Sending data from coordinator to router, how?

XBee & XBee Gateway XBee - Zigbee
1

I have the following configuration (XBEE S2):

  • Coordinator AT

  • Router AT

  • Router AT
    no special settings, only a fixed PAN ID on each (321)
    All connected to its X-CTU.

  • I can send data from each Router to the Coordinator by using DH,DL = 0. (the send data is visible in the terminal of the Router sending AND in the terminal of the Coordinator)

  • I can send data from one Router to the other Router by setting the DH,DL of the sending router to address of the router which should be receiving the data.
    (the send data is visible in the terminal of the Router sending AND in the terminal of the receiving Router)

  • But I CAN NOT receive the data sent from the Coordinator to a Router.
    – If DH,DL of the coordinator is set to one of the addresses of the routers, the send data is seen AND echoed in the terminal of the Coordinator, but not seen in the terminal of the specific router.
    So it seems it sends the data, but why do iI not see it at the router?
    – If DH,DL of the Coordinator is set to an non existing address, the data is seen in the terminal of the Coordinator but not echoed. This is to be expected.
    – If DH,DL = 0 of the coordinator, data sent is not echoed AND not seen at the Routers. I thought this would be a broadcast.

So my main question is how to send data from the Coordinator to a Router (in AT mode).

Thank you very much in advance,

kind regards,

Peter.

2

DH/DL as zero isn’t a broadcast - it is ‘return to coordinator’.

DH/DL set to a FF is broadcast, but this chokes the mesh for up to 5 seconds each time you do it, so broadcasts on any mesh like ZIgbee is a bad idea.

The idea solutions will be:

  1. change to use the non-mesh 802.15.4 (S1), which loves broadcast - but then you have no mesh-routing
  2. change to use the Coordiniator API firmware and format the API frames - this allows you to unicast messages to either (any) router on a message by message basis. This ALSO helps as the incoming message from any router will include the MAC address of that router. The routers would remain Router AT with DH/DL set to 0, as ‘return to coordinator’ is what you want.

API frames, addressed Unicast and mesh are kind of neccessary-evil siblings.