Basic Setup and Help

XBee & XBee Gateway XBee - Zigbee
1

Hi people,

I’m currently working on a project to create a Xbee wireless mesh network. However I’m a bit lost as where to start as I have been handed the hardware to use with no explanation of what each piece of hardware is exactly.

I have (I think) an Arduino Duemilanove board with an Xbee shield and two Xbee series 2 wireless.

My question is basiscally where do I start to get the two Xbee chips to talk to each other. One of the chips is connected to the Arduino and is then connected via USB to a computer. The other chip is just sitting on a straight mini-USB board and so will connect via USB as well. Is it possible to just download the X-CTU software to start communications or as one chip is sitting on an arduino board do I have to do something different?

For now I just want to have a simple one on one connection between the two chips.

Thanks,
Gareth

2

You will want to use X-CTU to configure the XBee modems.

The Arduino attached XBee modem will need to have Router or End Device firmware. The PC attached modem will require Coordinator firmware. You will most likely want the AT firmware.

For the modem configuration, both modems should be assigned a mathing PAN I.D. and baud rate.

The Arduino attached modem should have zero in the DH and DL fields to send all data to the coordinator by default.