I'm sorry this is going to be a rant with few specifics about the my Xbee issues. The new 3DR radio is on order but it would be lovely if the $$$ Xbee investment would actually be worth it too. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
When I first got the Xbee it worked fine for a few flights. Then it stopped working. Following the unbrick procedures did not really help. But once in a blue moon it works, but usually only once.
The very frustrating part is that we (me and Mark) have seen this behavior on 3 different sets of Xbees. Trying different permutations of PC Xbee and APM Xbee did not really lead to success either (got two different sets to work once, but then never again).
Example of that I tried yesterday:
1) Plug in PC Xbee
2) Launch Planner
3) Powerup APM
4) Connect APM Xbee
5) Mav link connect -> Success (I'm happy for 60 seconds....)
6) Disconnect in Planner
7) Disconnect and reconnect APM Xbee
8) Impossible to connect again, even after shutting everything down and starting at #1
I'm not 100% certain about this but it looks like the red light is not always on on the APM Xbee. I think this was not the case when it worked. Now as soon as I power the APM Xbee up, it has a solid red light (even if PC Xbee is not even running).
Video of the lights while trying to connect from planner:
Replies
3DR radio just arrived. Plugged in and it just works. Hopefully it will not follow my xbee's track record ;)
Anybody out there who can give some feedback on the meaning of the xbee lights? Thanks
I've been working with Andreas on this, so everything he's saying applies to me as well. We've got two full sets and several spare parts between us, and if we work together for an entire evening we'll get one or two successful connections, which don't survive a reset. We've tried with different computers and APMs, and get the same mostly failed results.
Is this working for anybody? Is anybody else having these same issues?
When you connect successfuly, what is the state of the RSSI LED on each end?
I've also got a 3DR radio on order, can't wait to try it out!!