Wireless vs Wired

	Wireless ESP-NOW	Wired RS485
Hardware	ESP32-based Bottango control boards	Bottango control boards with RS485 hardware
Physical connection	No cable between bridge and peers	Shared, daisy-chainable wired bus
Main advantage	Flexible placement and minimal wiring	More predictable communication in noisy environments
Main constraint	Performance varies with distance and local wireless conditions	Requires RS485 cabling and correct termination
Security	No encryption or authentication; use only in a trusted environment	Physical access to the wired bus is required

Wireless Limitations

Using wireless for communication from the desktop app to distributed boards, or for easy show controller bridge-to-peer communication, is a powerful way to use the Bottango control boards. When it works, it’s like magic: low-latency wireless synchronization of many Bottango control boards all working together. However, due to the variable nature of wireless technology and its susceptibility to environmental noise and spectrum competition, it’s not foolproof. There are limitations to be aware of that will depend on your local environment.

The maximum peer distance, number of supported peers, and latency will vary based on your local environment. In an ideal situation, around 10-12 peers is the theoretical maximum. You’ll need to test to see how many peers you can support at the distances your project requires while keeping acceptable latency and stability.

Also consider worst-case scenarios. For example, if your project works perfectly wirelessly during a closed-door rehearsal, the environment may be entirely different during a real show with an audience and hundreds of mobile phones nearby, all competing for the same wireless spectrum your boards are using.

Relay communication over ESP-NOW does not include encryption or authentication. Use wireless relay communication only in a trusted environment where nearby devices attempting to observe or interfere with communication are not a concern. If that is a concern for your project, use a physically secured wired RS485 network instead.

If you want to eliminate the variability of wireless, you can use the RS485 wired option for bridge and peer communication instead.

Wired RS485 Alternative

Though the advantages of not needing wires between boards are self-evident, there are also limitations of using wireless board-to-board communication. If you want a more robust board-to-board communication strategy, you can use the wired RS485 option to connect your peers to your bridge.

Wired RS485 is especially useful in a show controller use case. But even when controlling things from your computer, you can consider using bridges and peers over wired RS485 instead of connecting each board via USB to the computer. Because the RS485 links are daisy-chainable, you can daisy-chain one board to another without needing a separate USB cable from each board to the computer. As well, with the right cabling, you can cover much longer distances with RS485 than with a USB cable.

See the guide on using wired RS485 for details.

Note

Hardware support for RS485 is complete on the Bottango control boards. However, the software side is still in development from an ease-of-use perspective. You can use it in the current state, and it’s fairly robust from a communication perspective. However, the end user UX is still somewhat unpolished. In updates coming soon, it will be as simple as a button click. For now, you’ll need to make modifications to the firmware to enable it.