I’ve configured a pair of XBee w/Chip antenna modules with DigiMesh 8003 firmware. The “ND” command applied to the XBIB-U-DEV device finds the module hosted on the XBIB-R board. Either module functions fine on the XBIB-U-DEV board, but won’t talk to the RS232 serial port (COM1 using XCTU). A pair of XBee Pro modules with factory images performs the range test just fine with the loopback on the XBIB-R. XCTU on COM1 sees the XBee Pro just fine too. That tells me the board is OK. I see no evidence that the CTS lead is active on the XBIB-R as it is on the XBIB-U-DEV. A reset briefly flashes the CTS in the “terminal” tab of XCTU when observing COM1 attached to the XBIB-R.
Is there a specific set of options required to make the stock 8003 firmware talk to the RS232 serial port? Can the range test be performed?
Update 20090209: I purchased a new development kit. This one contains the XBIB-R-DEV Rev 4. It works perfectly out of the box with firmware 8003. The XBIB-R Rev 6 board from my 2006 vintage eval kit did not work. I have XBeePro HW 1842 on XBIB-U-Dev Rev2 with firmware 8003, all default config. The XBIB-R-Dev Rev 4 with XBee HW 1742, firmware 8003, all defaults. The range test works. X-CTU works in terminal mode to COM1.
Update 20090212: The XBIB-R Rev 6 operates fine with firmware 8003 after changing the serial handshaking options to None or XON/XOFF when operating in API mode 2. The previous failure was associated with configuring the Windows 2000 COM1 serial port for full hardware handshaking.
I have a XBIB-R Rev 7 and DigiMesh 8003 modules that won’t talk to each other. Changing Flow Control to either None or Hardware makes absolutely no difference. I even built another serial cable to loop back DTR to DCD, DSR and CTS on the PC side: still no communication to the module.
For a sanity check, I used a Series 1 XBee radio to confirm the XBIB, serial cables and X-CTU were all functional.
So the solution is to get a low-numbered revision??!!