Share your xbee experience

NETMF & Gadgeteer
1

I’m trying to build a (simple) wireless sensor system using xbee but i’m having some bad experiences… I bought some xbee S2 modules: one module (end device) has a sensor and sends some data 4 times a day to a local module (coordinator) connected to a G120HDR and a cellular radio module, that send that data to a web server. Everytying is battery powered so i has hopping that i could put xbee to cycle sleep and disconnect G120 between sleeps.
After spending 100$ on xbee hardware i realise that S2 series always need a waked up coordinator, thus wasting power (doesn’t make sense having a coordinator awake 24h whe data is sent 4 times a day).

Someone told me that i should use S1 series because there is no coordinator and every node can sleep, but before i spend 100$ more i would like to know if somewone has used successfully S1 series with gadgeteer. I was thinking about have all xbee sleeping and when they wake up, the one with G120 attached could wake it (from deepsleep), send GSM message and get back to sleep.

Am i asking to much?

2

Anybody?

3

Not sure how this would work with the S1 modules.

I use S2 myself and a similar setup on the remote nodes that sleep. The coordinator is always on by default as it is connected to the home automation PC anyway, which is 24/7.

Would you not need an always on device anyway that is listening for the remotes when they wake up? A S2 module in receive mode is not using much power anyway.

4

Several years ago I built a NETMF project using the S1 modules. So, I can confirm that they will work with Gadgeteer. However, like Dave, I’m not sure I know how they would work like you have planned as I’ve never used them that way. In my project, both devices were always on. I don’t think NETMF/Gadgeteer will be a limiting factor, though.

5

I checked synapse modules but they are more expensive than xbee. Do you use them in sleep mode? Can they sleep all together?

6

Yes, but it will be awake for 24 hours just to receive data 5 or 10 minutes a day. For a device that is battery powered it is a huge waste of energy.

7

Did you have any issue with S1? Just to antecipate any problems i may have…
Did you use any xbee library? There are not much examples for Xbee and gadgeteer.

8

No I don’t think I had any problems with the S1. My problems had more to do with being able to control a quadcopter…

Here’s a blog post with more info that I wrote at the time…

9

There’s also the GBee library but it’s not been updated to 4.3 yet.

http://xbee.codeplex.com/

10

From digikey site, RF200 starts from 34$, Xbee starts from 22$

From the specs RF200 has 24 pins, so they don’t fit into xbee socket, right? did you make a custom board?
One of the devices will be attached to a G120HDR, it is ok to use serialread to get data from the RF200?

Sorry for so much questions, but before i start digging on another devices/technology i need to know what am i facing…

11

Dam, very impressive… that RPC capability looks promisse.
I think it deserves a try.
:wink: