XBee Tutorial - Chapter 3 Draft "XBee Testing & Configuration"

Steph Lindsay

Hi All,


Attached is the draft of Chapter 3, enabled for commenting in Adobe Reader. See the Chapter 1 thread for more info about the project. We appreciate your input!

An index to all of the chapter draft posts is included in the Wireless Index stickly thread.

Thanks very much,
-Steph

sylvie369

Okay, here are some comments for this one:

On page 29 you have a box reading “If your Test / Query does not find an XBee or other tests in this section fail, please see XBee Troubleshooting in Appendix B .”
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On page 33 a box reads simpley “Should you have communications problems, please see the Troubleshooting Appendix.”.
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These should probably match, and both should refer to Appendix B.
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On page 34 a box reads “Changes to configurations are stored in non-volatile memory meaning that are permanent until changed again or restored.”
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It’s missing “they” (“that they are permanent…&#8221[noparse];)[/noparse]. However, it’s confusing. The changes to configurations ·are only stored in non-volatile memory when you use the Write button or command (ATWR). If you just make a change in the XCTU parameters window, nothing happens at all to the XBee. How about something like this? ·
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“When you change a setting and use the Write button (or the ATWR command), the change is saved to non-volatile memory. This means that the change will be in effect until you either change it again or use the Restore button, even if you power down the XBee”
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Page 34 – a box reads
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“DTR and CTS are used as well. While configurations may be read and changed with a simple Tx/Rx interface, a full interface is needed for firmware changes, such as with the XBee USB Adapter.”
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How about adding a comment to the effect that
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·“Many of the adapter boards available for the XBee only implement the connections needed for communications (DIN, DOUT, Vcc, VSS). If you want to update the firmware you’ll need a board that also connects DTR and CTS, like the Parallax XBee USB Adapter”.
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That highlight the fact that the Parallax USB adapter is “special”, in an important way. The ability to update the firmware should be a good selling point for that adapter. There are a lot of XBee adapters out there that can’t do this.
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On page 35 is a list of steps to take, including
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Enter ATCH & Enter.
o You should see C returned – you requested the current value for channel.
? Enter ATCH D & Enter.
o You should see OK.
? Enter ATCN & Enter to exit the Command Mode.
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··········· How about adding “Enter ATCH & Enter” again before that last line, so that they can see that it responds “D”, showing that the channel has been changed?
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A couple of bullet points later you have “If you timeout (suddenly your characters are echoed back when trying to enter command), use ATCT 500 to increase the timeout value.”
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That should of course be “If YOUR timeout…”.
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On page 38 there’s a bullet list at the top, with a typo in the last item. It reads
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“The base will need a MY of 1 to accept data retuned.”
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I believe that should be “returned”, right? ·
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On page 38 under “Node Discovery” there is a bullet list. I think the sentence at the end of that section is supposed to be the last bullet item, not a separate sentence (“The RSSI level (signal strength) of the received information from that node (further on the RSSI level is discussed).&#8221[noparse];)[/noparse].

Martin Hebel

Thanks for the feedback Sylvie, I'll let Stephanie (All hail the editor in chief!) parse through most of it with her working copy, we appreciate the suggested replacement text very much. On the non-volatile memory comment, that appears at the section concerning the use of the configuration window. Later the use of command mode and non-volatile issues are addressed. I didn't want to overwhelm with things I hadn't gotten to, but some grammar issues may need correcting as well, and we can clarify that "When using the Configuration Window..." or some such.

-Martin

sylvie369

Yeah, I did see it later, but thought I'd leave the comment in.

This is going to be a great document.

treborz17

On page 38 the 8th and last checked procedure appears to not match the Figure 3-10 MY and DL assignments. I'm pretty new at using the XBee units, and very well may not be understanding the procedure.

Robert

!!! -- VOID·my·statement statement above -- after further study of the Digi Manual I can see that the assignments are probably correct and that I need to go deeper into the addressing procedures to determine why the assignments are correct.·

Robert


Post Edited (treborz17) : 7/28/2010 11:44:58 PM GMT

Tim H.

On page 27 under "Hardware Required" you list a 220 ohm resistor.· In figure 3-2 on page 28·you show the resistor as being 100 ohm.

Thanks for putting this XBee tutorial together.· The timing is perfect.· I purchased some XBees & adapters a few weeks ago and·am just starting to dig into them.

Tim