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Wellspring and ZigBee™ Radios
ZigBee™ radios are used by Wellspring (and many others) to communicate building control and monitored data using an open published communications protocol. The word "ZigBee™" actually refers to an open radio protocol documented in the IEEE Standard 802.15.4. As such, any product that uses the ZigBee™ protocol to communicate can send its data over any ZigBee™ network. That's why ZigBee™ is actively supported by 175 companies, including Motorola, Johnson Controls, Trane, Inovonics, Mitsubishi, Honeywell, Samsung, IBM, Itron Eaton, Invensys, Cisco, Hitachi and Texas Instruments, just to name a few.
Why Choose ZigBee?
The Fact that ZigBee™ is an open protocol may be the most compelling reason
to choose a ZigBee™ based system - but there are many other reasons:
Reliable Data Delivery
ZigBee™ radios form a self healing two-way mesh network that delivers much higher data through-put reliability. If one node fails, another picks up the load. If messages are not acknowledged, they retry. If interference becomes an issue, the frequency of the network can be changed. ZigBee™ systems
can run on any of 16 channels.
Shut-Offs
Every ZigBee™ radio can receive as well send, so every meter can accept control instructions. For example, you can curtail utility use if the apartment is unoccupied or if the bill is not paid. ZigBee™ gives
you control capabilities no other radio network has.
Other Applications
ZigBee™ will lower the cost to add new ZigBee™ based
systems as they become available from any supplier, like security monitoring,
smart temperature control, electric load controls on peak, time of day electric
metering, intercom, text messaging to a display in each apartment. The list of
possibilities is exhaustive.
Why Choose Wellspring's ZigBee™ System?
Power Agility
Wellspring goes beyond the ZigBee™ protocol,
by allowing transmit power levels to vary between 1 milliwatt (.001 watt) and
100mW (0.1 watt). Wellspring adds a layer of software that allows each Wellspring
radio to adjust its power level up and down as the radio environment changes.
So as furniture moves, new interference sources pop up, trees grow, and weather
happens, transmit power is adjusted automatically to assure that data get through.
Long Battery Life
Wellspring uses replaceable industrial lithium batteries with a 4 to 5 year life. Better still, any Wellspring node can be line powered, eliminating the need for batteries in many applications.
Easy Low Cost Installation
Wellspring systems self configure. Battery nodes attach to the nearest line powered nodes. All line powered nodes act as routers/repeaters that form a robust mesh of redundant pathways. You can use any meter as a router, by simply plugging it in, or tying it to a 24 volt source. For example, all Wellspring Green Thermostats also act as routers, as do all Wellspring electric sub-meters. Or you can choose to line power one water meter in each apartment so it will act as a router. Dedicated routers can also be used, typically mounted in the kitchen cabinet just over the refrigerator, plugged into the spare outlet behind the refrigerator.
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