First off i have minimal knowledge of this type of operation but I am slowly learning. I think this would be a great learning experiance for me. Any help from someone with a knowledge of this type of set up would be greatly appreciated.
Two Series 1 XBees work well as a Serial wire replacement over an RF link.
Just run them in transparent mode (AT command mode). Lots of threads here on how to do this.
However, since the weather station is RS232 (google this for details) and the XBee is 3.3V logic you will need to translate (invert and voltage scale) the RS232 to logic level.
Same on the PC side.
SparkFun does sell XBee to RS232 adapters so this really is easy.
Correct me if im wrong but what i will need is to put this http://www.m5controlsystems.com/m5cs01.shtml in between the Xbee at the receiving end and handheld PC? Or would i need one on both ends?
Almost, but that board uses 5V on the TTL logic side. An XBee requires 3.3V logic.
Now you could put a 5V to 3.3V level shifted between that bd and the XBee.
Have you looked at the boards from SparkFun?
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9111
You will need the level translation on both ends since both the weather station and the PC use RS232.
So I just need:
2: XBee Pro 60mW - Series 1 and
2: XBee Explorer Serial
Yep, plus cables maybe. You need to check to see if the XBee Serial board will plug directly into the PC and weather station or if you need a cable.
This can be a tricky part of the project as it can be very confusing as to which pin is an output and which an input.
And you’ll need some way to power the XBees. If you use the XBee Pros then ensure that the PS can supply the require current (see the manual for the requirement).
Thanks Waltr you have been a huge help. It all looks good on paper but we will see how it plays out I get every thing here and get it all hooked up. Is this gonna be plug and play or am i gonna have to program this system?
It should almost be plug-n-play.
Do check the XBee tutorials (links fond in the “Better XBee Documents” thread) on setting up addressing between the two XBees.
Walt,
Quick question for you before i submit my order. Is it possable to add the RS232 bluetooth module to the receiving xbee and broadcast the data to a couple different hand helds with bluetooth?
It might be possible. I have never used any of the Blue Tooth modules so I really don’t know.
OK, my Xbees arrived and got them set and they are talking to each other in X-CTU terminal. When I hook up the weather station it is telling me it can not communicate (using communication program). The RSSI green light on the Xbee thats hooked up to comes on But goes off once I get the error message. I have hooked the Weather station up to the PC via RS232 serial cable and everything works great. So i know its not the Weather station software. Is there a step i9m missing any where?
do you know if their PC software depends on RTS, CTS, DTR, DCD?
The LaCrosse weather stations with RS232 do very odd things, such as the WS3600 doesn’t use real serial data on TD, RD. Instead, their software toggles RTS or DTR and vice-versa reads CTS/DCD, and pulses these as clock and data. I think this was because the WS3600 has no UART inside.
Other LaCrosse use TD and RD, but do odd things with the signals above.
So maybe this is true for yours?
There is some freeware serial port monitor/display software that bridges on to a COM port. You could run that and then observe what their software is doing. It might simply bet that one of the signals must be in a steady state.
I learned many of the nuances of the LaCrosse products from the forums at places like weather underground’s user forums.
That i dont know but i do know that the four pins coming from the Weather station are TD RD DTR and RTS.
If it is working like you think will i be able to receive data from it over the Xbees?
Well, the obvious thing to check is a baudrate mismatch. The Xbees default to 9600 baud. What does the weatherstation default to?
Baud rate is good its 9600 for the weatherstation as well, triple checked that
Ok, with all the help from here I was able to get this up and running. So now on to the next hurdle, putting in a Bluesmirf Silver bluetooth bridge to broad cast the data to a couple hand help PDAs at the same time. The problem I am having so far is that I cant figure out how to wire up the bluetooth to the XBee Explorer Serial and have it broadcast the received data. Or set up the bluetooth to work with the Xbee for that matter. I got how to get into CMD mode and manuver my way around but the exact settings are beyond me.