Mobile FRC

It’s Not Rocket Science

These days it’s strange to hear people say, “I’m just not computer literate,” as computers have evolved from archaic scientific calculators to simple point-and-click type machines. We suspect that today’s “computer illiterates” are people who haven’t taken the time to experiment with such a machine. And we strongly believe that spending just twenty minutes with one could turn the most adamant technological caveman into any one of those who have fun wreaking chatroom havoc on the Internet today.

Today, one only needs to learn how to manipulate a mouse, punch a few buttons on a keyboard, or really just turn the thing on to use a computer. It’s hard for some folks to believe, but the computers of this generation almost run themselves! For fun, let’s investigate just how little knowledge these thousand-dollar machines actually require.

Can an absolute newbie operate a computer without knowing how to use a mouse or keyboard? Assuming that a computer is set up to operate on voice command – sure! Voice command software allows users to tell a computer what to do and the computer responds by fulfilling the user’s commands. Although it’s pretty new and still under development, voice… Read the rest

Bluetooth devices will normally operate at 2.4 GHZ
in the license free, globally available ISM radio
band. The advantage to this band includes worldwide
availability and compatibility. A disadvantage to
this however, is that the devices must share this
band with other RF emitters. This includes
automobile security systems, other wireless devices,
and other noise sources, such as microwaves.

To overcome this challenge, Bluetooth employs a
fast frequency hopping scheme and therefore uses
shorter packets than other standards within the
ISM band. This scheme helps to make Bluetooth
communication more robust and more secure.

Frequency hopping
Frequency hopping is basically jumping from frequency
to frequency within the ISM radio band. After a
bluetooth device sends or receives a packet, it
and the device (or devices) it’s communicating with
hop to another frequency before the next packet is
sent. This scheme offers three advantages:
1. Allows Bluetooth devices to use the
entirety of the available ISM band, while never
transmitting from a fixed frequency for more than a
short period of… Read the rest