I was able to restore my bricked xBee by following these instructions. Hope this helps!!Using the sparkfun USB explorer board.1. Take the module out of the interface board.2. Connect the interface board to the computer.3. Open X-CTU make sure Baud Rate is set to 96004. Go to "Modem Configuration"5. Put a check in the "Always update firmware" box6. Select proper modem from drop down menu,7. Select proper function set and firmware versionfrom drop down menus.8. Click on the "Write" button. After a few seconds oftrying to read the modem, you will get an Info boxthat says Action Needed. At this point, CAREFULLYinsert the module into the interface board.9. You may get the info box again a short while after,just use the reset button on the interface board.This should get you back up and running.It may take more than one try to get it to work, but mine worked the first time.The original problem was that some how a glitch corrupped the xBee so it wouldn't respond to the "AT" commands.Let me know if this works for anyone else.Doug
Had to follow this procedure several times, after 4 tries the firmware finally installed. I caused the lockup by removing the ground wire by mistake. Xbee 900 Pro locked up real good. Only red led on, no green led. But all is well now.
I have like 4-6 pairs of Xbees and over 70% of the units eventually stopped working properly. On some pairs i was able to perform the unbricking procedure but are stuck on a baud rate and can't be changed.
I have long moved towards the Diy Drones 3DR radios and tried to avoid Xbee in general.
We've gone through a second set of Xbee Pros now and the unbricking process stopped working for us. We haven't been able to do anything to recover our Xbees.
I have some news, I could not restore my ground side test xBee Pro 900, even with above tips, I switched Adafruit XBee Adaptor v1.1 and was able to restore on first try. So I have a damaged 3.3v regulator IC1 or 74AHC125N U1 chip is shorted. I will test and repair soon.
I actually "bricked" one of mine 868 XBee PRO modules this morning after a night of driving around to "range test" these little miracles. Exactly HOW I did it is a bit of a mystery, but it happened when I was experimenting with "over-the-air" configuration of my drone. (That is I had the GCS side XBee set up to use API which is a must in this case. For some reason or another I decided to play with the addressing options of the XBee's. I don't know exactly why, but I decided it was a good idea to see what they did to the communication between the modules... WRONG! Suddenly I couldn't communicate with my GCS XBee using X-CTU anymore. The X-CTU felt that there was an XBee present, but no more than that. I didn't get type, firmware or anything else, just the dreaded
" Communication with modem..OK"
" Modem Type= Name Unknown" (ID ="
" 42949672483278832"
" Modem version ="
Heck! Anything I tried didn't work, until I tried this procedure a few times. I have the original Digi Development boards, and when trying this with the RS-232 board I didn't have much luck. (I never got the message box complaining about that there were something wrong, just some crap at the bottom lines of X-CTU telling me I still was screwed. Ten I decided to try the USB board. This was another story. Exactly as described above, the message box stating there was some error and you should hold in the reset button came up. I plugged in the XBee and VOILA! There were signs of life again (the X-CTU managed to re-flash the XBee to factory default!)
Thaks VERY much for the writeup of this un-bricking process! This saved me close to $100!
Gents, I've found a solution for who's having problems with the xBee being corrupted when starting Ardupilot.
Everytime I had to pull of the blue wire to not damage my xBee, but now I found a solution.
I've added a delay command right before the serial initialization serial.begin() in the setup() session of ardupilot.
Looks like that:
void setup() {
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 0
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(FIFTY_SEVEN_K_BAUD);
#endif
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 1
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(FIFTY_SEVEN_K_BAUD);
#endif
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 2
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(THIRTY_EIGHT_K_BAUD);
#endif
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 3
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(THIRTY_EIGHT_K_BAUD);
#endif
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 5
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(THIRTY_EIGHT_K_BAUD);
#endif
init_ardupilot();
}
That causes a 3 seconds delay during the initialization, allowing the modem to startup before sending the serial init.
You've saved my life...tks for the instructions.
What should be the process for not damaging the modem? I'm using Ardupilot with the Shield V2 + Ublox GPS + Firmware 2.6...
Should I do something to avoid that?
Yes I know, I found this issue with the xbee's & the ardupilot with shield....But trying to just remove that with shunt or external jumper is extra work. I simply plug mine in manually after bind process and all systems go. And Take it out after, or simply remove the power connector from the adafruit and plug it in after bind process. That is even easier.Also doesn't require any additional soldering or cabling.
Also its not going to harm the xbee being manually plugged in and removed, they are very hard to TRULY BRICK...Taking them in and out is not going to brick an xbee....
Comments
Had to follow this procedure several times, after 4 tries the firmware finally installed. I caused the lockup by removing the ground wire by mistake. Xbee 900 Pro locked up real good. Only red led on, no green led. But all is well now.
I have like 4-6 pairs of Xbees and over 70% of the units eventually stopped working properly. On some pairs i was able to perform the unbricking procedure but are stuck on a baud rate and can't be changed.
I have long moved towards the Diy Drones 3DR radios and tried to avoid Xbee in general.
We've gone through a second set of Xbee Pros now and the unbricking process stopped working for us. We haven't been able to do anything to recover our Xbees.
I have some news, I could not restore my ground side test xBee Pro 900, even with above tips, I switched Adafruit XBee Adaptor v1.1 and was able to restore on first try. So I have a damaged 3.3v regulator IC1 or 74AHC125N U1 chip is shorted. I will test and repair soon.
I actually "bricked" one of mine 868 XBee PRO modules this morning after a night of driving around to "range test" these little miracles. Exactly HOW I did it is a bit of a mystery, but it happened when I was experimenting with "over-the-air" configuration of my drone. (That is I had the GCS side XBee set up to use API which is a must in this case. For some reason or another I decided to play with the addressing options of the XBee's. I don't know exactly why, but I decided it was a good idea to see what they did to the communication between the modules... WRONG! Suddenly I couldn't communicate with my GCS XBee using X-CTU anymore. The X-CTU felt that there was an XBee present, but no more than that. I didn't get type, firmware or anything else, just the dreaded
" Communication with modem..OK"
" Modem Type= Name Unknown" (ID ="
" 42949672483278832"
" Modem version ="
Heck! Anything I tried didn't work, until I tried this procedure a few times. I have the original Digi Development boards, and when trying this with the RS-232 board I didn't have much luck. (I never got the message box complaining about that there were something wrong, just some crap at the bottom lines of X-CTU telling me I still was screwed. Ten I decided to try the USB board. This was another story. Exactly as described above, the message box stating there was some error and you should hold in the reset button came up. I plugged in the XBee and VOILA! There were signs of life again (the X-CTU managed to re-flash the XBee to factory default!)
Thaks VERY much for the writeup of this un-bricking process! This saved me close to $100!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Kind regards
// Marc
This method worked on the second try.
Everytime I had to pull of the blue wire to not damage my xBee, but now I found a solution.
I've added a delay command right before the serial initialization serial.begin() in the setup() session of ardupilot.
Looks like that:
void setup() {
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 0
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(FIFTY_SEVEN_K_BAUD);
#endif
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 1
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(FIFTY_SEVEN_K_BAUD);
#endif
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 2
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(THIRTY_EIGHT_K_BAUD);
#endif
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 3
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(THIRTY_EIGHT_K_BAUD);
#endif
#if GPS_PROTOCOL == 5
delay(3000);
Serial.begin(THIRTY_EIGHT_K_BAUD);
#endif
init_ardupilot();
}
That causes a 3 seconds delay during the initialization, allowing the modem to startup before sending the serial init.
Cheers,
Leonardo
What should be the process for not damaging the modem? I'm using Ardupilot with the Shield V2 + Ublox GPS + Firmware 2.6...
Should I do something to avoid that?
thanks,
Leonardo
Also its not going to harm the xbee being manually plugged in and removed, they are very hard to TRULY BRICK...Taking them in and out is not going to brick an xbee....
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