Digimesh/Zigbee inputs and outputs

Currently figuring my way through Zigbee setup with an eye to building a meshed sensor network. Working with Series2 radios, and have managed to get my first project working, happy days.

In the long run I may well need to use Digimesh to maximise battery life, but given that I already have the series 2 modules and the Faludi book on mesh networking, I would like to stick with Zigbee for now. Before I go too far down this road, I’d like to understand where it’s going to take me.

Are the inputs to the Xbee and the output data common to both protocols? i.e. will the sensor circuits I’m building now work with both, and will any work I do in Processing (or similar) for visualisation remain useful if I switch to Series 1 modules with Digimesh in the future?

Basic GPIO connections are kept same on all XBee modules including S1 (DigiMesh) and S2 (Zigbee) modules. Look at their respective product manuals for pin details.

Both modules works on UART using same pin 2 and 3 for communication. Therefore, no modification in circuit designing will be required for this part as well.

Basically, these variants differ in way they communicate in air and how they process data, but wired connections are more or less same throughout complete XBee series of all variants.

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