Reliable wireless control, or: The Inner Core of Scanreco Never-Stop Technology?

Radio remote technology seems simple. Just connect a transmitter and a receiver and done. Right? In fact, it places great responsibilities on the equipment manufacturers. Their whole business is at stake if something goes wrong. Scanreco assures that we are in the very forefront of technology and provide products that OEMs can actually rely on.

Renowned as pioneers within the industry, providing a safe and reliable radio link has always been our biggest concern. That is also an important part in our promise for what we call Never-Stop Technology. Products from Scanreco work – no matter what. No operator shall risk machine, loads, or himself for that matter, due to a radio remote control system from Scanreco. One of our experts in wireless technology, Dr. Andrei Sazonov, who holds a doctor’s degree in radio technology and has been with Scanreco since 2010, guides us through the basics of the inner core of truly reliable wireless control.

Aspects of reliability

– There are different aspects of reliability. Of course, the signal must work reliably between the transmitters and the receivers and, in the worst case, instantly stop everything if something unexpected happens, Andrei starts.

– However, the biggest issue is that a wireless control system almost never works alone. There are multiple appliances that use the same frequency bands, such as 2.4 GHz, 433 MHz and 915 MHz. This can cause interference that can stifle and block any “lower end” radio terminal and cause substantial performance issues, says Andrei.

The Sinusodial Wave — the ultimate sign of reliability within wireless control. It describes a smooth periodic and recurring cycle and it retains its wave shape when added to another sine wave of the same frequency and arbitrary phase and magnitude. It is the only periodic waveform that has this property.

Combination of advanced technologies

– Scanreco uses three important technologies that make performance issues unlikely to happen. Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) is a very robust technology against radio signal interferences. It is also a way of giving each pushbutton an encrypted bit stream. When the pushbutton is activated by the user to enable a machine function, the robust encrypted bit stream improves the resilience of the system. Thus, impairment of a few bits in the bit stream does not damage even a single bit in the key code, Andrei explains.

"The system avoids interferers by simply hopping to the next channel."

– Another solution that strengthens the reliability is Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum (FHSS). It continuously changes the radio signal among at least sixteen frequency hopping channels as a layer of redundancy.

It protects the equipment against frequency-selective fading and ensures an adequate signal-to-interference ratio in the midst of other aggressive wireless devices. The system avoids interferers by simply hopping to the next channel,” Andrei says.

– The third solution is a proprietary collision avoidance algorithm. The different techniques combined guarantees sufficient signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio and increases the system reliability and availability in the harshest radio conditions where stable wireless control of machinery is critical, Andrei Sazanov finishes.

To learn more, get in touch with our experts: +46 8 556 32 800, [email protected] or go to our website: www.scanreco.com