3 day and still no Zigbee happiness - Need help. - Discussions

Hi All,

I considder myself an above average troubleshooter, infact, I enjoy the process and off course the reward at the end, but after 3 days of trying and reading every forum and manual on the subject I am giving up.

This the problem:

1. I am not able to get the Arducopter to communicate with my USB based Zigbee, or with my Ardustation.

2. I have loaded the serial test code, but I am only able to see Port:0 which is the direct USB connection. I can see the "IC" light on the FTDI to Zigbee interface blinking, but nothing is received at the other Zigbee which is connected to the PC via the zigbee USB port interface.

I have been able to do the following:

1. Have 2 Zigbees comunicate with each other via X-CTU (terminal) and whatever I type in terminal A is displayed in Terminal B and visa versa. (see attached drawing)

2. To eliminate the Zigbees I have created a crosover cable between the USB to Zigbee connector at the PC and the FTDI to Zigbee interface at the Quad and now I see "Port:3" showing on the X-CTU (terminal). (see attached drawing).

3. When I have the USB to Zigbee connected and I start to enter data in X-CTU terminal, I can see the "RSSI" LED light up on the Zigbee installed on the Quad.

Strange as it may seems: If i test the components individually they check out but the moment I plug them in it fails to function.

My Setup:

1. Quad - APM 1280 v1.0 + IMU Oilpan + GPS, Mag

2. Ardocopter 2_0_49

3. Baudrate: 5700

4. Zigbee: XBEE Pro 24-B

Thank you in advanced for your help.

Marius

Zigbee Troubleshoot 1.pdf

load a different function set/firmware for your radios, something point-to-multipoint rather than mesh. Make sure both versions match, the VIDs match, etc.

I don't have these model of modules, so I can only give an example. Some of my modules are XBP09-DM, but I reload them as XPB09-DP. If you contact Digi, they will (eventually) respond with why the mesh-based products are "unsuitable" as they have put it, for streaming data at this rate.

You *can* configure multiple radios such that you can use one ground station module, and two airborne modules, so no worries about that. As for the loss of packet relay features from mesh communication, I'm afraid there is more work to be done before Xbee mesh networking, in any form, can be leveraged by us. :(

Replies

3D Robotics

Chris Anderson November 20, 2011 at 8:26am

Can you link to the Xbees you're using? What frequency are they?

We only support the Xbees in the official DIY Drones telemetry kit, which are 900Mhz, but other Xbees can usually work with a bit of fiddling.
Moderator

Michael Pursifull November 20, 2011 at 8:13am

load a different function set/firmware for your radios, something point-to-multipoint rather than mesh. Make sure both versions match, the VIDs match, etc.

I don't have these model of modules, so I can only give an example. Some of my modules are XBP09-DM, but I reload them as XPB09-DP. If you contact Digi, they will (eventually) respond with why the mesh-based products are "unsuitable" as they have put it, for streaming data at this rate.

You *can* configure multiple radios such that you can use one ground station module, and two airborne modules, so no worries about that. As for the loss of packet relay features from mesh communication, I'm afraid there is more work to be done before Xbee mesh networking, in any form, can be leveraged by us. :(

This reply was deleted.