Hello!
Long time purchaser of sparkfun products, love it all!
I’ve got a pretty straight forward and basic question to those who are familiar with the ever-present XBee module. I’ve got the antenna version and I have set two modules up with the latest firmware by using X-CTU. They’re on the same address and everything.
Where do I go from here in regards to making them communicate? That is, if I send a voltage to pin 17 to XBee 1, it will make XBee 2 output a voltage out of it’s respective pin. Is it as simple as turning a wire on in the breadboard? I’ve got all the other electronic parts in consideration (having capacitors by the vcc, etc). I’ve been looking at as many tutorials and articles I could find online, but none of them tell me where to go beyond upgrading the firmware.
Anyhow. Thanks in advance, and I’ll post any findings on this thread for anybody else trying to get started with this module.
Howdy,
Hmmm … You don’t specify which XBee version you’re using, so I’ll assume they are Series 1 modules. I also assume you meant the wire antenna version. To be honest, I’ve only used (and seen them used) as serial links. I’ve never tried to do what you’re attempting, but I hope this helps.
To use the ADC and GPIO functions, read the manual carefully. The DIO registers must be set up correctly (usually using XCTU).
http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Wire … Manual.pdf
Just glancing through, it looks like section 2.2 is what you need. If you’re using Pin 17, you need to set D3 = 3 on the input side and D3 = 5 on the output side. I’m not sure how the addresses will act straight out of the box, either (e.g. if MY and DL addresses are all 0). It might work, but I would suggest you set the MY ID and DL (Destination Low) registers so that the two modules target each other only, ex:
Input Module:
MY=1
DH=2
D3=3
Output Module:
MY=2
DL=1
D3=5
Again, I haven’t tried this and I’m making a few assumptions on what the module defines as “I/O Line Passing”, but give this a try. The manual is your friend!
Best of luck,
Brad
If you’re simply trying to send messages from one XBee to another, you send serial data through them (pins 2 and 3 for output from the XBee and input to the XBee: see p. 9 of the XBee manual).
What you’re describing sounds like an attempt to do the ADC and Digital Line Passing stuff (as Rad already said). Pin 17 is one of the DIO pins (or Analog input if you’re doing ADC). You can use it the way you described, and when you read IO data (per p. 12 of the manual) you’ll get a bit on the receiving XBee telling you whether or not the sending XBee’s pin 17 was high. Here’s some sample stuff I’ve done with that:
viewtopic.php?t=13894&highlight=
But that’s a FAR more difficult way to send information between XBees than simply using pins 2 and 3 and sending serial data.