Cerb / Hydra Xbee Wifi :)

First tip: get rid of this error before progressing :slight_smile:

A first chance exception of type 'System.NotSupportedException' occurred in Microsoft.SPOT.IO.dll
 The thread '<No Name>' (0x2) has exited with code 0 (0x0).

Good plan! So I rebuilt the projectā€¦ doing NOTHING more than drag-n-dropping to the workspaceā€¦ deploy and runā€¦

Is this another toolkit bug?

See this please GHI Electronics ā€“ Where Hardware Meets Software

@ Soulhuntre - first of all be sure to update the firmware in cerberus to the latest version (in cast you didnā€™t do it already). Also please download the X-CTU app so you can upgrade the firmware in your XBee module (you will need some USB<->XBee adapter to connect it to your PC). You will also need that app to set your module to API mode since AT mode is not supported by our library.

Gus is correct about the wifi stack, the reason for XBee being so expensive is that it wraps around the stack (either Zigbee or WiFi) and exposes all the functionality using custom AT/API interface. If you have experience in C#/.NET you will be for sure able to add support for the WiFi module in this library. You can count on our help.

I am lookign into that, however I woudl love to just communicate with the chip first in a ā€œnativeā€ way [em]if I can[/em]. In other words, when I pull the xbee out of the bag, and pop it in it looks like I should be able to just hit it at 9600, 8,1 and get ā€œOKā€ back from ā€œ+++ā€. From there, I will then move on to API mode, and incorporating your library and extending the Wifi support therein.

The trick, at the moment is to just say ā€œhiā€ to the module :slight_smile:

I will order a zigbee ā†” usb interface as well, didnā€™t realize I needed one and that I couldnā€™t configure the module entirely via code.

Ken

Your approach is 100% correct, it should work as you described!

Keep me posted. I can give you a quick introduction to the code and tell you what is missing to get the module running.

You can configure the module entirely via code but you canā€™t update the firmware of the module. I guess this is doable to add firmware updated functionality to our library but never looked into it. We all just update the firmware using X-CTU. We also use X-CTU to enable API mode.

This is what i recommend:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8687

All you need is a TTL to USB conversion so you can even do it on you own and save money.

Ah, if these things were more just a little more plug and playā€¦ reality is more like others have mentioned. X-CTU is the easiest way to ā€œpingā€ a module and make sure the settings are all just the way you want them. It is also a good way to explore what the default firmware settings are.

It would be helpful if you could keep track of the issues you encounter (and then solve :)) for the beginnings of a troubleshooting guide for the codeplex project. Several new forum members have assumed XBees are ā€œplug and playā€, hit issues like youā€™ve seen, and then give up and gripe about complexity. If we can build a decent troubleshooting resource to point them to, all the better.

Thanks for muscling through this stuff. Been thereā€¦

I grabbed this - same thing but with a ā€œdongleā€ design. I will use a USB cable with it. I can get it MUCH faster (tomorrow) and MUCH cheaper on shipping than from Sparkfun. Go Amazon prime :wink:

Ken

@ Soulhuntre - I just wanted to point out that nothing more fancy than i suggested is needed. The dongle version is also very handy :slight_smile:

Cool, thanks! This is all pretty new to me :slight_smile:

Ken

@ Soulhuntre - any progress?

Was there anymore progress on this?

@ Mr. John Smith - Fernando Callejon created a fork of GBee project and added support for the XBee WiFi board. You can find the fork here

https://xbee.codeplex.com/SourceControl/network/forks/fcallejon/Wifi

I donā€™t think itā€™s finished but Fernando reported that he managed to get it running so this is a good starting point. I plan to merge it into the original project if people confirm that it works.