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Old July 16th 06, 07:14 PM posted to uk.transport.london
Dr Ivan D. Reid Dr Ivan D. Reid is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Jul 2003
Posts: 174
Default "Unreliable" oyster card

I posted a few weeks ago about my pre-pay Oyster being unreliable
on the local buses. In fact I've barely used it since so I haven't
pursued a replacement.

Today I fronted up to a U3 to bring my shopping back from
Uxbridge. After a good fraction of a second, the reader beeped and the
LED changed from orange to green. Just as well, because at the stop
outside RAF Uxbridge an inspector got on... He had a little hand-held
scanner (I'd mistaken it for a mobile phone at first glance) which didn't
want to scan my card, until he rotated it 180-degrees and then he finally
grunted an OK.

I've been wondering if advances in the usage of wireless
technology since Oyster was originally specified -- especially mobile,
bluetooth, and WiFi -- have led to higher interference rates than expected.
PC, any comment?

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. ] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".