Discussions

Hello   I got a XBEE PRO 900Mhz  telemetry set in a trade with an APM and IMU.

I'm a mechanical designer and have almost no knowledge of serial ports/communication so I am struggling trying to trouble shoot the problem.

I'm at work right now so I'm going off memory of the components I have.

the lettering on the Xbee says :  XBEE09P

the USB explorer board  is red and has the Large USB connector on it and I plug that directly into my 64BIT WIN-7 laptop.

when I do that  my laptop assigns a COM PORT to it  ,  therefore I guess the computer knows a USB device has been plugged in.

when I turn on XTcu  and select the COMPORT  and querry the board , I get a message saying there is nothing connected and asks that I reset the device.   a single RED LED turns on and stays on when I plug the USB into the laptop.

when I try to connect to the mission planner it always times out.   

are there any troubleshooting steps I should take to make sure my module is not fried somehow ?   I am decent with electronic circuits so I am able to debug the circuitry if I know what to look for.

the Xbee that plugs into my APM  looks like it's the Addafruit board (blue)   and after it seems to boot up,  botht he Green and Red led flash fast and seem to be at 20-30% briteness only.

I have no clue what to do now.

once I can get XTcu to actually see the device I think I can then get it working on my own.

is XTcu  looking at the unit thats plugged into my laptop USB port ? or is it looking at the unit thats attached to my APM ?   or is it looking at both ?

I appreciate any guidance.  I have purchased the latest REV APM board and have the latest REV oilcan IMU, with a MediaTek GPS plugged in.

the only thing I am able to do and works with the latest rev Mission Planner is upload new Quad firmware over the FTDI USB on the IMU.    other than that I get no sensor action on the mission planner display   ( I think all that data comes from MAVLINK over the telemetry modems ? )

I have had the APM/Oilcan/compass  running my Quad before  but now I want to get Telemtry up and working so I can use the mission planner.

Dave