Xbee / Arduino Pro no response

Wireless & IoT
1

I recently bought an xbee retail kit (2 xbee modules, 1 xbee arduino shield) and an ardiuno pro 328. I soldered headers through the xbee shield and into the arduino pro and setup my USB module.

According to most tutorials I should immediately be able to send serial text and have the xbee/arduino send back the same text but this didn’t work. I then tried to upload a simple ‘blink’ test example, but I get an error code:

avrdude: stk500_getsync(): not in sync: resp=0x00
avrdude: stk500_disable(): protocol error, expect=0x14, resp=0x51

I’m getting signal to the xbee shield because the RSSI light comes on when I try and upload. Nothing else seems to flash on the arduino pro.

Note: after re-flashing the shield xbee using X-CTU (while mounted on the usb module) I eventually saw the DIN light flash indicating data was being received, but still nothing sent back.

Hmmmm… I’ve run around forums all over the web and tried various bug fixes including:

Trying with different baud rates, including the default 9600bps

Trying with the UART / DLINE switch at different states (and different baud rates).

Flashing the shield mounted unit using X-CTU (Modem:xbee 24 , Function Set 802.15.4)

Flashing the usb mounted unit using X-CTU (Modem:xbee 24 , Function Set 802.15.4 USB Adapter)

Double checked my soldering points, definately no joining areas, although I have soldered on the underneath side of the arduino pro and not the top (is that ok?)

I’ve ordered a UART > USB cable to see if I can flash the xbee on the arduino pro, and maybe upload some basic sketches. But am I missing something here?

This unit is really badly documented by digi.com, they don’t even have basic setup procedures for the arduino :frowning: . FYI the modem type (xbee 24) is not stamped on the unit or retail kit page on sparkfun. xbee s1 does not appear in the x-ctu list of devices. But thats what was detected using x-ctu.

Help appreciated. Apologies if I’ve left something out!

Windows 7 64bit (x-ctu seems to work ok even though its 32bit).

Arduino pro (new)

Xbee retail kit firmware version 10E8

9v batter powered

2

First thing is to get the Arduino to serial communicate with the PC without the XBees. You can remove the XBees from the shield and the USB adapter then jumper between the shield and USB adapter RX-TX, TX-RX, gnd-gnd. Once that works then add the XBees. Otherwise you could have multiple problems that are very difficult to solve.

XBee versions are very confusing. The XBee firmware version is very good at identifying exactly which module you have. Version 10E8 is a Series 1 module running the 802.15.4 protocol. The correct Digi Int document is #90000982_B.

There is a thread in this forum titled “Better XBee Documents” that has a number of links that may help. Look this up and see if any are helpful.

3

Much appreciated Walter. My FTDI cable will arrive soon, hopefully I’ll get a little further. Doesn’t the shields built in UART / DLINE switch automatically toggle between them both without requiring modification?

4

I have not used the shields so don’t know exactly what they contain. The UART would be inside the ATMEGA processor but there may be an interface on the board to allow a direct connection to a PC (RS232) COM port or an RS232 to USB adapter.

Since there are many people on this forum that use the Arduino I hope one can help you on this.