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New Xbee Modem: XB3-C-GM1-UT-001

Home › Forums › Mayfly Data Logger › New Xbee Modem: XB3-C-GM1-UT-001

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    • 2024-09-18 at 12:36 PM #18658
      dan@wachusett
      Participant

        Hello EnviroDIY,

        The Digi Xbee modem XB3-C-A2-UT-001 was recently replaced with a new version: XB3-C-GM1-UT-001. The product change notification (attached) claims that the new modem is a “drop in replacement” for the discontinued model. Before I put in an order for these to replace my older, failed Xbee modems, I wanted to check with the forum about a couple things:

        1. Is this still the only viable modem choice on the Mayfly that works on the Verizon network?
        2. Has anyone used this newer model Xbee, and if so, did it work, and did it require any changes to your Mayfly Sketch?

        Thanks,
        Dan

        Attachments:

        1. Digi_International_PCN__EOL_XBee_3_Cellular_LTE_M_NB_IoT_U_blox.pdf

      • 2024-09-18 at 4:33 PM #18660
        Shannon Hicks
        Moderator

          That’s a good find.  We haven’t tried one of those with the Mayfly boards yet, but we’ll have to buy one and see what all might be needed to get it to work properly.  Previous Digi boards required our now-discontinued bee adapter board to change the pin assignments and power supply options in order to work with the Mayfly v0.5 boards.   But the latest Mayfly boards give you the ability to change bee header pins and power settings by adjusting various solder jumpers on the back of the Mayfly.  Similar adjustments to the sketch would be needed as well to make sure everything matched up properly.  But we’ll order a few of those Digi modules and do some testing and if it all looks good, we’ll add an example sketch to the library.

        • 2024-09-19 at 12:27 PM #18661
          dan@wachusett
          Participant

            Thanks Shannon! Some testing and an example sketch would be very helpful.

          • 2024-09-20 at 4:17 PM #18665
            Sara Damiano
            Moderator

              According to the product change notification you attached, there shouldn’t need to be any software changes for “transparent” mode, so most of the examples for ModularSensors should still work.

              The underlying cellular chipset on the board *has* changed from the ublox SARA R410M to the Telit ME310G1-WW on the global version or the Telit ME310G1-W1 on the low power version. Because the chip changed, any examples you see for using *bypass* mode will no longer work.

            • 2024-09-26 at 7:54 AM #18671
              dan@wachusett
              Participant

                Thanks Sara, that is good news. I will be ordering several of these to replace the modems at all of my sites. The previous version was not that reliable, so I am hoping they made some improvements to the design in this version. I will make sure to use “transparent mode” in my sketches.

                • 2024-09-26 at 1:02 PM #18673
                  Shannon Hicks
                  Moderator

                    We ordered a couple of these modules and they arrived a few days ago.  I did some testing the past couple days and had only occasional success at sending data to MMW with them.  We’re thinking the code libraries probably need to be tweaked to work with these new modules, but there’s no usable electrical or software documentation for these particular modules from Digi at this time, so we’ve got limited info to work with.  We also used one of our standard Hologram SIM cards and the module would only connect to either T-Mobile or AT&T, so you might need to have a different carrier’s SIM card if you want to get these to work with Verizon.

                • 2024-09-26 at 7:55 PM #18674
                  neilh20
                  Participant

                    Oh interesting, Thanks for sharing,   Sounds like it connected some of the time, showing that it was possible to connect.  I’ve found there are four source of failure – setup to cell tower,  TCP/IP setup, POST ack,   MMW timeout,

                    I found this  hardware data sheet – but it turns out there is a GM1 and GM2 – GM1 is the low power. I wonder which one you got?. https://mm.digikey.com/Volume0/opasdata/d220001/medias/docus/6378/XB3-C-GM2-UT-001.pdf

                    SUPPLY VOLTAGE 3.3 – 4.3 VDC
                    AVG TRANSMIT CURRENT (LTE-M) 1.25 A peak, 410 mA average (GM2 modules), 450 mA peak, 200 mA average (GM1 modules)

                    I was just wondering is the Mayfly 1.1 likely to handle the GM2 peak? though peaks are always a difficult number, as it should specify somewhere the capacitor (or pulse width) needed to handle that peak.

                    The XB3-C-A2-UT the data sheet .

                    SUPPLY VOLTAGE Standard Version: 3.3-4.3VDC;
                    PEAK TRANSMIT CURRENT Standard Version: 550mA;
                    AVG TRANSMIT CURRENT 235mA

                    For the low power (GM1) version of fw,

                    https://hub.digi.com/support/products/digi-xbee/digi-xbee-3-global-lte-mnb-iot/

                    and found this User Guide (I had to feed a few dragons tasty data on the way there)  https://www.digi.com/resources/documentation/digidocs/PDFs/90002420.pdf

                    https://www.digi.com/resources/documentation/digidocs/90002420/default.htm#containers/cont_at_cmds.htm?TocPath=AT%2520commands%257C_____0

                    I have had this recent email for a survey on Digikey,  (pasted below, hope it comes out ~ feel free to click on what you think)

                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                    Thank you for taking the time to participate in this survey.

                    Ron Konezny
                    President & CEO
                    Digi
                    <table border=”0″ cellpadding=”0″ align=”center”>
                    <tbody>
                    <tr>
                    <td>
                    <div>What is your overall impression of Digi?</div></td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                    <td>
                    <table border=”0″ width=”100%” cellspacing=”5″ cellpadding=”0″>
                    <tbody>
                    <tr>
                    <td>Very favorable</td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                    <td>Somewhat favorable</td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                    <td>Neither favorable nor unfavorable</td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                    <td>Somewhat unfavorable</td>
                    </tr>
                    <tr>
                    <td>Very unfavorable</td>
                    </tr>
                    </tbody>
                    </table>
                    </td>
                    </tr>
                    </tbody>
                    </table>
                     

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