Arducopter XBEE help needed.

I am trying to put XBEE telemetry on the Arducopter. I have the 900mhz sma and 900mhz wire antenna units from sparkfun. I interface them through the Xtreambee boards. I have configured each of them with the same VID and 9600 baud.I cannot get them to pass the range test.On the arducopter, I get the RSSI light but no data indication light.On the ftdi I don't get the RSSI light and only get indication of sending data.any thoughts on the issue? (data in is wired to data out for loopback.)

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  • Just like squalish say, make sure you have the correct firmware, ( 1002 or 1061 ) for the XBP09-DP.

    Also, in X-CTU don't update the firmware unless you need to, that is,  leave the "Always update firmware" check box clear.

    If you are changing settings with a command line terminal make sure to send a WRITE command otherwise the changes will not be committed to firmware and will be lost when the power is removed.

    In your case you do want to make sure that your firmware is correct, I'd use the older original version #1002, currently the is no distinct advantage to using #1061 for telemetry.

    The loop-back test should work "right out of the box" as shipped, just put a jumper wire from pin2-DOUT to pin3-DIN.

    I'm a strong believer in the interface boards the Digi sells. They do cost more than the radios, but they really can make trouble-shooting easy, saving one a lot of time & confusion.

    Did mean you have a RPSMA  antenna? (female socket , no-pin)

  • In XCTU, make sure you load up the correct firmware for the precise product you ordered.  Auto-update software and manufacturers do not always set the correct one in Xbee's case, and the failure mode was a persistently intermittent connection.  This was an expensive lesson, we spent a month of downtime troubleshooting and talking with the manufacturer.

     

     

  • If the Xbee receives random data during it's initial start up, it can get corrupted and not work any more. They will be OK if you use Xctu to re-flash the firmware. The Arducopter might be sending byte when it first boots up. Look in the code fore thwe first Serial.print() in the setup() funtion in the main tab. Put in a delay for 1000 ms just before the print command. This allows the Xbee time to boot up with out getting random input from the AP.
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