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Thousands of XBee Modules at Parallax (and now USB XBee boards!) — Parallax Forums

Thousands of XBee Modules at Parallax (and now USB XBee boards!)

Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,399
edited 2010-02-18 21:12 in General Discussion
Hey all!

We've just taken delivery of our first thousand XBee modules. You will be able to buy the 2 mW versions for $19.00 and the 60 mW at $32.00. These prices are similar to Digi-Key and Mouser, maybe even cheaper. We're only able to offer these prices because of high anticipated volume. Without the volume our prices will unfortunately increase. We will also offer four (4) adapter boards: a breakout, 3.3V adapter, 5.0V adapter, and a USB board. All of these are in production right now.

We've chosen to stock the most popular modules: 802.15.4 series with chip and wire antennas.

This is the beginning of a significant commitment to the Digi line. Thank you to our customers who have patiently waited for us to get these products in stock, as well as those who've written the Propeller code objects and BASIC Stamp examples.

These are not available yet for on-line sales, but Lauren is working towards that right now.

Sincerely,

Ken Gracey
Parallax Inc.

attachment.php?attachmentid=66462

attachment.php?attachmentid=66463

Post Edited (Ken Gracey (Parallax)) : 1/12/2010 5:23:41 PM GMT
Thousand XBees.jpg
1000 x 750 - 237K
XBee Comparison.jpg
922 x 638 - 140K
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Comments

  • AJMAJM Posts: 171
    edited 2010-01-05 18:38
    Thanks for always keeping us updated Ken; Great News
  • kf4ixmkf4ixm Posts: 529
    edited 2010-01-05 18:51
    Yes, thanks ken, im looking forward to testing a couple of the high powered units for a wireless scada/remote telemetry project that i've been planning for a long time.
  • pacmanpacman Posts: 327
    edited 2010-01-05 19:34
    Well I'm not going to say "Thanks for keeping us informed".

    Why can't you guys be like so many other companies and just get new products but not tell the customers unless they ask?

    With your reckless "lets keep the end users informed" attitude, I now have more possibilities for communication and more potential projects I can work on. turn.gif

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  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,399
    edited 2010-01-05 20:28
    Yes pacman! Thankfully you have an addiction and we need to keep it satisfied! Hopefully you'll need to set up your garden plants with mesh networking around XBee modules. Just come see the dealer when you need the supply chain arranged.

    On another note, if anybody in the office sees that I'm letting the cat outta the bag they're going to hang me from a servo extension cable in the CNC shop. . . they so easily mistake my style of EXPEDITE as a RUSH effort!

    Ken Gracey
  • kf4ixmkf4ixm Posts: 529
    edited 2010-01-05 20:32
    Your secret is safe with me!!!!
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2010-01-05 22:09
    I've improved my understanding of XBees quite a bit in the last week or so, and the more I learn about them, the more I like them. I'm not sure yet what the setting is to make them sing and dance, but I'll bet it's in there somewhere. Everything else seems to be.
  • Roy ElthamRoy Eltham Posts: 3,000
    edited 2010-01-05 23:12
    This is great news. I was thinking about getting something to communicate wirelessly between my Stingray and computer. Looking forward to these along with the adapter boards going up on the store.

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  • wjsteelewjsteele Posts: 697
    edited 2010-01-05 23:17
    Wow, that's great Ken! I'm sure no one on here will tell a soul.

    [noparse][[/noparse]My next Facebook/Twitter/Blog posting: "Wahoo!!! Ken, over at #ParallaxInc, just said they're getting ready to ship XBees!!!!"]

    BTW... Mike, I absolutely love your avatar picture!!!

    Bill
  • wjsteelewjsteele Posts: 697
    edited 2010-01-05 23:18
    Hey Roy,

    First "Sharks With Lasers"... now Stingrays with XBees??? smile.gif

    Bill
  • CannibalRoboticsCannibalRobotics Posts: 535
    edited 2010-01-06 01:06
    Excellent!
    How about a little XBee board with a battery so our stingrays can drop nodes as signal fades. A Breadcrumb mesh if you will.
    Let us know when they are on sale.
    Jim-

    PS: In a seminar years ago I posed the question "How do you know if your a successful business?".
    An AT&T guy in the back said "When you don't care about our customers anymore." Parallax at this rate, your doomed.

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  • Dave EDave E Posts: 52
    edited 2010-01-06 02:05
    As long as you folks at Parallax insist on this "keep everyone informed" madness, may I suggest a series of podcasts or a webinar or just a bit of your·excellent educational writtings/manuals on using the Xbees. From what I here, they are the way to go for RF.

    Dave E
  • steve_bsteve_b Posts: 1,563
    edited 2010-01-06 13:29
    What's the symbol, beside range, indicate....I assume something related to range with a certain antenna!?
    Any info on the antenna?
    Will it be all on teh module, or allow for an external separate antenna!?

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    <FONT>Steve



    What's the best thing to do in a lightning storm? "take a one iron out the bag and hold it straight up above your head, even God cant hit a one iron!"
    Lee Travino after the second time being hit by lightning!
  • wjsteelewjsteele Posts: 697
    edited 2010-01-06 14:33
    It's a (2) footnote... more than likely saying something like Unobstructed.

    Bill
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2010-01-06 17:14
    From the table posted, you have the choice of chip antenna or wire antenna. Both are permanently mounted to the board unless you want to desolder them.

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  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,399
    edited 2010-01-06 19:51
    steve_b,

    All versions sold by Parallax have antennas mounted on the module. Digi basically offers four (4) antenna styles. The models we're selling cover 90% of customer purchasing habits - wire or chip antenna. The next version we'd add would be the long-range variety (900 mHz I think).

    The chip antennas have the same distance rating as the wire, but Digi has told me that the wire actually works 20% better in the same conditions.

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax Inc.
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2010-01-07 00:04
    Somewhere on the Digi website there's a white paper that indicates that the wire antenna works better as well. It's fairly sturdy - I've been using them in my rockets, and one held up after a crash.

    The white paper concludes:

    After reviewing Table 1, we can make several important observations.
    • The whip antenna has a range advantage over the chip antenna, but only outdoors.
    • The XBee-PRO can achieve more range than the XBee.
    • The XBee-PRO and XBee both achieve more range outdoors than they do indoors.
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,399
    edited 2010-01-07 01:00
    sylvie369,

    Nice summary My limited experience shows those statements to be entirely true.

    I'd put emphasis on the part about XBee PRO - 60 mW is a lot more power than 2 mW.

    Ken Gracey
  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2010-01-07 01:09
    Ken

    I down loaded "a" Manuel for the X-Bee but I'm still not sure here. Can the X-Bee take an IP address and a sub net mask to work in a WiFi work group? In other words,Act as a node?

    TCP/IP 100.0.1.xxx were xxx is the node address from 0-255 and 100.0.1 is the work group.

    I've waited along time for a good WiFi setup.Please tell Me some good news.

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  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,399
    edited 2010-01-07 02:06
    Ah, man, I knew it was only a matter of time before your questions would outrun my skills, $WMc%!

    I don't think so, but I'm not certain. OTOH, they use the same 802.15.4 communication scheme, so maybe they do. They have some other devices which are web-ready (and we can stock them, too).

    I'll look into this for you, or some other forum member can answer the Q. Good to see you on the forums again - seems like we haven't crossed paths in at least 40 days.

    - Ken
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2010-01-07 03:17
    Ken Gracey (Parallax) said...
    I'd put emphasis on the part about XBee PRO - 60 mW is a lot more power than 2 mW.
    The document I quoted was quite clear about that. It's definitely true - springing for the XBee Pro will do a lot more for your range than just getting a wire antenna on an regular XBee. Still, the regular low-power XBee is quite reliable within a room, or in the next room, and there are a lot of applications, I imagine, for which that would be plenty.
    $WMc% said...
    I down loaded "a" Manuel for the X-Bee but I'm still not sure here. Can the X-Bee take an IP address and a sub net mask to work in a WiFi work group? In other words,Act as a node?

    TCP/IP 100.0.1.xxx were xxx is the node address from 0-255 and 100.0.1 is the work group.

    I've waited along time for a good WiFi setup.Please tell Me some good news.
    Sorry, but I'm pretty certain that the XBees won't do what you're looking for here. I think that you might be confusing 802.11 (WiFi) with 802.15.4 (XBee). There are WiFi modules out there - I know nothing about those, though.
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,399
    edited 2010-01-07 03:29
    @$WMC% and sylvie369:

    I've attached a comparison table of the various XBee modules. Found this somewhere on the Digi site a while back.

    The bottom of the chart shows "WiFi" as an adapter for the XBee modules. Wonder what that's all about.

    Ken Gracey
    pdf
    pdf
    digi-embedded-product-comparison.pdf
    62K
  • sylvie369sylvie369 Posts: 1,622
    edited 2010-01-07 03:59
    Quite possibly they're referring to this product:

    http://www.digi.com/products/wirelessdropinnetworking/connectportxgateways.jsp#overview
    http://www.digi.com/pdf/ds_connectportx.pdf

    It's a gateway between XBee 802.15.4 networks and "cellular, ethernet, WiFi". I imagine it'll set you back a couple of hundred dollars.
  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2010-01-08 00:30
    Ken and sylvie369

    Thanks for the links.

    What I'm after is control within a LAN and not so much a web base setup.To Me PC anywhere is way easier to use than setting up a web page.

    I'll check out the links and report back.

    Thanks again

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  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2010-01-09 02:44
    @Ken and sylvie369

    Back from the links.

    It looks like the X-Bee Pro 60mW and larger will do FHSS all day long @ 2.4GHz.But digi wants one to purchase a high dollar BS converter to make it happen.
    Setting up the TCP/IP doesn't seem that hard to do.

    I could be wrong here. But I'll take a couple X-Bee's to find out.


    P.S.2010 If the Aztec's and Mayans are right.We only have 2 more years to get WiFi to our Stamps!

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    The Truth is out there············___$WMc%___···························· BoogerWoods, FL. USA
  • Harrison.Harrison. Posts: 484
    edited 2010-01-09 04:53
    $WMc% said...
    It looks like the X-Bee Pro 60mW and larger will do FHSS all day long @ 2.4GHz.But digi wants one to purchase a high dollar BS converter to make it happen.
    Setting up the TCP/IP doesn't seem that hard to do.

    I could be wrong here. But I'll take a couple X-Bee's to find out.

    TCP/IP requires more CPU / memory than is available on the Xbee's onboard Freescale / Atmel processor. Not to mention the PHY chipset for Zigbee doesn't even come close to supporting the 802.11 standard that 'Wifi' uses.

    There are many 802.11 wireless (commonly referred to as Wifi) modules out there that could easily interface to a BS2 or any other processor. Search for 'Matchport b/g', 'WiFly', 'WiPort', 'Nano Socket iWifi', or just 'serial to 802.11'. It's not going to be cheap (lowest cost solutions are around $59 USD in single quantities). 802.11 was never designed to be inexpensive or low power.

    The cheapest way to get 802.11 support is to buy a wireless router capable of running linux. You can usually get them for under $40. These routers are really the most inexpensive way to get a wide range of connectivity options (Ethernet and Wifi in one inexpensive package). It will be much harder to get up and running (you have to have pretty deep knowledge of linux command line).
  • $WMc%$WMc% Posts: 1,884
    edited 2010-01-09 15:08
    Harrison.

    I was pointing out the fact that the X-Bee will Freq.Hop(FHSS).I wasn't sure about the TCP/IP and memory space.

    Thanks for the info.

    I'd still like to try out the X-Bee's

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  • MicrocontrolledMicrocontrolled Posts: 2,461
    edited 2010-01-09 19:32
    I'm just hoping that Parallax will release the Propeller and BS2 code drivers AND samples for this one. I have bought the Parallax RF Transievers and the $30 GPS module and afterwards was dissapointed that Parallax did not have any code exaples for the GPS and only BS2 drivers for the Transievers. I think that they should always release an official Propeller object and sample code for all thier microcontrollers with each product. I must say, and I am ashamed to say it, that I was dissappointed with Parallax for not releasing official objects and demo code. Now I have 2 completely useless pieces of hardware that I am going to have to write my own driver for if I want to use them. There are Prop drivers out there for the Transievers but none of them I have tried work so I am starting to wonder whether I have a defective product or it's the driver. Because of the lack of official testing code I am unable to know this. Not that I am putting down Parallax, but when everything else is so great and so supported, why no demo code? I'm just saying that I want them to provide full and tested demo code for the XBEEs that is GUARENTEED to work unless you wire it wrong or you have a bad XBEE. Thank you for the consideration,

    Micro

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    Robots are microcontrolled.
    I am microcontrolled.

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  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2010-01-09 20:02
    @microcontrolled - There is an xBee interface object in the Object Exchange. Have you looked at it?
  • max72max72 Posts: 1,155
    edited 2010-01-10 14:49
    Same applies for the GPS.
    On the Obex you have plenty of objects working with the GPS in Raw mode, or almost any other OEM GPS. Some are giving you back strings, others floats, and they are generally well commented.
    Massimo
  • Jim FouchJim Fouch Posts: 395
    edited 2010-01-10 18:07
    I picked up a few of the 2mW ones just to play with them a few months back. About 3 weeks ago a project came up that a wireless connection would work pretty nicely. It was very very easy to make a connection from a PC based control VB app to a Propeller Proto board using these devices. I also had a few of the 60mW Pro and was hoping to use them to control my project from across the plant I was working at. However, I found the rated range was clear line of sight. Even the pros would not connect through all the concrete walls of the plant.

    I will definitely be picking up quite a few more of these nice little devices. Not sure if Parallax can work a deal with SparkFun for their boards the provide a USB break out board or just a regulated breakout board, but they make the use much more easy.

    Here are the links to the Breakout boards by Sparkfun...

    http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8687

    http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9132



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    FOUCH SOFTWARE
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