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XBee S6B WiFi module and WX — Parallax Forums

XBee S6B WiFi module and WX

RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
in General Discussion
What can I do with this and my original Activity Board?

Basically I am looking for a method to program my original Activity Board, remotely. Also it would have to be a way that uses SimpleIDE using C.

I think the Activity WX Board has been out for more than a year, what is the progress with the software to use, the WiFi component, with SimpleIDE?

Ray

Comments

  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    The ActivityBoard WX plus the Parallax WX Wi-Fi module can be programmed wirelessly with proploader. This has been working for some time. The sources for PropLoader are in the Parallax GitHub account. It can be built for Windows, Mac, and Linux. A new version of SimpleIDE that uses proploader instead of propeller-load is under test now and will likely be released soon.
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    Thanks David.

    I am not sure I understand how this is all supposed to be used. I went to the GitHub site, and everything there is source code, no binaries. Even if you compiled the source, what exactly do you end up with?

    Since you mentioned a new version of SimpleIDE, that means that when you are ready to load your C program to the Activity Board, somehow this new proploader will find the Activity Board via WiFi, and then fire up the Activity Board with your new program?

    I have been playing around with a Raspberry Pi and an Activity Board, programing it via SimpleIDE on the Raspberry Pi. I am finding this to be a little cumbersome, hopefully using a SimpleIDE via WiFi, will be somewhat less cumbersome? Any more documentation on how all this is going to work?

    Ray
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    David Betz wrote: »
    The ActivityBoard WX plus the Parallax WX Wi-Fi module can be programmed wirelessly with proploader. This has been working for some time. The sources for PropLoader are in the Parallax GitHub account. It can be built for Windows, Mac, and Linux. A new version of SimpleIDE that uses proploader instead of propeller-load is under test now and will likely be released soon.

    David,

    Will the WX programming work on the original AB? I know there is new SEL socket on the new board for programming.

  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Publison wrote: »
    David Betz wrote: »
    The ActivityBoard WX plus the Parallax WX Wi-Fi module can be programmed wirelessly with proploader. This has been working for some time. The sources for PropLoader are in the Parallax GitHub account. It can be built for Windows, Mac, and Linux. A new version of SimpleIDE that uses proploader instead of propeller-load is under test now and will likely be released soon.

    David,

    Will the WX programming work on the original AB? I know there is new SEL socket on the new board for programming.

    I don't think so. The new AB WX has the DI/DO pins on the Xbee socket connected to P31/P30 on the Propeller. I don't think that's true on the original AB. There also needs to be a way to reset the Propeller. The AB WX has an Xbee pin that connects to the reset circuit.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    That's what I thought. Ray might think the WX would work will the old AB.
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    So, is their any preliminary documentation on this? Hopefully when the new SimpleIDE with WX support comes out, maybe Parallax will do an intro price on the Activity WX, ~$49.95! I hope this happens soon, I could use this right now, if it will work the way I am imaging it should.

    Ray
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2016-12-27 16:41
    Rsadeika wrote: »
    So, is their any preliminary documentation on this? Hopefully when the new SimpleIDE with WX support comes out, maybe Parallax will do an intro price on the Activity WX, ~$49.95! I hope this happens soon, I could use this right now, if it will work the way I am imaging it should.

    Ray
    Ray,

    The AB WX has been out since February:

    https://www.parallax.com/product/32912

    The 32910 Activity Board is discontinued.



  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Publison wrote: »
    That's what I thought. Ray might think the WX would work will the old AB.
    I think it will work but not for program loading. I guess it could be made to work if you write a second-stage loader into EEPROM that uses different pins to talk to the WX.

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    David Betz wrote: »
    Publison wrote: »
    That's what I thought. Ray might think the WX would work will the old AB.
    I think it will work but not for program loading. I guess it could be made to work if you write a second-stage loader into EEPROM that uses different pins to talk to the WX.
    Well. let's get the AB WX working first. Time line.?
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Publison wrote: »
    David Betz wrote: »
    Publison wrote: »
    That's what I thought. Ray might think the WX would work will the old AB.
    I think it will work but not for program loading. I guess it could be made to work if you write a second-stage loader into EEPROM that uses different pins to talk to the WX.
    Well. let's get the AB WX working first. Time line.?
    As I mentioned already, it is already working with the version of proploader that is in the Parallax GitHub account. I don't know the schedule for releasing the new version of SimpleIDE but you can use the command line version right now.

  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Just in case you can't build proploader yourself, here are the Windows, Mac, and Linux executables.

    zip
    zip
    proploader.zip
    590K
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    David Betz wrote: »
    Just in case you can't build proploader yourself, here are the Windows, Mac, and Linux executables.
    Thanks David,

    I can't order a WX until Parallax opens next week. I should have ordered one when I got my BlocklyProp Starter Kit.


  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Publison wrote: »
    David Betz wrote: »
    Just in case you can't build proploader yourself, here are the Windows, Mac, and Linux executables.
    Thanks David,

    I can't order a WX until Parallax opens next week. I should have ordered one when I got my BlocklyProp Starter Kit.

    I thought that the BlocklyProp Starter Kit came with an AB WX.

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    Yea, I didn't order the XBEE WiFi.
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Publison wrote: »
    Yea, I didn't order the XBEE WiFi.
    Oh, I see. It comes with an AB WX but not a WX wi-fi module. By the way, you can't do over-the-air loading with the Xbee wi-fi module. Only with the WX wi-fi module.

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    David Betz wrote: »
    Publison wrote: »
    Yea, I didn't order the XBEE WiFi.
    Oh, I see. It comes with an AB WX but not a WX wi-fi module. By the way, you can't do over-the-air loading with the Xbee wi-fi module. Only with the WX wi-fi module.

    Yup, I should have said the Parallax module:

    https://www.parallax.com/product/32420d



  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    This is all very confusing, from a Parallax product identity stand point. There is software, but for what product.

    If we are talking about the XBee WiFi S6B, then you are basically on your own. It does not matter which board that you have, the original AB or the AB WX. In the product support docs, it states that there will be a way to program the AB WX (using WiFi?), in the future, whatever time limit that is referring too.

    Now, the other module is the new Parallax WiFi, I guess the new SimpleIDE will have built in support for the AB WX, which begs to ask, why would you want this module, if you already have an XBee socket on board? Like I said, this Parallax product identity is getting to be very foggy.

    So, I guess I am back to my original post query, what the heck can I do with my XBee WiFi S6B module, and whichever board, the original AB or the AB WX?

    Ray
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Rsadeika wrote: »
    This is all very confusing, from a Parallax product identity stand point. There is software, but for what product.

    If we are talking about the XBee WiFi S6B, then you are basically on your own. It does not matter which board that you have, the original AB or the AB WX. In the product support docs, it states that there will be a way to program the AB WX (using WiFi?), in the future, whatever time limit that is referring too.

    Now, the other module is the new Parallax WiFi, I guess the new SimpleIDE will have built in support for the AB WX, which begs to ask, why would you want this module, if you already have an XBee socket on board? Like I said, this Parallax product identity is getting to be very foggy.

    So, I guess I am back to my original post query, what the heck can I do with my XBee WiFi S6B module, and whichever board, the original AB or the AB WX?

    Ray
    The XBee S6B works fine with either ActivityBoard. It just doesn't allow programming the Propeller over Wi-Fi. That is only supported on that Parallax board. Actually, there were some early attempts to do programming using the S6B but they were not always reliable. The Parallax WX Wi-Fi module has custom code in it that talks to the Propeller loader and avoids all of the tricky timing issues associated with trying to do that over a Wi-Fi link.

  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    I did some more investigation about the XBee WiFi S6B module, it was stated, in the docs, that the device is not "network discoverable". Which, I guess means, when you do a network search, the XBee WiFi will not show up.

    I did a test run using XCTU, XBee WiFi module, and an original Acitivity Board. After running the XCTU program, it could not find the XBee module. I had di and do connected to P11 and P10. There is an existing COM port available for the board.

    I also have an XBee USB adapter board, connected to my Windows 7 computer. When I plugged the WiFi module into the adapter board, and ran XCTU, there it found the WiFi module. So, I guess the WiFi module is OK, it just does not like to be plugged into the original Activity Board. Not sure how to get around that problem.

    What I was hoping to achieve was a LAN(WiFi) connection to my Activity Board, at the very least talk to the board via a terminal program or something else, and maybe somewhere along the way, be able to program the AB.

    Maybe I am looking at the wrong product, maybe it should be the Parallax WiFi module that I should be looking at. But, the software to program a Propeller board is not available, time line is not being disclosed, for the software.

    I am still trying to figure out why the XBee WiFi module is not being found, when plugged into AB, using the XCTU program. Anybody have any hints as to what I am missing here?

    Ray
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Rsadeika wrote: »
    Maybe I am looking at the wrong product, maybe it should be the Parallax WiFi module that I should be looking at. But, the software to program a Propeller board is not available, time line is not being disclosed, for the software.
    I've already pointed out that the command line loader is available now. I even posted a zip file containing Windows, Mac, and Linux versions. Are you unwilling to use a command line tool?
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    Actually I downloaded your zip file and looked at the "command line tool", so now what do you do with it? As it pertains to the Parallax WiFi module. David, maybe for you this is a complete programming environment, but for me, there are a lot of missing parts, especially when their is very little documentation to work with. Yes, I ran proploader.exe program, and it showed a usage page, I guess I am not as smart as you are, otherwise I would not be asking these questions.


    Ray
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    edited 2016-12-28 15:41 
    proploader toggle.elf
    This command will load a program into a Propeller that has a WX wi-fi module attached to it. It will auto-discover the wi-fi module and if there is more than one it will pick the first it finds. You can also just give the IP address to select a specific module like this: 
    proploader -i 192.168.0.23 toggle.elf
    If you want to enter terminal mode after the load you can append a -t to either command.
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    It looks like I will be shifting over to the Parallax WX WiFi module. I looked at the Propeller boards that Parallax has available, and it looks like, maybe you could get the WX WiFi module to work with the QuickStart board.

    The WX WiFi module needs the Gnd, RES, di, and do pins to be connected to the appropriate pins on a Propeller board. At this point it will not work with the Activity Board, or the Propeller USB project board. Maybe Parallax will be introducing an appropriate Propeller board to go with the WX WiFi module, in the near future.

    Ray
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    edited 2016-12-28 16:36
    Rsadeika wrote: »
    It looks like I will be shifting over to the Parallax WX WiFi module. I looked at the Propeller boards that Parallax has available, and it looks like, maybe you could get the WX WiFi module to work with the QuickStart board.

    The WX WiFi module needs the Gnd, RES, di, and do pins to be connected to the appropriate pins on a Propeller board. At this point it will not work with the Activity Board, or the Propeller USB project board. Maybe Parallax will be introducing an appropriate Propeller board to go with the WX WiFi module, in the near future.

    Ray
    The Parallax WX Wi-Fi module is designed to work with the ActivityBoard WX. Both are currently available.

    Edit: It is also possible to plug a WX Wi-Fi module into the Xbee socket in an S3 robot. I tried that recently and was able to program the S3 over wi-fi.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    David Betz wrote: »
    Rsadeika wrote: »
    It looks like I will be shifting over to the Parallax WX WiFi module. I looked at the Propeller boards that Parallax has available, and it looks like, maybe you could get the WX WiFi module to work with the QuickStart board.

    The WX WiFi module needs the Gnd, RES, di, and do pins to be connected to the appropriate pins on a Propeller board. At this point it will not work with the Activity Board, or the Propeller USB project board. Maybe Parallax will be introducing an appropriate Propeller board to go with the WX WiFi module, in the near future.

    Ray
    The Parallax WX Wi-Fi module is designed to work with the ActivityBoard WX. Both are currently available.

    Edit: It is also possible to plug a WX Wi-Fi module into the Xbee socket in an S3 robot. I tried that recently and was able to program the S3 over wi-fi.

    THAT is excellent news!



  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    At first when I looked at the AB WX wireless socket, I could not see how a WX WiFi SIP module would be inserted. But after staring at the thing for awhile, I saw the light.

    Once you have the WX WiFi module inserted correctly, and you have set the SEL correctly, you are ready to turn the AB WX on. When the board gets turned on, the WX WiFi module does an automatic network discovery, correct. Now, how do you find out what the IP address is? The way I see this working for me, is using putty to connect, then using the proploader command to load up your .side program.

    I guess at this point it would be a multi-step procedure, first create the SimpleIDE program, then start up putty, finally you are ready to load the program. I am assuming that their is no login procedure with the WX WiFi module, it would start up in a terminal mode. I guess I am sold on this configuration.

    Ray
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    Theoretically, the SEL signal gets set automatically although I've sometimes had to manually run a wire from SEL to 3.3v. You can find out what wi-fi modules are on your network with this command: 
    proploader -W
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