 or 40 houses. And even if the signal passed this transformer, it would have to cross another transformer back to pass the signal to other houses in the community. Not very probable.

And as Steve says, you always have to option of installing a low-pass filter at the entrance of your house.

Anyway, I dont think that UPB will ever be as common as you point out in your example. However, that would be great because that would push the prices down! <_<