XBee Stopped Responding

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PilotC150
 
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XBee Stopped Responding

Post by PilotC150 »

I have two XBee Pros, Series 1, that I had working perfectly a few weeks ago. I had to shelf the project for a few weeks and when I came back to it yesterday it didn't work. The XBees just wouldn't communicate. When trying to make sure the XBees were still configured correctly, I found that one of them isn't recognized by my laptop.

I'm using the USB XBee Adapater (https://www.adafruit.com/products/247) and when I plug in the working one, I get three LEDs turning on: orange, yellow and blue (pulsing). It gets recognized by X-CTU and everything's good. When I plug in the other module, the blue LED (RSSI) doesn't turn on and it doesn't get recognized by X-CTU.

When I try to Discover it in X-CTU, it doesn't find it. When I try to add it, it will search on the USB port and then ask me to reset the module, so I short the RESETn and VSS pins, but nothing changes.

Anybody have any ideas how to fix this, or is the radio trash?

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

You can check over at the Digi forums. I believe there is a procedure that can revive some 'bricked' modules
http://www.digi.com/support/forum/

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jlayhue
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by jlayhue »

This is probably a long shot, but are you running X-CTU on Windows or Mac? They have a beta version of X-CTU for Mac and I ran into a similar issue. Switching to X-CTU for Windows allowed me to access the module.

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PilotC150
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by PilotC150 »

I'm running on Windows. I'll look through digi's forums, but nothing I've found so far as done any good. Since my computer won't even recognize it, none of the methods I've found do any good.

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jlayhue
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by jlayhue »

Another question - Are you using one Xbee adapter to test both Xbee modules or does each Xbee module have it's own unique Xbee adapter?

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PilotC150
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by PilotC150 »

I'm using the same USB adapter to test both units.

A little more background info: My initial project build had one XBee connected to an Arduino, and another connected to a Raspberry Pi B. After getting a new RPi B+ and a perma-protoboard, I was trying to connect to the XBee to the new Pi and that's the one that stopped working. I'm using this adapater (https://www.adafruit.com/products/126) in all scenarios (Arduino and both RPis), so that shouldn't change, but figured I should mention it. I've tried swapping the adapters around with no luck. Plus, since when I use the USB adapter it still doesn't work, I'm pretty sure it's something with the radio itself.

I've checked the wiring on my perma-proto board a bunch of times with a multi-meter to make sure nothing is wrong there, and as far as I can tell it's the exact same wiring as I had previously when the XBee was just on a breadboard. Plus, having the adapter should make it a bit more foolproof, since both logic and power can be 5V. If I was going straight to the XBee, then I'd need 3.3V, but the 5V from the RPi should be just fine. Or at least it shouldn't have fried anything.

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jlayhue
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by jlayhue »

Interesting. Definitely seems like an issue with the actual radio. I'm not sure I can provide any more help. I've been using some Xbee Series 1 radios (standard, not pro) in an Arduino application also. I'd be interested to hear what you find out (if anything) from Digi.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

This time of year, ESD is a big concern and devices 'out-of-circuit' are more vulnerable. Unless the Digi engineers have any suggestions, I suspect that the module is dead.

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PilotC150
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by PilotC150 »

It's ALIVE!! I fixed it! I was ready to throw in the towel and have to order another one, but I really didn't want to waste the money so I figured I'd give it another evening of messing around with it.

Starting with the link that Bill posted, I search for "unbricking" on the digi forums and I ended up on this page: http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbase ... =3402#XBee

Those instructions helped me fix it. The key for me was getting the Legacy version of X-CTU, not the "New Generation" or "Next Generation" or whatever it's called. It seems the Legacy version gives lower level control over some functions that help flash the firmware and fix it.

Once the firmware finished writing, the blue LED started blinking on the USB Adapter, which was a huge relief. Then I opened the new version of X-CTU and it successfully detected the device and I was able to program it.

Thanks everybody for the help and ideas!
Last edited by PilotC150 on Tue Feb 24, 2015 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: XBee Stopped Responding

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Congratulations! Thanks for the follow-up.

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