Please Help!!! Desperately needing guidance on Zigbee

[RD70]

Guys I have been struggling massively for the past 3 weeks trying to get two xbee's to talk to each other.

At the minute I have an ECIO28p that is connected in the following manner to a sparkfun explorer regulated xbee breakout board:

RX - Data In
TX - Data Out
VCC& GND accordingly wired.

My problem is this, I have one XBEE connected to my computer on a sparkfun USB board. The other is connected to my ECIO PIC. the system can do the following.

- The XBEE's can talk to each other very well when they are both put on the USB adapter breakout boards. X-CTU displays the communications between them fine.

- the ECIO28 sends the appropriate serial packet to the XBEE it is connected. The XBEE then flashes the DOUT pin and a serial pack is sent. This data packet however is not picked up by the USB connected XBEE.

- The USB connected XBEE can send a data packet and the ECIO connected XBEE knows there is a signal out there as it flashes the RSSI LED. However this does not correspond to the DataIn pin flashing.


I am at my wits end with this, I really really really need this to work before monday.

Can some please advise I will attach the flowcode. I need this to work by Monday 26th of March 2012

Please Please Please

[DavidA]

Please no all caps title.

[Benj]

Hello,

Could it be possible that you have the RX and TX pins connected the wrong way around?

Also If using the boards in pure serial format works fine then why not try using the RS232 component rather then the Zigbee component? This may help to get you up and running or troubleshoot what is going wrong.

If you need to use the Zigbee component then maybe try limiting the scan channels down to the channel that the other module is on. Also check that the PAN ID and other network specific settings match.

Hope this helps.

[RD70]

Hi Benj, I have tried to suggested pin variation with no success.

I am getting a serial data packet sent from my ecio to the Data Out pin of my XBEE, however this data does not reach the other XBEE which is connected to my computer.

I have tried the RS232 module as well and it didn't work.

Running completely out of ideas, I can only assume that there is an issue with flowcode and the way it is initialising the connection.

I have set the channel on both of the XBEEs to 0B, I have made this change in the software also now, the PAN ID on both XBEEs are the standard 3332.

Thoroughly disappointed, I've spent the last two weeks trying to get this to work.

[RD70]

Just for anyone interested the xbee modules I am using are:

http://proto-pic.co.uk/xbee-1mw-wire-antenna/

This xbee is connected to the controller via

http://proto-pic.co.uk/xbee-explorer-regulated/

The other XBee is the exact same model and is connected via USB Dongle

The Xbee's work when just running off two USB interfaces, The problem must be in the way the signal is sent via flowcode.

if anyone feels like writing flowcode that would enable these two devices to speak to each other it would be interesting to see your approach.

I am using a ECIO 28p and I can change the PAN ID if necessary however my XBEE details are as follows:

MY = 100, 200
DL = 200, 100
PAN = 3332, 3332
Baud = 9600,9600

I really need help on this, if it doesn't work by monday I'll have spent all this time for nothing. I would really appreciate the help

[JohnCrow]

Hi
Im just starting to experiment with Zigbee myself, though Im using the Matrix co-ordinator & router boards with EB-006 programmers for both nodes.

Ive attached some of my simple test programs for you to have a look at, hope they might help.
Although I realise you are using different hardware, I'd assume the zigbee modules must be similar.

Zigbee Test.zip

(20.23 KiB) Downloaded 262 times

[kersing]

Just for anyone interested the xbee modules I am using are:

http://proto-pic.co.uk/xbee-1mw-wire-antenna/

Hi,

You are aware these are not zigbee modules? The description clearly states "These modules take the 802.15.4 stack (the basis for Zigbee) and wrap it into a simple to use serial command set." These are 802.15.4 modules.

Although the zigbee and the 802.15.4 modules share a lot of the AT commands the flowcode component uses a number of commands not implemented in the 802.15.4 modules. (ATJN, ATNJ and ATBH) As a result I think it is unlikely the zigbee component as supplied with flowcode 4 will work with these modules.

You should be able to use the modules if you use the RS232 component and initialize the module correctly by sending AT commands.

Best regards,

Jac

[RD70]

Yeah i was using the Zigbee only because the RS232 macro wasnt working.

I now see this was a dead end

How do i initialise the xbee using at commands?

Thanks for the replies they are helpful!

[kersing]

How do i initialise the xbee using at commands?

Start by downloading the "Product Manual" at the Digi website so you have a reference... Then take a shortcut by connecting the module to a PC and check the commands X-CTU sends to the board when you connect to the other module. There should be some "AT" commands (check the manual for their meaning).
(You may have to change a setting in X-CTU to have it display the commands it sends. I'm not sure as it is over 5 years since I last used X-CTU)

Another option is to search the web for arduino examples using the xbee modules and check the AT commands used.

Once you know the AT commands to use you have to create a flowchart to send those commands to the module using the RS232 component. After sending a command you need to check the response to make sure the command succeeded (see the manual for the valid responses)

[RD70]

BIG Thanks to All contributers, especially Kersing!

For anyone wanting to know I had to do the following:

configure the xbee's using XCTU modem configuration part with the above (see earlier post) details.

I then had to output this as RS232 strings with delays of 3 seconds between each (this was just to ensure that I didn't hit guard times and is a little OTT).

RS232 Send char "+++" - initiates command mode
RS232 send char "ATBD3" - 9600 baud rate
RS232 Send char "ATMY200" - set my address to 200 (this address has been written onto the device in XCTU as well)
RS232 Send char "ATDL100" - set the destination address (Lower bits) that you want to write to. You need to make sue this matchs the MY of the other XBee
RS232 SendChar "ATID3332" - set the Pan ID
RS232 SendChar "ATCH0B" - Set the channel you are configured too.
RS232 Send Char "ATWR" - this writes all the above parameters

Once this is done I left a little delay to ensure that the write had time, from this point on your 802.15.4 Xbee should be initiated.

If it doesn't work it is probably because you haven't configured them on XCTU properly.

Also

RX from your ECIO28p (RC 7) should be wired to data out
Tx from your ECIO28p (RC 6) should be wired to data in

To me this was a little counter intuitive (as I was thinking it would be the destination xbee that was reverse wired) as the transmitter in the xbee is configured to the DIN pin and the receiver is on DOUT.

Hope this helps someone else out in the future