XBee, ZigBee etc

[Ioannis]

I am playing with the Digi's modules like the Xbee's 2.4GHz and the 868MHz. The last seems very sensitive and powerful with ranges upt to 40Km! But cannot do mesh network.

So I tried the XBee Pro. For 1.5Km is a nice module.

I wonder if anyone succeded in a mesh network? Google returns tutorials only on 2 nodes network.

I appreciate any more infos.

Ioannis

[Ioannis]

From Digi I got an answer on the matter:

"...If you would like to support a Mesh based network with the existing 802.15.4 modules, you will need to install the Digi Mesh firmware instead. These versions of the code can be found under the XB24-DM and XBP24-DM modem types. Please note that analog to digital conversion and DIO line passing is currently not supported in the Digi Mesh firmware. However it may be added in future releases."

So, the 802.15.4 modules can do a mesh network in a diffrent way.

I will post some examples when I have success on this.

Ioannis

[bradb]

I have a project upcoming that I want to play with the Mesh networking and a Zigbee or XBee..

Thanks for the heads up

I'd love to know you're real world distance on the XBees...

[Ioannis]

The modules seems very very sensitive. At first I did not had any connection even at 1mW power because the two modules were on the same desk. When I placed the module far away (5 meter) the link was up 99,5%.

This shows:

1. very sensitive front end receiver

2. not very good designed fron end filters or AGC control.

Anyway, DIGI claims 1 mile or 1,6Km range.

Hope soon I can verify this.

Ioannis.

P.S. Which modules do you have? I also have the new 868 high power that are said to cover 40Km range!

[Chris Barron]

From Digi I got an answer on the matter:

"...If you would like to support a Mesh based network with the existing 802.15.4 modules, you will need to install the Digi Mesh firmware instead. These versions of the code can be found under the XB24-DM and XBP24-DM modem types. Please note that analog to digital conversion and DIO line passing is currently not supported in the Digi Mesh firmware. However it may be added in future releases."

So, the 802.15.4 modules can do a mesh network in a diffrent way.

I will post some examples when I have success on this.

Ioannis

I've wasted about 5 weeks of project time by trying to get zigbee working. I first of all used a Rabbit/zigbee devkit, which contasins the series 1 modules I think you also have. Despite saying Zigbee on the box, the Digi modules could not do zigbee.

Series 2 modules, and the zigbee pro devices can, however.

I replaced the Rabbit kit with a CYAN kit, and after 1 week got in touch with them about some problems. They told me that their datasheet was wrong and their product couldn't support zigbee wirless as well as an SD card...

I now have some Ember EM250 modules, and have loaded the latest R313 firmware which has zigbee pro support, and mesh networking upto a limited number of hops.

I have been on the microchip web boards, specifically the zigbee one, and it seems that lots of people are unhappy because of the fact that zigbee has grown so large and it is still difficult to find two different manufacturers with so called zigbee products which are interoperable, because a large number of firms choose to opt for private operation profiles. To that end, one keen guy is reworking a 6LowPAN stack to use the very cheap microchip radios.

6LowPAN is and IPV6 ready protocol which can give every networked device it's own address, but more importantly it offers seamless tcp/ip transmission across it's mesh system so there is no translation required when bridging a 6lopan wireless net to a wifi net or an ethernet-net

[Ioannis]

After my experience, I believe that there was too much noise about Zigbee before it was ready to be sold to people.

Digi has nice products in hardware view, but seems that firmware needs a lot of work.

I have not tested the XbeePro modules with the Digi-Mesh firmware. I'll return with results.

Ioannis

[Gevo]

Dear ZIGBee users,

I order the complete development kit of Digi. This inclusive, XBee and XBee Pro modules, a XBee wall router and the gateway to Ethernet. I want to connect them to a PIC application with 140 nodes. End this week will a FAE of DIGI give my some course for setup the modules, show the firmware's versions etc.

I will check this Post and will post my information to you.

Best Regards,
Gerben

[Ioannis]

My experience with Digi is good in the part of people that try to help you, but their site lacks of examples to get you kick-started.

So, if here on the forum are people testing and experimenting on these modules, I am sure that we will get more help from each other.

By the way, which kit did you purchase? I got two kits of the new ones for the 868 devices for 99USD each. Then I found that the boards are the same as for the more expensive dev. kits for other devices!

Ioannis

[thothefali]

Dear ZIGBee users,

I order the complete development kit of Digi. This inclusive, XBee and XBee Pro modules, a XBee wall router and the gateway to Ethernet. I want to connect them to a PIC application with 140 nodes. End this week will a FAE of DIGI give my some course for setup the modules, show the firmware's versions etc.

I will check this Post and will post my information to you.

Best Regards,
Gerben

hi , i have 6 modules xbee series 2 , i configerd it the new fireware called ZB,i'm looking to create mesh network,my goal is to measure the rssi between the end device and the routers for localization ,do you have any idea about how to install the zigbees module or to change to series 1 is better?