My company is in the process of building a new brick plant and it would be nice to be able to use their (Esteem) 192E radio modem to network a few notebooks we have. The new controls will all be 5/05 based and hard wired into the network. Most likely, iFix will also be used. It would be nice to have both iFix and RSlogix on a wireless laptop that could go online from either within the plant. The new control room will be in the middle of the plant up in the air, allowing full plant view. If a wireless industrial modem like the above were used, what may be some considerations/concerns that I may need to factor in?

The other question is have any of you ever used this modem with the pre-installed, internal 802.11b wireless cards that come factory with notebooks? Would the range be decreased over that of the Esteem's PCMCIA units? Or is it a matter of noise/interference. These PCMCIA cards from Esteem carry a chunky price tag and our notebooks already have (and more WILL have) 802.11b built in.

Aditionally the max distance between the controls room and the notebooks couuld be is maybe 150-200 yards. Would this be an issue?
Thanks for any help you may have.

 

The notebook computers with WiFi built-in all have full wavelength (usually dual) antennas at the side of the LCD screen so that they are vertical when being used. This gives better reception than the small horizontal antennas used for the PC Card interfaces unless they are equipped with external antennas. Access points generally have dual vertically polarized full wavelength antennas giving better reception with vertically polarized antennas on the remote notebook computers. The indoor range usually quoted for IEEE 802.11b is about 100 meters, further outdoors. Expect some slowdown from the peak speeds for distances longer than about 20-30 meters. Other than these generalities, I cannot speak for the Esteem modems.

Dick Caro
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Richard H. Caro, CEO
CMC Associates
2 Beth Circle, Acton, MA 01720
Tel: +1.978.635.9449 Mobile: +1.978.764.4728
Fax: +1.978.246.1270
E-mail: [email protected]
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