Good morning,
I finished up soldering the adafruit adapter kit (Product code : RB-Ada-19) and I plugged it into the Dfrobot usb-ftdi converter (RB-Dfr-74). When using the X-CTU software to upgrade the firmware on the xbee I ran into a problem. It shows that it can read the module fine but when writing it gets this error:
Getting modem type…OK
Programming modem…Lost communication with modem
Write Parameters…Failed
I checked an adafruit forum about someone using a different converter and adafruit said that that certain converter could only read not write. I can’t tell if the Dfrobot can only read but I see a tx pin so I don’t see why it can’t both read/write.
My other guess is the pinout between the converter and the adapter. The xbee adapter goes in this order:
GND, CTS, +5V, RX, TX, RTS but the dfrobot converter goes like this:
GND, CTS, VCC, RXI, TXD, DTR
In the manual it says the converter has the dtr pin brought out instead of the rts. Is there a way to swap them on the dfrobot converter?
Thank you
I am using the tutorial from ladyada. The problem is I sent a request to RobotShop for the xbee adapter and the ftdi converter from adafruit but instead I got the Dfrobot converter which apparantly does not work.
Before I ask an exchange I noticed that there are header locations on the converter with each labeled. Is it possible to solder headers onto the other side and bring them out into a connector with the correct order?
I tested out my idea about bringing out the pins to a new header and it worked. Not as elegant as I would have hoped but it works. Nice of DfRobot to provide space if you need a certain pin arrangement. I tried out X-CTU and firmware was successfully upgraded.
By the way is there a way to change the thread name so I can change it to “problem solved” or something like that?
It’s alright as long as it does the job I don’t need to exchange it.
Quick question though as I’m looking over the pin names. What is the difference between:
VCCIO and VCC
RXD and RXI
TXD and (what appears to be) TXO (maybe the O is a sloppy D)
The first column is what it says on the breakout pins but on the connecter header it shows the second column.
I just want to make sure I’m matching the correct pins.
The thread title is descriptive and if anyone has a similar issue, they won’t have a problem finding it. Better to leave the title as it. We’re happy you were able to resolve the issue - if you did get the wrong part, we’d be more than happy to take a look at what happened - please contact us via the RobotShop Support Center.
There is no way to swap the pins unfortunately. It is true that certain combinations of converters will not work because the pins are not always broken out in the same way.
If you want to change the parameters of our XBee though, you could use the commands directly without X-CTU as shown here: ladyada.net/make/xbee/configure.html
A safe bet to program XBees is a USB to XBee adapter such as RB-See-105
Those pins should match. We are glad that you got your module to work.
