On 01-26-2013 21:08, Mark wrote:
the water meter has to send a few bytes of data and has hours to do

No, it has the ten or twenty seconds that the reader van takes to drive
past.

It has to send the meter ID, the eight or ten digits of the measurement,
plus some handshaking bits.

--
Wes Groleau

Pat's Polemics
http://Ideas.Lang-Learn.org/barrett