newb xbee serial communications question...

I’m working on a project here that should be pretty basic, but I have a question about how the communications works with the XBee… I have two xbee’s, do they communicate one at a time… one sends/one receives and just go back and forth or can they send and receive simultaneously?

The reason I ask is because I want to have my computer (running LabVIEW) send a data string (a three digit number) when needed to the second xbee attached to a Arduino that will continuously transmitting data back.

Will I need to have some sort of timing scheme so they aren’t both sending and neither is listening, or will they send/receive at the same time?

I’m totally new to the xbee world, just hooked them up and got them talking today. Just need a little clarification on how they work.

Thanks!

Chad

The XBee is a half duplex device that can only simulate a full duplex connection if the serial baud rate is less than 1/2 the throughput rate.