Discover PAN ID without a coordinator?

XBee & XBee Gateway XBee - Zigbee
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1

I have a situation where Zigbee Mesh network coordinator (S2C) was set to have ID of 0 (i.e. dynamically generated PAN ID) and clients which unfortunately did not have watchdog set. The coordinator lost power for extended amount of time and when it recovered, clearly the PAN ID changed. A number of devices were able to join the new PAN but it seems that majority (but not all) of the devices are still trying to talk on the old PAN ID. Since the whole setup is remote, power-cycling the clients is non-trivial task I am trying to avoid. I am hoping that If i set up a temporary coordinator on the old PAN ID, I may be able to connect to the stranded devices long enough to set the watchdog and remotely reset them to join the new network - but I have no idea how to find the old PAN ID remotely. I do have an XBee I can control on-site - I can run XCTU or connect to it programatically.

Questions I have:

  • If an Xbee was connected to a network and coordinator is gone, would router XBee ever transmit anything?
  • If it would, is there any way to use the XBee I have access to to scan for those transmissions to identify old PAN IDs. (I have tried ATAS - but that only seems to report networks with coordinators on them)
  • Would matching 64 bit PAN ID on new coordinator enough for stranded XBees to reconnect, or do I need to match the channel as well? And does 16bit PAN ID matter in all XBee network as it seems that while I can set the 64bit one, I see no easy way to set the 16bit ID.

I know it is a one-off situation, and I am guessing there is no getting around the need to reset the clients - but I am still hoping I can resolve it remotely and even if not, would be nice to understand this better - and yes, a number of lessons were learned in this scenario :slight_smile:

Thank you,

-HH

2

You are going to need to know what both the 16 bit ID is and the 64 bit IP are. You can get them from the OP and OI commands.

3

So, in order to find my IDs, I would need to … know my IDs. That is unfortunate. :-/

4

If you have access to one of the module’s UART that is on that network, than you could simply issue a Global network reset (ATNR1). Or you could have someone do a four button press on the commissioning button on each unit.

5

Yea if you read the procedure of replacing a coordinator, you need to read the settings before you turn it off.

6

Hi,

I want to know that how could you generated dynamically generated PAN ID. what are the steps to achieve that. if there is any coding required please also share that.
Thank you