XBEE + FT232RL Breakout

Hi, I ordered 3 XBee series one with chip antenna from spark fun. I have tried to attach it to the FT232 Breakout board in order to program the XBEEs using XCTU. Unfortunately XCTU can’t recognize the modem. I’ve read many similar forum posts but nothing has fixed my problem.

I have the XBEE running off it’s own 3.3regulator which gets VCC from the USB bus.

I’ve made the following connections:

XBEE DOUT → FT232 RX

XBEE DIN → FT232 TX

XBEE DTR → FT232 DTR

XBEE RTS → FT232 RTS

Grounds are connected

I can attach LEDs to the XBEE ON and ASSOC pins and the ON pin stays lit and the ASSOC pin blinks once per second (apparently indicating that its in coordinator mode).

The problem comes when I try to load the firmware or do a test/query from X-CTU. The TX light of the FT232 breakout lights up, butthe RX light never lights up, meaning the XBEE never communicates back. I’ve tried this on all 3 XBEEs and get the same results. What am I doing wrong?

Nevermind, I just noticed that when i pushed the FTDI232 down with my finger the LEDs got bright. I though…that’s weird. I tried pushing the chip down as I ran a Test/Query. Guess what it worked!

Sparkfun needs to take one of their soldering tutorials.