XBee, my new headache! **PROBLEM SOLVED**

Community General Discussions
, , , , , , ,
1

**UPPDATE!!! IT IS WORKING!!!!*********

 

Skip this part and jump directly to the question if you are in a hurry!   

I am just a regular guy who wanted to make a radio remote controller for my next robot-project. So I did a little research on how to communicate wirelessly between two Picaxe chips, and found out that XBee modules is a common way of doing this.

I found a nice tutorial on how to connect Xbees to picaxe/computer change the baud rate, Broadcast channel, network group, serial number and nickname. For this you had to have the AXE210 connect board.

I was planning to use two thumb-joysticks which mean that I required 4 ADC's. The picaxe 18x on the Axe210 connect board don’t have 4 ADC’s.  I therefore decided to buy two explorer regulated boards from sparkfun to use with my final remote.

 

So I Bought two Xbee PRO modules (XBee Pro 50mW Series 2.5 RPSMA) and two explorer regulated boards from sparkfun, and two AXE210 connect boards from techsupplies.

I planned on setting up my Xbees with the AXE210 connect board and use the explorer regulated boards from sparkfun to the final remote.

Happy, happy joy joy my parts arrived!

 

XBee Pro                                            Axe210 connect board                             Explorer regulated (sparkfun)

I started to go through the fine tutorial on setting up the xbees and all worked well. I was able to change the baud rate to 2400 on both my xbees, But when I tried to perform the “Ping test” described in the tutorial I could not make it work. I tried this many times but could not make the Xbees communicate with each other.

So I used google and found a post at picaxe-forum where another guy had the same problem.

http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14072&highlight=xbee+axe210&page=2

So it seems I can only use the axe210 connect board to change settings on a xbee series 2 module, but not send/receive anything.

 

Now I am stuck figuring out how to connect the Xbee module to a picaxe.  Oddbot has made a really nice circuit for interfaceing with Picaxe, and should be able to build it (I have all the nessesary parts already), but I tough that the explorer regulated would take care of this for me. If I dont get this to work the next step will be to build Oddbots circuit.

 

So to the big question:

Why can’t I get this connection to work?


Both my xbees are set up to a baud rate of 2400. I have two times this setup (picture).

this code on the sending Picaxe:


main:

serout 7, T2400, (“data”)

pause 10

goto main


and this code on the receiving Picaxe, witch is connedted to the computer with picaxe usb cable:

main:

serin 7, T2400, w1

debug

pause 10

goto main

The debug window is just waiting for some input and the leds on the receiving board (explorer regulated) is not blinking.

Any input on this subject is highly appreciated!

 

Help out a desperate guy who dosn't understand much of anything.

Renkku

 

**** What you need to do if you run in to this problem.***

We had a long Shout-box discussion with voodoobot   and patrickmccabe and they got me on the right track! :D THANK YOU!!!

And UltraMagnus also nailed the problem! :)

"you are using series 2 modules, one of them must be flashed with coordinator firmware using x-ctu."

That was the case.

I just used a program called X-CTU to flash the receiver to Function set : "ZNET 2.5 CORDINATOR AT" and the transmitter to "ZNET 2.5 ROUTER/END DEVICE AT"


Yes X-CTU works trough the AXE210 connect board! Forget the Picaxe xbee setup wizard.

Hope this helps if you are having the same problem.

THANK YOU ALL WHO HELPED ME WITH THIS ONE!

2

Hey renkku, So a couple of

Hey renkku, So a couple of things, make sure that the data is getting out by looking at the explorer regulated board leds. If you see the tx light flicker and on the rec end you see that one flicker, you know something is getting sent. If you see nothing, then you have a problem with the tx side, if you see something, it’s possble that its the rx side.

 

3

I appreciate your input.Only

I appreciate your input.

Only the PWR and DIN lights are lit on both transmitter and receiver. DIN is flicking every time the code is sending something (flicks slower if I change the pause to longer in the code).

The DOUT remeins shut.

 

4

Try this:Connect one xBee to

Try this:

Connect one xBee to the computer, open x-CTU and do a Test/query as in the tutorial. If it works, install the second xBee on the regulated board and use wires to connect it to the regulated 5V and GND on the breadboard. Use a wire to connect Din with Dout (this creates a loop back) and in the x-ctu software do a range test. If it works, the xBees are fine and all the problems are on the picaxe side.

5

you are using series 2

you are using series 2 modules, one of them must be flashed with coordinator firmware using x-ctu.

6

You nailed it! Thanks!

You nailed it! Thanks! But it seems that I can only do one way communication with this setup.

7

Make sure you have both

Make sure you have both using the latest firmeare as  they seem to have two different versions.

8

So you really don’t need…

So you really don’t need a second 210 connect board?