One way to Restore a bricked xBee

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
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  • Developer

    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.

  • It's not my intention to revive old posts, but your instructions unbricked my XBee S2B. Thanks a lot.

  • T3

    @Steve

    After today where I spent a good couple of hours messing with the Xbee's again I will look into the 3DR radios. Every time I have had trouble with the modems it has been when I wanted to change parameters. Today I was attempting Digi's remote configuration option which resulted in bricking my one unit. Anyway never did get the remote config procedure to work so now I need to pull the plane apart to get to the xbee...wonderful

  • 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.

  • T3
    @Doug

    Thank you! After much futzing I googed the problem and your posting came up...what a life saver I did not feel like spending another $70 at Sparkfun..
  • Welcome to the club, I have two sets of Xbees that just stopped working at some point. No amount of un-bricking attempts helped to revive them. I would appreciate if somebody could help to shed some light on how to troubleshoot. One thing that I noticed when I had one set working and one set not-working: The RSSI light (red) on the plane module went on immediately when powered on the non-working unit. On the unit that worked the light did not go on. What does this mean? By now the second unit is dead too and shows a solid RSSI light.

  • and reset does nothing, the lights even don't change

  • so I get it this method should work every time?

    Because it doesn't work for me at all, I think the chip is fried, it stopped working all of a sudden and can't get any word out of it anymore...

  • 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.

  • where is that delay command added? arduino config? mission planner?
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