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Can someone tell me why these devices have a range of more than just a few feet? The point of having a remote control is to avoid having a control cable poking
by DougWebb 15y ago
Can someone tell me why these devices have a range of more than just a few feet? The point of having a remote control is to avoid having a control cable poking through your skin. A control interface with a range of just a few inches would suffice.
- nate_meurer 15y agoThere's no good way to reliably limit the range of a wireless signal like this. A sufficiently sensitive receiver will always be able to eavesdrop from a distance far greater than that in the design use-case. If we don't want the signal intercepted, the answer is stronger encryption. That said, any potential vulnerability here appears to mostly spring from the remote control functionality, more than the remote reporting functionality. Here again, encryption is the answer.
- dfox 15y agoProbably economies of scale. Various low power RF chipsets for ISM bands with range in hundreds of feet with simple RF matching circuit are used in many different applications and thus surprisingly cheap. Limiting range of that is going to induce significant additional costs (either you have to modify antenna and it's matching circuit or use completely different silicon).