High frequency TIG welding and Bluetooth or WIFI frequency

Question

I need to work on a project where multiple objects need to exchange trough wireless protocol and they are near to High frequency TIG welding machine. All objects works by pair (one emitter and one receiver) and they are up to 20 pairs in the same area (something like 30 or 50 square meter) Each pair do not have to interfer with other pair of objects and they have to not be interfered by the TIG welding machine.

Should I better use WIFI or Bluetooth protocol? Range is not an issue as each object of a pair is not far from the other object of the same pair.

For what I found, High frequency TIG welding is given to 1Mghz

Answer 1

Don't worry about the frequency of the applied power. Worry about the fact that a spark gap is a fairly efficient way (and can be a really efficient way) of generating radio frequency radiation. It's the way Heinrich Hertz made the first man-made radio waves.

I would test. I would start by getting a spectrum analyzer in the same room as your arc welder and making estimates of the signal degradation from that, then I would actually do some end-to-end tests.

There are some areas of study -- and RF propagation is one of them -- where all computational answers end up being inexact because the interaction with the environment is too convoluted. Unless you're an absolute RF genius, you just want to take measurements and experiment.

Answer 2

I may be missing something important, but both Bluetooth and Wifi operate in the >GHz bands. With 1MHz you shouldn't remotely get any impact. That only true of course, if the welding machine does not produce any higher frequencies as a side effct.