Xbee node parent in iDigi

Digi Remote Manager Device Manager
1

Hi,

When I look at the nodes list in Management/Xbee Networks in the iDigi platform, the columns “Network Address” and “Parent” show “0xfffe” for all the nodes. Is it a bug?

I am using the iDigi web services and I would like to build Xbee network tree but except the “parent” property which is always “0xfffe”, I did find any information which could help me to build this tree.

Thanks for your help!

Benjamin

2

Hi,

This is not a bug, but a detail of how the XBee reports its discovery results. Routers don’t really have a parent, so they just will report 0xfffe. End nodes however will report the address of the router (or coordinator) that is their parent. So, using the discovery result data, the best you can do is graph out the end nodes and the router they are associated with.

You may be able to build the graph you want using information from the following request, which you can send through iDigi using the SCI web service. I don’t have a gateway with mesh nodes available at the moment, but the request should return back a list of nodes and the neighbors for each node.

Chris

3

Hi,

Thanks for your quick reply!
I try this request :

And I got this response :


  
    
      
        
          
            get_lqi
            Unknown subcommand

Where can I find the full SCI documentation? I did saw this command anywhere in the documents that I have…

About the Xbee network tree, we can only know to which gateway a node is reporting? So if we have a meshed network with nodes talking to other nodes, it is not possible to retrieve this info?

Thanks,

Benjamin

4

The get_lqi command is a newer command, so you may want to try updating to the latest level of firmware.

The most up to date reference for SCI is located here: http://www.digi.com/wiki/developer/index.php/SCI. SCI is a wrapper around RCI though, so it doesn’t have the details of RCI. Some information on RCI is located here: http://www.digi.com/wiki/developer/index.php/RCI_do_command, but as you can see, it has not been updated with the get_lqi command.

With the XBee Network View in iDigi, you are correct, you are mainly able to see which Gateway the nodes report to essentially. (And if you have end devices, which router is their parent.) The ability for iDigi to retrieve the neighbor information from the device and display a graphical view would be a nice feature, but it is not currently available.

If you have the latest firmware, there is a command that may help you figure out what is possible with RCI. with a child element specified will give you more information about what is possible with the command.

For instance, this will give you a description of what is available in the zigbee do_command:

And this would give the details of the get_lqi command:

Thanks,
Chris

5

Thanks,

I will update the firmware of my gateways and let you know if it work for me.

Thanks,

Benjamin

6

Hi,

I have updated the firmware of my X4 gateways to the latest version (2.10.0.10).

Now I can send this command :

Which return the details of the get_lqi command.

However, when I try to send this command :

I get this reply :


  
    
      
        
          
            
              Command not supported
              get_lqi

I don’t understand what is the problem?
Thanks for your help.

Benjamin

7

Hi,

I am still getting this error when I try to use the “get_lqi” command on a ConnectPort X4 gateway :

          
            
              Command not supported
              get_lqi

I tried with firmware 2.10.0.10 and 2.10.0.7 which both give the same error.

Could you please help me with this issue?

Thanks,

Benjamin

8

I am using a DigiMesh network. Is it why get_lqi command is not supported?
If yes, is there an other way to build the graph that I want?

Thanks,

Benjamin

9

I may have misreported my results! I was formatting my SCI/RCI command incorrectly. I am not getting the same reply you are getting with your DM gateway, however, I am not getting back the answers I would expect from any of my ZB gateways either!

Would you happen to have a different gateway to try and send the command to?

In the meantime, I will upgrade my X4 firmware to the same version you have to see if I get the same reply back.

(Let me know if you’re interested in the rci test script that I am using.)

Thanks,
NathanF

10

Thanks for your reply!

I only have ConnectPort X4 gateways so I can only play with the firmware version. I tried 2.10.0.10 and 2.10.0.7 and both give me the same error.

In addition I cannot send direct RCI command because my gateways are on an other continent…

Benjamin

11

Ok, no problem. Let me upgrade the gateway firmware on my X4 and try both routes- direct RCI to the device and SCI/RCI through iDigi.

I’ll let you know what results I may find as soon as I have them.

Thanks,
-Nathan

12

Hello, I may have misreported my results! See my most recent replies…

Thanks
-NathanF

13

Hello, can you try the following SCI request? The “get descriptor” element didn’t seem right to me, so I changed my SCI request to look like the following:

I seem to be getting back a more favorable reply, but it doesn’t seem to be the LQI information we’re looking for. I would be interested in seeing what results you get if you try the same SCI/RCI command with your X4.
Thanks,
-NathanF

Reply from last command:

          00:13:a2:00:40:4a:4d:a2!
          0
14

Thanks for your help.
I have two connectPort X4 gateways :

  • 2.10.0.7
  • 2.10.0.10

Both give me this error when I try to send the SCI command with the iDigi web services console :



  
    
      
        
          
            
              Command not supported
              get_lqi

Xbee is :
Firmware version: 0x804b
Hardware version: 0x1843

Benjamin

15

Thanks for the additional information. I may have been getting RSSI and LQI confused in some of my original posts.

If both of your gateways are using DM, then as you originally surmised, this RCI call may not be possible for your configuration.
That is, I cannot find any type of command equivalent to the ZB “Management LQI Request” in the DigiMesh documentation.

I’m curious… can you please try the following from iDigi and let me know what you come up with? (Make sure to first replace the current device ID of all 0s with the DeviceID from one of your DM gatways):

If that doesn’t work, please try:

-NathanF

16

If I send this :

I get this response from one of my ConnectPort X4 Digimesh gateway :



  
    
      
        
          
            00:11:11:11:11:11:11:11!
            0x8d
            0x400
            0xc
            0x804b
            0x1843
            0x50002
            73
            38827
            82
            0x2040
            200
            2000
            2445
            12901
            3333
            10919
            1
17

Thanks for the output. I wanted to verify that the “” command worked with your device, even though you have DigiMesh (perhaps we should rename that to “”!)

Let me check around to see if providing LQI for our DigiMesh products is even being considered.

Is obtaining the LQI information via iDigi a requirement for your application and if so, have you considered using Zigbee (if that’s a possiblility)?

I’ll let you know what I find as soon as I have more information on the LQI functionality and DigiMesh. I will reply back only if I hear that similar functionality plans on being added at a later date.

Thanks,
Nathan

18

Hi Nathan,

I cannot consider Zigbee because custom hardware which only work with Digimesh is connected to our gateways. In fact I am trying to get the LQI information to be able to build a network graph on a map. This would help us to troubleshoot problematic network by quickly identifying the weak link. In addition it would help us to manage multiple networks in one look.

However I heard that Digimesh don’t store the table in memory like Zigbee but each route is discovered upon any transmission. If this is right I maybe need something else than LQI to build my graph…

Thanks for your help,

Benjamin

19

hello, I also encountered this problem ,do you have solve the problem and build a tree?