Wow lots of different responses. Mostly correct. Zigbee is somewhat similar to bluetooth except much more flexible, and yes slower but it was not designed for high throughput. You can buy modules that have different transmission power, Digi for example makes one that covers 100m and one that does 1 mile (Pro version) open air, and different frequencies 900MHz and 2.4GHz. The main advantage is that they offer mesh networks, packet rerouting, and you can address many more nodes (64000 I believe), and no you don't need a master/slave setup. Versus bluetooth which can only address 8 without some clever hacking, which is a big big pain. They are actually popular here in the states, but the reason you may not of heard of them is because they are typically used in factory settings, not consumer products. Think a long assembly line with lots of sensors all the way down it. You can have hundreds or thousands of zigbees (~$20/each) at each sensor with only one computer and the very end of the assembly line. Each zigbee can reroute the packets of the other zigbees, so even the nodes far out of wireless range of the main computer still gets their message back to the main computer. This is a huge advantage and a huge savings in cost for industrial use. Wireless coverage becomes a non-issue, especially with this product, it will just reroute if you do happen to have a dead spot.
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Wow lots of different responses. Mostly correct. Zigbee is somewhat similar to bluetooth except much more flexible, and yes slower but it was not designed for high throughput. You can buy modules that have different transmission power, Digi for example makes one that covers 100m and one that does 1 mile (Pro version) open air, and different frequencies 900MHz and 2.4GHz. The main advantage is that they offer mesh networks, packet rerouting, and you can address many more nodes (64000 I believe), and no you don't need a master/slave setup. Versus bluetooth which can only address 8 without some clever hacking, which is a big big pain. They are actually popular here in the states, but the reason you may not of heard of them is because they are typically used in factory settings, not consumer products. Think a long assembly line with lots of sensors all the way down it. You can have hundreds or thousands of zigbees (~$20/each) at each sensor with only one computer and the very end of the assembly line. Each zigbee can reroute the packets of the other zigbees, so even the nodes far out of wireless range of the main computer still gets their message back to the main computer. This is a huge advantage and a huge savings in cost for industrial use. Wireless coverage becomes a non-issue, especially with this product, it will just reroute if you do happen to have a dead spot.