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help with xbee and board of education — Parallax Forums

help with xbee and board of education

fsbfsb Posts: 24
edited 2010-10-23 13:09 in BASIC Stamp
I was wondering if anyone can help.

I have two xbee 1mW chips, on on usb adaptor board which is connected to and powered by my PC, the second is on a 5v/3.3volt adaptor board.

Everything works great when the second (adaptor board) xbee is powered by my professional development board (via vdd, 5 volts). The power supply to the development board is 12V, 500mA wall wart.

When I power the second xbee from my BOE (using the same 12V, 500mA wall wart) via vdd (which is at 5 volts), I get a gibberish transmission. When I power the BOE with a 9 volt battery, all is fine.

This happens with both of my 5v/3.3 volt adaptor boards for the XBee

The project I am working on needs a 12volt 500mA to 1000mA supply (there is a camera in addition to BOE which has several sensors). All of this works fine (ie, with regard to this BOE and this setup).

I would like the XBee to work with my project. I suspect it has something to do with the current from the BOE power supply with the wall walt relative to the 9 volt battery. Any ideas as to what is happening and what I can do?

fsb

Comments

  • skylightskylight Posts: 1,915
    edited 2010-10-20 11:31
    Have you checked the output of the BOE you may not be getting what you think? ie slightly higher voltage? Are you getting a smooth DC output from your PSU? (not sure if the PDB and BOE have the same regulator circuits?)
  • fsbfsb Posts: 24
    edited 2010-10-20 12:39
    I think (unfortunately) it is a combination of things, after playing with the xbees for some time today.

    I think you are right, the DC voltage isn't as regulated on the BOE as on the developer board.

    However, after a period of time, no matter what board I use, the Xbees stop sending data (I am using the test loop described in the getting started with xbee draft pdf, chapter 3 which I found on the wireless forum).

    Although the blue led lights up, no data is recieved back on the x-ctu terminal- but no gibberish. This is likely an xbee communication/network? issue, i am guessing.

    I just got the Xbees. They are (or were) to replace my 433 mHz transceivers (which work fine).

    Looks like i got a lot of reading ahead of me....

    thanks

    fsb
  • youngbillyoungbill Posts: 54
    edited 2010-10-23 00:21
    What I have found,is if a common ground ,is not run,between all boards,funny things happen.
  • FranklinFranklin Posts: 4,747
    edited 2010-10-23 13:09
    Are the adapter boards Parallax products? How do you have them hooked to the end devices? On the one connected to the PC can you get an AT response? "+++" > "OK" Have you updated the firmware yet?
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