Ideas for sensor network project in harsh environments

I have two kits with me , a Xbee / Xbee PRO OEM Dev kit , with the latest firmware version :10E6 and modem type : XB24 - this I can form a star network. The other one is a iDigi Wi-9p zigbee kit , which I have not quite been able to get to work yet - this I should be able to form a mesh.

My broad topic , is behavior of sensors in harsh environments , I have just got started by looking at the kits. One of the experimentations , would include varying output power levels of the tx. Do you have any ideas on what I should look at , or try to do ? ( I am not out in an harsh environment just yet, I am trying to define my problem statement itself )

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated, thanks !

How about a better definition of ‘harsh environment’.

Temperature range, moisture levels, vibration, high pressure, vacuum, corrosive chemicals and vapors, flammable vapors are a few I can think of.

Each has different considerations and requirements for the design.

Essentially , the harsh environment would be a ship : say vibration data where several nodes would communicate to a central device. Or an industrial environment for temp monitoring. I understand that I need to define what kind of data , but my focus will be on how the environment affects the sensor communication . Are there some basic things I can play around with the Digi kits to get this started ?

Like say for eg. , attenuating power and transmitting packets . But I am not sure how to do this : Do I need to write a script for this to make it work with the kits , and how ? Or such similar thoughts where I can introduce interference, and then look at certain parameters . What can these parameters be and how to go about it with a kit ?

Thanks!

Ships.

Bulkheads.

Steel.

RF: Bad.

RF: well understood (Navy systems).

Requirements?

Hi,

Could you please elaborate , I did not quite understand what that meant. Thanks!