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[vince]

Hey,

I would like to know if there can be a problem with wireless signals interfering with each other. We all know so many products are now wireless, including famous consoles such as Xbox 360 and PS3. Can these cause a problem with the Zigbee thermostats or with other products?

[emmsys]

Hi Vince,

Good question. On one side, you can look at those video game consoles directly and see that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo aren't worried about multiple wireless protocols embedded in a small area. I have a PS3 and haven't experienced any issues between the Bluetooth controllers and the 802.11g WiFi built in. There can definitely be interference between wireless devices. Each device and protocol have different ways of minimizing interference, and minimizing their susceptibility to interference. For example, Bluetooth uses a frequency-hopping scheme which helps it avoid staying in a noisy spectrum for too long. ZigBee does not employ a frequency-hopping mechanism. It "goes around" the noise by finding a new route to its destination. Bluetooth and ZigBee both transmit relatively small packets, which also helps minimize the effects of interference. Even though you can hit buttons on a video game controller very quickly, in reality it's not very fast at the microcontroller level, so you are not really taxing the wireless spectrum much. Anyway, yes there can be interference but there's a lot going on behind the scenes to avoid collisions. Have you experienced any issues playing consoles with wireless controllers?

emmsys

[vince]

Yes, I did. I tried to turn on my console with the controller and it did not go on. However the light was flashing on the controller, it seems it was trying to send a signal. I did have a laptop near by which has a wireless card that receives signals from a router. Could that be the problem?

[emmsys]

Hi,

Which console was this? If I'm not mistaken, the PS3 uses Bluetooth while the Xbox 360 uses a proprietary wireless protocol, still running on 2.4GHz though. The problem could have been lots of things, like low battery power, maybe some type of synchronization issue between the controller and the console, the user ( ) etc. Troubleshooting wireless issues is definitely not an easy task. With the PS3 you can plug in the controller via mini USB cable which I think also associates the controller to the console the first time you start it. Unless your microwave was on (and nearby), and your laptop was transferring lots of data, and the battery on the controller was weak etc. etc. there's likely more going on than just interference.

emmsys