i am very new to ZigBee and have some problems understanding some basic communications.
i have successfully managed to get two XBP24 working in AT-Mode.
In the Terminal of one device i can see what i type in the terminal.
Now i want to replace the one module which is the coordinator with an CC2530 coordinator. I use one Board from TI’s CC2530ZDK Mini Dev-Kit and run it with TI’s basic Communication Coordinator Example for “SimpleAPI” on the MSP430 (Hope that someone know these Examples).
Next i managed to connect with my XBP24 End-Device to the CC2530 Coordinator, i can see the correct PAN, Channel etc. in X-CTU.
Short after startup i can see one Receveived paket in my Coordiantor’s Terminal, which includes the XBP24’s serial, so some basic communication seems to work.
Now i want to type anything in XBP24’s Terminal which will be send to CC2530 Coordinator, but if i do so nothing happens at CC2530’s side. XBP24 seems to send something (greenRSSI-LED lights up for 500ms), but there’s no received paket at CC2530.
What could go wrong here? Do i have to care About any Cluster-ID’s, Profile-ID’s Endpoints? (I didn’t understand their functionality yet, perhaps someone has a short explanation?)
I suggest using the API-mode on your XBee at first, to ensure that your XBee is really sending correct stuff to your CC2530. When using this mode, you’ll receive an automatically generated transmit-status packet from your XBee. In this packet you can find interesting information regarding your last transmission (e.g. whether the packet was sent to its destination properly). Just have a look into the manual about the proprietary API-frames (ZigBee Transmit Request, ZigBee Transmit Status). Furthermore, try to use unicast frames instead of broadcast frames. Afaik, the AT-mode uses broadcast transmission natively when nothing has been specified statically on the XBee. In this case, your 64bit destination address is 0x0000000000000000 (coordinators address) and the 16bit address is 0xFFFE.
Oh, and if you’re new to XBee and ZigBee: the different modes (api and at) have nothing to do with the ZigBee packet itself which will later be transmitted over the air. It’s just the way how to communicate with your XBee locally and directly. (My experience is that many ppl think at the beginning that there’s a connection between the different modes and the ZigBee packet. So if you already know this fact, just ignore this one!)
Regarding the different (profile) ID’s, I only can say that you dont have to care about them normally, when only XBee modules with the same firmware are used in your setup. If you combine different hardware types with each other, then you probably have to. Especially when the hardware parts are designed for other ZigBee applications originally. Afaik, the CC2530 was intended to use for home automation, smart energy and light link applications. Each profile has his own ID. Since I dont own the CC2530 kit yet, I cant provide you more information here. The only thing I can say is that it depends on the software running on your CC2530. However, for more information regarding functionality, ID’s and more, have a look at the XBee manual and the ZigBee standard itself (both are for free).