Intermittent sluggish response

[BrianD]

We are currently working at Home and Garden show and the C4 equipment started out working fine but for whatever reason starts responding sluggish to certain commands. For instance if we have the DVD playing video and we hit the "4" button it will not respond immediately. It takes about 5 taps before it kicks back to the onscreen navigator. Or if we are watching DVD's and hit FFW it will not respond unless we hit the play button 5 times. Everything seems to be fixed if you continuously tap the intended button 5 times until it finally performs the command.

Any thoughts as to why everything responds as normal the first 4 or 5 hours and than it starts performing sluggish or not responding at all to commands from the remotes? There are not a whole lot of electronic devices around us but could interference be causing the problem?

Thanks

[Samer Shami]

Sorry to say I can't think of any quick fixes. However, my first thought is to see if there are any other Z-servers enabled in the area. That means either within the installation or your "neighbour's" stands. If it is too hard to check the "neighbour's", you could always start changing the ZigBee channel and see if that makes a difference.

I highly recommend performing a spectrum analysis to see what sort of noise in the 2.Ghz spectrum you are being exposed to. Using Netstumbler and certain 802.11b/g cards will give you the measurements.

The other test you should do is time how long it takes for the system to respond when you press a button. For example, you mention you need to press the button 5 times. Will it still work if you press the button once and wait 10seconds and then press it again? This will test whether it is something to do with the remote going to sleep. Checking the time it takes lighting dimmers and switches to respond is also a good test. These devices are always on, and should respond instantly.