I would like to set the radio range of my zigbee network to just a few meter (eg. 2 meters). Since it couldn’t be able to change the receiver sensitivity of Xbee, the only way I think is to program my arduino to read RSS of incoming packet and to set some threshold which would give 2 meter. Problem is I don’t know how to command XBee to drop the packet if it is under the threshold.
Can any body give me some advice for my problem?
I am using XBee series 2 with Aruduino UNO.
Regards,
Nyein
Hello, I’m afraid that what you are asking is not possible with current API. However, if you are using an external MCU like Arduino you can read the DB parameter after receiving the packet and don’t forward it to the application if it is not bigger than the desired threshold.
Best regards,
Sebastián.-
Thank you very much for your reply. Yes, exactly what you suggested is what I’m doing now. But the problem is RSS value is not stable and found some errors sometimes.
Would you mind to give me one more opinion on Broadcasting packets? Since I’m trying to implement multihop environment in a small scale level, I’m using RSS value as you suggested to set make radio range as 1 meter. If it is above desired threshold, it should ignore and not forward the packet. In reality, zigbee protocol itself is forwarding the packets. So, i set broadcast radius to 1. Problem is when the two nodes broadcasts simultaneously, transmission is not successful. Are there any mistake with my thinking?
Hello Nyein,
I am not sure that I understood your question, but take a look to this post from [b]lynnl[/b] where answers a some doubts with broadcast messages.
Bear in mind that DB is the value of the last received message and in 2x6x firmwares it also updates with APS acks. From the manual:
Received Signal Strength. This command reports the received signal strength of the
last received RF data packet. The DB command only indicates the signal strength of the
last hop. It does not provide an accurate quality measurement for a multihop link. DB can
be set to 0 to clear it. The DB command value is measured in -dBm. For example if DB
returns 0x50, then the RSSI of the last packet received was
-80dBm. As of 2x6x firmware, the DB command value is also updated when an APS
acknowledgment is received.
Best regards,