I need to remotely trigger a relay using an Xbee and am looking for the least cost solution arguing board for this purpose. Thoughts?
I have this working with an uno but that seems to be more than I really need.
Dave
Use Series S1, not S2.
Just use the stock firmware (not ZigBee in S1). Read about Virtual Wire.
You configure the XBee so that you change a GPIO input bit on the master and the slave will replicate that bit on its GPIO output. That can be connected to a relay driver.
Lots more you can do. But it takes an investment in time to read the OEM User’s manual for the XBee S1.
What range do you need?
You might consider the Pololu Wixel, which is less expensive, offers many of the same functionalities (including an I/O repeater) but can also be reprogrammed in C.
For short range Adafruit sells Key Fob TX/RX pairs.
XBee takes care of all the protocol. Addressing, error correction, anti-collision, etc.
Cheaper radios force YOU to reinvent this.
And the XBees have virtual wire, A/D, PWM, and other goodies built-in, not coding.
Lots of non-wireless literate people buy a $5 OOK radio or some such, and spend the next 3 months to reach a point where light at the end of the tunnel is still too far away.
A good alternative to XBee is the sub-GHz transceiver modules with all the protocol built in. SparkFun sells a fraction of the alternatives. For more, look at
http://www.anarduino.com/details.jsp?pid=145
And skip the OOK, ASK modules.