Routers not... routing?!

XBee & XBee Gateway XBee - 802.15.4
1

Hi Guys,

I want to extend the reach of the XBee Pros inside a site.

So I have a coordinator ‘A’ (XBP24-B ZNET 2.5 COORDINATOR AT) which is configured as ATID = 234, and the DL/DH address of module ‘B’ (XBP24-B ZNET 2.5 ROUTER/END DEVICE AT).

‘B’ is connected to a microcontroller which merely echoes everything it receives.

Leaving these running I send a message every 5 seconds, wait till I get it back, then run the AT command ATDB to get the signal information.

I move ‘B’ until the signal drops to around 30% signal strength (-71dBm)

I then plug in another module ‘C’ (XBP24-B ZNET 2.6 ROUTER/END DEVICE), and place it somewhere between the ‘A’ and ‘B’.

My expectations were that the signal strength would improve? As ‘C’ is much closer, and ‘A’ would use it to improve the signal?

The signal strength does not improve at all.

Am I assuming something incorrectly? Is ‘A’ still going directly to ‘C’ as it is still in reach? Do I need to move ‘B’ out of sight of ‘A’ then try again with ‘C’?

Any help would be most appreciated! Thanks! :slight_smile:

2

…just moved ‘B’ out of the range of ‘A’, then put ‘C’ in the middle and it still wouldn’t send the message between the two of them…

What am I missing? Isn’t this exactly what a router should do…???

3

I think the first problem is that you’re running ZNet firmware, but you’ve posted in the 802.15.4 forum where not all ZNet experts are likely to see it.

Not being a ZNet expert (or any other kind of expert for that matter), I’m afraid I don’t know the answer. Take a look at the forum list, and try again in the ZNet forum.

I’m sorry if my answer sounds a bit negative, but please take it that I’m just trying to direct you to the place where you’re most likely to get an answer that is helpful :slight_smile:

And hey - welcome to the forums!

4

Thanks, didn’t realise that ZNET had it’s own separate forum, have posted it over there now, thanks for the clarification!

There are far toooooo many versions of those XBee modules?!! :S

5

So… should this have worked if I use the Zigbee firmware…? ZNET forum seems dead :cry:

6

There are no dead forums here - if you didn’t get a response then it just means no-one reading the forums happened to know the answer. And that includes me :frowning:

ZigBee is the successor to the ZNet firmware, though ZNet should still work fine and both are still supported.

You’ve done the “Right Thing” in posting to the forums first, but it appears that no-one here knows the answer.

So I’d suggest that now you should put in a support request to the excellent foilks at Digi Support, with a link to this thread.

And when you get the answer, it would be a kindness if you could do a follow-up post explaining it. That way, anyone doing a search on the same question in the future will be able to see the solution.