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XBEE won't work with ESC.

Posted by Nick Chamnong on December 27, 2010 at 6:18am

Weird problem again.

XBee works fine both receiving and transmitting with power from     USB-> APM -> XBEE and

5V Battery-> Receiver -> APM-> XBEE

 

 

But when using with ESC or BEC it only works transmitting data from APM to my PC.

But not the other way around. When i send something from my PC to APM the ASC/RSSI on XtreamBee board light up.

 

I'm using XBEE PRO 2.4.

I'm setting Baudrate in the ArducopterNX to 111111 and PC to 115200 with 2 stopbits.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciate.

 

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Replies

  • Henry Gan February 12, 2011 at 9:26am

    i discovered that i have this problem too..

     

    Battery to ESC to APM to Xbee doesnt have enough power for the Wireless link communication.

     

    Whereas i plug USB to APM to Xbee the Wireless link is successful.

     

    Can guide me how to solve this under power problem?

  • John Ihlein January 5, 2011 at 5:41am
    Thanks for posting the Eagle files.  It's been a while since I've done any hardware design.  I can see how the DI input going to the xBee gets switched between DIDO and DODI signals coming from JP2, but I don't understand how the DO output from the xBee gets switched.  It may be a silly question, but can someone explain how this works?  I don't see anyway that DO from the xBee can be used as an output on JP2.
  • John Ihlein January 3, 2011 at 2:04pm

    FWIW, the xBee Pro 60 milliwatt radios seem to have voltage level issue when used with the XtremeBee adaptors.  I got mine to work after putting a 7.5K resistor in the tx and rx lines between the xBee adaptor and Oil Pan shield.  I'm also going to try the diode/pull up as detailed on the Sparkfun site when I get my hands on some diodes.

    JI

  • Raytrace Nomad January 3, 2011 at 12:52pm

    I have two Xbee Pro Series 2 2.4

     

    Which function set i have to set ? [ ZNET 2.5 ROUTER/END DEVICE AT ? 1247 ]

    One connect IMU with sparkfun adapter and one connected the computer with sparkfun USB explorer.

     

  • John Ihlein January 3, 2011 at 12:38pm
    Be interested in what you find.  In the mean time, can I get a copy of the adaptor board schematic to see if I can work out a level shifting circuit to make what I have on hand work?
  • John Ihlein January 3, 2011 at 5:45am

    I've got the same problem, and know of another user who has it too.  Two 60mW xBee Pro's on XtremeBee adaptors.  Baud ratea set at 57600, master mode selected on adaptor boards.  Hooked up to FTDI's and 2 laptops and they communicate just fine.  When one is hooked up to Serial3 on the APM stack, it will transmit data to the laptop, but it will not receive it from the laptop.

     

    The xBee on the APM knows it's getting a transmission as the red RSSI LED lights up on it when you type on the laptop, but there is no sign of activity on the DO line, the amber LED never flashes.  Same behavior is exhibited if I swap radio positions between the APM and laptop.

     

    Also it does not matter if I power the APM stack from the USB cable or from a 3S 2170 lipo connected to the power input pins, same behavior.

     

    Is there a schematic of the XtremeBee board availble so we can look at what we are dealing with?  I'm going to try reversing DO/DI at the APM end and setting slave mode and see what happens.

     

    John

  • Nick Chamnong December 27, 2010 at 8:36pm

    I try connecting diode between ESC/BEC and APM to drop the voltage down from 5.15V to 4.85V and Xbee works!

    But is this normally happening to other people?

    Will there be any consequences to other system on the board?

  • Nick Chamnong December 27, 2010 at 6:41pm

    Is it the same problem as this guy?

    http://www.diydrones.com/forum/topics/xtreambee-board-at-5v

    with USB or Battery the voltage level was about 4.8V

    with ESC it's about 5.1V

  • Moderator
    Gary Mortimer December 27, 2010 at 11:18am
    Not enough power
This reply was deleted.

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