I'm not clear, what type of bandwidth can we expect from this? I can see this being useful even if it's very low bandwidth, but I'd like to know what I'm getting into.
How does it handle interference? I'm assuming 1 kilometer is optimal. How does the encryption affect transfer speed? There's a lot of important questions that need to be answered before I'd consider putting down money on this.
The Kickstarter doesn't directly say this, but it uses the ISM band (900mhz in the US). The chip they're using has a maximum throughput rate of 500kbps. They're combining the features of wifi and bluetooth for fast speeds over short distances and supplementing it with an ISM radio for slower speeds over longer distances.
Since it has 256-bit AES encryption, I would guess they are basing it off something like an XBee/ZigBee/RFBee.
It's been a hectic few days organizing all that information, but here's the lowdown:
Currently we are using the CC1101 Radio, which maxes out at 600kbps. It's an excellent radio, but has been basically unchanged since 2006, when TI bought chipcon (who made the CC1101).
The CC1200 was recently announced as a successor, and it looks pretty amazing. The max data rate of that chip is 1.2Mbps, and it has increased transmit power and sensitivity. The chip is priced roughly the same as the CC1101 and is based off of the same code, so we should be able to port everything to it quickly and pick up development with it. There is a possibility that the chip will have some flaw that makes it a show stopper, but it's intended by Texas Instruments to be a nearly drop in replacement, and if it does what the datasheet says it should handily work for us.
There is a possibility that we will end up not being able to use the CC1200 though, giving us a max data rate of 600kbps in that case, and I realize I need to make that clear, so I will go write up that copy on our Kickstarter page now. I definitely don't want there to be any confusion about what we're selling, so I apologize for not making that clear to any backers, I'll mention the change in our coming backer update, which will largely be directed at international backers, who we are working to accommodate!
How does it handle interference? I'm assuming 1 kilometer is optimal. How does the encryption affect transfer speed? There's a lot of important questions that need to be answered before I'd consider putting down money on this.