Xbee 900 Kit - Lights, but No Telemetry
I purchased the Xbee telemetry kit from DiyDrones here and put it together following these instructions.
I am running with the Ardu Pilot Mega - this kit
I have not gotten any communication between the two units.
Here is what I know and what I've tried:
* Note that the first time I hooked it up, I plugged the cable in upside down to the Xbee on the Air side. This resulted in the DODI cable going into the GND pin, the DIDO cable going into the CTS pin and the GND cable going into the DODI pin. The 5V cable is in the middle of the 5 cables so plugging it in upside down still resulted in 5 volts going to the right pin.
1. Realized I had the cable on upside down.
2. Turned it over - no communication
3. Read through all the and manuals and forums and followed the instructions here on "Unbricking your Xbee" and "Setting up the Xbee modules" to make sure I had the right firmware installed and was using the same VID.
4. Updated both modules to the latest firmware (XBP09-DP 1061) using X-CTU.
5. Ensured DD parameter is set to 0.
6. Checked that the VID is the same for both and baud rate is 57k.
7. Both modules respond to the query from X-CTU and show the correct firmware when I do a "read" in X-CTU on the Modem Configuration tab.
8. Verified the latest firmware was on the APM and the config.h file had 57k for the baud rate.
9. Set everything back up for nominal communication.
10. Still no communication - however - now I get the following lights:
Blue power lights come on for both Xbee units as soon as they connect to the APM / PC
When I click "connect" in the GCS for the ground side Xbee I see the Tx light flicker every second
On the air side Xbee I see the RSSI light come on solid and the Rx light flicker every second
But then the GCS times out after 30 seconds.
RSSI, DI, DO, Tx, RX lights all go off. Blue power lights remain on.
So it appears that some communication is going on between the two Xbee's now. But at the very least, it appears that the ping from the ground side is not making it into the APM.
I have tried it with the switch in Master and Slave mode, but my understanding is it should be in Master mode.
Are there any other tests I can do to issolate the issue more? If possible, I don't want to have to buy the whole kit again.
Are there other configuration settings that need adjusted in the Xbee modules?
Is it possible some components are dead? How do I issolate which ones need replaced?
Does the RTS box need checked in Control Panel on the ground side for the Xbee port?
Thanks for any help!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Laird on -
Is it a valid test to plug in the air side interface board to the APM, start up the board and see if the DI/DO lights come on? Or do those lights only flicker if the Xbee module is plugged in?
Just to reiterate I see no DI/DO lights on the airside Xbee. I wanted to try to issolate it to either the connections between the interface board, or the Xbee itself and thought maybe just plugging in the interface board without the Xbee would at least tell me if data was getting that far.
Is this a recommended test?
If so can one of you try it with your working configuration and see what lights come on?
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Laird on
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Just tried a loopback test looping the In/Out wires that go from the air side Xbee into the APM board together.
I send data from the laptop. See the Tx light flicker on the ground side Xbee, see the DO light flicker on the airside Xbee and everything stops there.
Should the DO light be flickering when the air side is receiving data???
I figured the O was for output, and the I in DI was for input, so I was surprised when the DO light flickered.
This also seems to confirm that the data is getting dropped somewhere in the airside Xbee before it gets to the APM.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Laird on
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Alright!
We finally have live telemetry!
I was able to narrow it down to the air side Xbee's DIDO pin (the out pin from the board).
Mike, your idea of doing continuity checks between the pins and leads on the board was great.
The connection between the Tx pin and the DIDO position on the board was not good, so the short term solution was to solder a jumper wire between the Tx pin and the lead on the board that I traced the DIDO line to.
Doesn't look pretty, but it's working! Looks like if I want to get back to a robust configuration I'll have to order a new Air Side Interface board - but those are only $25.
Thanks guys for the help.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Pursifull on -
Awesome, you win!
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Permalink Reply by Nicolas Garza on
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This is great. I had your exact same problem. And what was most frustrating is that i have like 3 sets of xbees, an xtream board and other sparkfun boards. I had telemetry for as long as i have had arducopter and ardupilot and suddenly telemetry in both ceased to be. The thing is that i was using the xtream board with both. When this didn't worked, i changed to the sparkfuns and no luck. I've had this problem for two weeks. Then i read your comment and short wired the DI pin to the DIDO and everything worked again. Thank you so much. I really don't know what could have opened the circuit because everything was working properly and there wasn't any crashes or unusual activity with it. Thanks again.
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