XBee Shield Hookup Guide I followed this guide using an Explorer and the Arduino shield to set up and configure two xBee 3s that I retro loaded legacy firmware to as suggest in the tutorial. This was yesterday. I was sending and receiving from the shield to my console(s) opened in XCTU on my Windows 10 laptop. Today after multiple attempts I am unable to get the XCTU Configuration manager to see the xBee on the Shield, Both devices, Arduino with shield, and xBee Explorer, are visible in Device Manager and XCTU is set to search the appropriate COM ports, but am not able to consistently see the xBee on the shield. I have taken the xBee off the shield and installed on a Explorer Dongle XCTU is then able to find the xBee? Particularly frustrating since everyone played so nicely first time out? I have reset the xBees, changed ports, reset my laptop. Usually when I run into something like this I am just overlooking something obvious :oops:
Wondering if the Arduino/Shield COM port is busy with a sketch running on the Arduino from last nights session?
I am using one Dongle and one Regulated USB Explorer(Non-Dongle)
Yes, the XCTU see’s them every time, I have found that XCTU is somewhat flaky about what order or process a person uses to plug in and remove devices.
I actually had XCTU seeing the xBee when I first loaded and configured them per the Tutorial, then the next day I was able to see the xBee on the shield once but could only communicate one way, it could receive but not transmit (I think). After this I unplugged and attempted to start from scratch with shield but XCTU was never able to see the radio while mounted on the shield. My windows 10 will show the Arduino, and the dongle in Device Manager. ( my switch on the shield is on D-Line).
XCTU is trying to talk to the shield, not the XBee. You’d need to load a pass through sketch on the Arduino so that XCTU sends a query to the Arduino and then the Arduino passes it along to the XBee. The sketch would also need to pass data from the XBee back to XCTU.
You’re much better off configuring your XBee on a USB Explorer, it will work every time and at high baud rates.
Pass though code? Should that be installed on the Arduino before I install the xBee? I don’t remember having to do that the first time, while following the XBee Shield Hookup Guide. I actually did configure them and retro the firmware while on USB Explorers.
TS-Chris:
You’re much better off configuring your XBee on a USB Explorer, it will work every time and at high baud rates.
I actually got instructions from Digi support like this once when trying to get a Xbee-Ethernet gateway. They couldn't figure out a way to do whatever it was (I forget) I needed to over Ethernet using the official techniques. So the rep had me disassemble the gateway and do the programming on the bare XBee card & Explorer.
More info I just uploaded the Pass through sketech from XBee Shield Hookup Guide to run on the Arduino. The only light activity I have on the shield is DI05( it communicated quite well initially with another xBee. Short Story XCTU does not see the xBee. I have gone through several modes off unplugging Arduino from USB port on my laptop .
It is pretty obvious that the shield is not getting two way com with the Arduino. Getting no active bootloader message using XCTU recovery tool. Don’t want to right of the shield but this is more trouble than it is worth.
TS-Chris:
XCTU is trying to talk to the shield, not the XBee. You’d need to load a pass through sketch on the Arduino so that XCTU sends a query to the Arduino and then the Arduino passes it along to the XBee. The sketch would also need to pass data from the XBee back to XCTU.
You’re much better off configuring your XBee on a USB Explorer, it will work every time and at high baud rates.
So even if I do configure the radios with USB Explorer the shield needs pass through the Arduino right? If XCTU can’t see the radio it doesn’t matter where I configure it.
You cannot use XCTU with the shield because the Arduino interferes with communication between the XBee and XCTU. You’re going to need to configure the XBee on an Explorer USB and then move it over to the shield but you can’t talk to the XBee while on the shield with XCTU. The shield was intended to allow the Arduino to communicate with a remote XBee, not to allow XCTU to talk to the XBee on the shield.
If you need to have XCTU on both ends of your link, use an XBee Explorer USB on both ends.