Need help withvery basic xbee setup

[fxmech]

I could really use some help with some basic xbee seting up to see if I am doing something wrong or if some of my hardware is malfunctioning.

I own:
2pcs xbee series 1
2pcs Xbee Explorer USB
2pcs arduino fio
2 FTDI interfaces for use to program the fios
I also have an exbee shield (sparkfun) on an UNO

I have tried every configuration possible to get one xbee to send readable sensor data using D0 set to Analog or the arduino Analog.reading from A0 and Serial.printing the results... Nothing is working so far.

Can anyone experienced with arduino pass along a very simple sketch that will maybe use an xbee/fio to send say the number 123 to a second arduino fio w/ xbee attachment...

After about a month of trying I still cant even do that and its driving me insane!!!!

Hope someone can help me with this....

[adafruit]

hiya!

thanks for posting up in the adafruit customer support forums, which product(s) did you purchase from adafruit?

thanks!
adafruit support

[franklin97355]

Have you tried the SparkFun forums? They sell both the fio and the USB explorer. http://www.sparkfun.com/

[fxmech]

I bought over $1200 worth of programmable LEDs, UNOs, and other smaller stuff this month, but the xbee came from another supplier...let me know if I'm breaking the rules with this post... Certainly not my intention to do so...btw those LEDs are awesome!!!

[adafruit]

... the xbee came from another supplier...let me know if I'm breaking the rules with this post...

thank you for the kind words and support!

for the specific things you bought from another supplier you should give them a chance to support the product(s) they sold to you it sounds like the help you might need is likely product-related to something someone else sells (we don't sell the fio, xbee explorer, sfe xbee shield, etc).

all that said, you're of course welcome to post here - we just won't be able to assist with non-adafruit purchases of course.

thanks!
adafruit support

[fxmech]

Actually in thinking about it and seeing how few people there are out there that are both experienced with xbee and willing to share info, I would be more than happy to switch over to another product or buy more xbees from adafruit just for the support. I am just starting to run low on time and need a hand getting past this stumbling block. All I need is a way to get two transmitters to each send x and y accelerometer data to an arduino with wireless receiver 10 ft is all the range I need but the transmitter packages just need to be as small as possible... Any ideas? If you think you can help I will gladly place an order on Monday just let me know of you can and what modules to get...
fxmech
 
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2012 10:17 am
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[adafruit]

Actually in thinking about it and seeing how few people there are out there that are both experienced with xbee and willing to share info, I would be more than happy to switch over to another product or buy more xbees from adafruit just for the support. I am just starting to run low on time and need a hand getting past this stumbling block. All I need is a way to get two transmitters to each send x and y accelerometer data to an arduino with wireless receiver 10 ft is all the range I need but the transmitter packages just need to be as small as possible... Any ideas? If you think you can help I will gladly place an order on Monday just let me know of you can and what modules to get...

if you purchase something from us and it's not working as expected you're totally free to post up here to get help!

thanks,
adafruit support

[faludi]

You can also try the Digi forums, specifically this one:
http://forums.digi.com/support/forum/li ... ds?forum=7

In general, for 802.15.4 modules (Series 1) you could add analog inputs to D0 and D1 on your sending XBee, then on your receiving XBee you could read voltage from P0 and P1 (the analog output pins).

For more than two channels of Analog, or with the ZB (Series 2) modules you will need to read API packets that will be output from the receiving XBee's TX (DOUT) pin. For that, I'd recommend using a library like this one: http://code.google.com/p/xbee-arduino/

We've been talking inside Digi about launching a library of XBee examples for innovators. I'd be interested to hear if people are interested in seeing such a thing, and what examples might be most useful to start with.

[kenton86]

Faludi,
I'm in the middle of your book now, it is helping a lot! To the original poster, check out Building Wireless Sensor Networks- it won't be directly applicable because you are using Series 1 instead of Series 2 radios, but the concepts in it are really informative.

The place where I would like to see more examples is in the API sensor networks. I caught on to the first four chapters of your book really easily, but Chapter 5 really takes it to another level, and it's easy to get lost. Here's a couple of ideas for examples:

A really basic API network like the Simple Sensor Network- Coordinator, 2 router, single sensor on each router. Take out the Processing part- can I get it to just show 2 temperatures in CoolTerm? I feel like this decreases a lot of opportunities for error. Once I make sure the XBee part is transmitting correctly, I could add in the Processing part to make it look better.

Multiple Sensors on a single radio: My application is attaching a GPS sensor to the XBee so I can monitor its location and temperature. Getting the NMEA data from the GPS transmitted over the XBee has been really challenging for me, and adding another sensor complicates things further. I'd love to see an "asset tracking" example that includes GPS and an analog input.
Using this for the GPS: https://www.adafruit.com/products/746

I haven't gotten to the Internet portion of the book yet, but I'm curious to see the use of the ConnectPort hardware. It seems that the Tweet-a-watt project got away without having to purchase this piece by writing its own Python Scripts, and I can't tell yet if I will be able to do the same for my application. It significantly adds to the cost of the project, and seems like a ripoff for a small ethernet adapter board. So an example that serves the sensor information to the internet without having to use the ConnectPort would be much easier to learn on.

Thanks for all the help!

[faludi]

Thanks for the suggestions. Data could be shown in CoolTerm, but because it's delivered in API frames it really needs a library to parse through all those bytes and pick out the important ones. We could definitely make something that gives a log and shows a simpler graph though.

Asset tracking is a common request. There's Digi products made for this specifically of course, but showing how to hook a GPS up to an XBee would be fun so I'll put that on the list. Moisture sensing is another common one so we'll probably do that, along perhaps with a more complete gardening example.

I do think you should consider a $100 gateway to be the *cheap* way of getting project data long-term. A dedicated computer is going to run more money and be less stable than a black-box gateway. HOWEVER, watch for a software solution to become available "soon" that will be terrific, and hopefully fill your request for a non-hardware gatewaying solution for prototyping.