Wireless Control-
All Wi-Fi certified equipment that complies with the
same standard is supposed to work together no matter
who made it, but the best bet is to choose all equip-
ment from one manufacturer. You’re less likely to run
into trouble.
WLANs
A WLAN consists of two equipment types:
Access
Points
and
Clients
:
Clients are attached to a single computer or other
equipment and provide a wireless connection to that
equipment only. This is the Wi-Fi card you purchase
and install (or it is already built into your laptop). For
example, a popular choice is the Linksys WPC54GS
(www.linksys.com).
Access Points (APs) are the base stations of the
system; they are the wireless equivalent of the Ethernet
hub or switch. An Access Point interconnects a wire-
less network to a wired LAN. Wireless devices do not
communicate directly with each other in a managed
wireless network. They communicate via the Access
Point. (See Figure 3.)
6
1
INPUT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
OUTPUT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
PRESET
RPM 88
A
B
A
B
Peak dBFS
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
AES3
AES3
LOCK
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
VIP/VOP RW 485
ETHERNET STATUS POWER
Figure 1. Simple wired LAN with one computer and one RPM 88.
Figure 2. Wired LAN with one computer, an Ethernet switch and
several RPMs.
6
1
INPUT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
OUTPUT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
PRESET
RPM 88
A
B
A
B
Peak dBFS
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
AES3
AES3
LOCK
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
VIP/VOP RW 485
ETHERNET STATUS POWER
INPUT
AES3
OUTPUT
1
2
A
B
1
4
3
2
6
5
LOCK
VIP
POWER
ETHERNET STATUS
RPM 26z
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
PRESET
2
1
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
INPUT
OUTPUT
1
2
1
2
AES3
A
B
VIP
POWER
ETHERNET STATUS
RPM 2m
PRESET
1
1
Wireless Ethernet = Wireless Drag Net
Wireless Ethernet is a huge subject with many branch-
es involving different technologies. But for a simple
case of a single computer connecting to a simple Local
Area Network (LAN), it is quite easy. A LAN is formed
anytime a computer and one or more RPMs are con-
nected together (see Figures 1 & 2). You can create a
simple Wireless LAN (WLAN) and control RPMs from
anywhere in a room, whether there is one RPM in the
system or a hundred.
Wi-Fi
The easiest to use and most prevalent wireless Ethernet
equipment is based on a standard called IEEE 802.11.
That isn’t very easy to say let alone remember, so sen-
sible marketing folks stepped in and dubbed it Wi-Fi
(wireless-fidelity) (www.wi-fi.org).
There are now three versions of Wi-Fi equipment:
802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. For a single computer
connecting to a simple LAN, the differences between
the three standards are not important. However some
compatibility issues exist so the smartest method is to
buy equipment with the same suffix.
6
1
INPUT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
OUTPUT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
PRESET
RPM 88
A
B
A
B
Peak dBFS
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
AES3
AES3
LOCK
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
VIP/VOP RW 485
ETHERNET STATUS POWER
Figure 3. Laptop with Wi-Fi card (Client), WLAN with Access
Point, and one RPM.
6
1
INPUT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
OUTPUT
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
PRESET
RPM 88
A
B
A
B
Peak dBFS
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
-4
-12
-48
AES3
AES3
LOCK
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
VIP/VOP RW 485
ETHERNET STATUS POWER
INPUT
AES3
OUTPUT
1
2
A
B
1
4
3
2
6
5
LOCK
VIP
POWER
ETHERNET STATUS
RPM 26z
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
PRESET
2
1
PROGRAMMABLE
MULTIPROCESSOR
INPUT
OUTPUT
1
2
1
2
AES3
A
B
VIP
POWER
ETHERNET STATUS
RPM 2m
PRESET
1
1
Figure 4. Laptop with Wi-Fi card (Client), WLAN with wireless
switch Access Point, and several RPMs.