XBee RF / Mayfly Communication Troubleshooting

Tagged: Mayfly 0.5b, Serial1, Xbee

This topic has 1 reply, 2 voices, and was last updated 2023-11-22 at 3:27 PM by Shannon Hicks.

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2023-11-20 at 12:27 PM #18177

joeln

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Hi,

A bit frustrating, as this was working last week, but something (hardware or software) seems to have happened. Regrettably, I do not have git VCS in place for my workflow on this, so can’t say exactly what is was that worked before. But it wasn’t overly complicated or much different from anything I’m trying now.

The basic setup is a Mayfly 0.5b with a DH22 temp/humidity sensor wired in and an XBee XB24CZ7WITB003 transmitter in the Bee socket. Last week, I was able to walk my PC downstairs with the Mayfly upstairs on LiPo power transmitting temperature readings back to the serial terminal on my PC. Great.

This week I feel like I’ve tried everything but can’t get an XBee signal from the Mayfly doing the same. In trying different things, I can still get my two XBee transmitters to communicate via USB breakout boards, including from one on one PC to one on another. So that tells me the config on the two XBees is at least nominally correctly configured for communication. But this week, whenever I put the Router/Endnode (alternately configured) in to the Mayfly, nothing transmits via Serial1.

Very basic sketch from another thread:

#include "Arduino.h"
#include "DHT.h"

#define XBEE_SleepPin 23

void setup() 
{
  //Initialise the serial connection
  Serial.begin(57600);
  Serial1.begin(9600);  //this is the Xbee UART, default Xbee speed is 9600 baud
  pinMode(8, OUTPUT);   //Green LED
  pinMode(9, OUTPUT);   //Red LED
  digitalWrite(8, HIGH);   //turn on the Green LED and leave it on
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);    //turn off the Red LED, we'll use it later to indicate Xbee wake
  pinMode(XBEE_SleepPin,OUTPUT);   // Set the Xbee "wake-up pin" (D23) to output
  digitalWrite(XBEE_SleepPin,LOW); // wake-up XBee to start with
  Serial.println("Xbee Testing Sketch"); 
  delay(2000);
}

void loop(){
     wakeXbee();
     delay(3000);   //give the Xbee a few seconds to wake up and be seen by the network
     Serial1.println("This_is_the_"); // this is the text that gets sent via the Xbee RF module
     delay(3000);   //give the Xbee a few seconds before putting it back to sleep
     sleepXbee();
     delay(10000);  // wait 10 seconds, then do it all over again
}

void sleepXbee(){
  Serial.println("Putting the Xbee to sleep");  
  delay(100);
  pinMode(XBEE_SleepPin,INPUT_PULLUP);  // Set "wake-up pin" to input and enable the internal pullup
  digitalWrite(XBEE_SleepPin,HIGH);    //put the Xbee to sleep
  digitalWrite(9, LOW);   //turn off the RED LED when the Xbee is asleep
}

void wakeXbee() {
  Serial.println("Wake up the Xbee");
  delay(100);
  pinMode(XBEE_SleepPin,OUTPUT);   // Set the "wake-up pin" to output
  digitalWrite(XBEE_SleepPin,LOW); // wake-up XBee
  digitalWrite(9, HIGH);  //  turn on the RED LED when the Xbee is awake
}

#include "Arduino.h"

#include "DHT.h"

#define XBEE_SleepPin 23

void setup()

{

//Initialise the serial connection

Serial.begin(57600);

Serial1.begin(9600); //this is the Xbee UART, default Xbee speed is 9600 baud

pinMode(8, OUTPUT); //Green LED

pinMode(9, OUTPUT); //Red LED

digitalWrite(8, HIGH); //turn on the Green LED and leave it on

digitalWrite(9, LOW); //turn off the Red LED, we'll use it later to indicate Xbee wake

pinMode(XBEE_SleepPin,OUTPUT); // Set the Xbee "wake-up pin" (D23) to output

digitalWrite(XBEE_SleepPin,LOW); // wake-up XBee to start with

Serial.println("Xbee Testing Sketch");

delay(2000);

}

void loop(){

wakeXbee();

delay(3000); //give the Xbee a few seconds to wake up and be seen by the network

Serial1.println("This_is_the_"); // this is the text that gets sent via the Xbee RF module

delay(3000); //give the Xbee a few seconds before putting it back to sleep

sleepXbee();

delay(10000); // wait 10 seconds, then do it all over again

}

void sleepXbee(){

Serial.println("Putting the Xbee to sleep");

delay(100);

pinMode(XBEE_SleepPin,INPUT_PULLUP); // Set "wake-up pin" to input and enable the internal pullup

digitalWrite(XBEE_SleepPin,HIGH); //put the Xbee to sleep

digitalWrite(9, LOW); //turn off the RED LED when the Xbee is asleep

}

void wakeXbee() {

Serial.println("Wake up the Xbee");

delay(100);

pinMode(XBEE_SleepPin,OUTPUT); // Set the "wake-up pin" to output

digitalWrite(XBEE_SleepPin,LOW); // wake-up XBee

digitalWrite(9, HIGH); // turn on the RED LED when the Xbee is awake

}

Then with the Mayfly plugged into a PC via USB, I can get serial messages at 57600 over USB. But my XBee coordinator reads nothing at 9600. Then, if I pull the XBee from the Mayfly and remount it on a USB breakout connected to a PC I can run:

 picocom --echo --baud 9600 --imap crcrlf,delbs /dev/ttyUSB0

1	picocom --echo --baud 9600 --imap crcrlf,delbs /dev/ttyUSB0

and then type messages that get transmitted to my coordinator node. Almost suggesting a hardware issue with the Mayfly.

I’ve checked and I’m mounting the XBee in the correct alignment with all the pins seated… Any suggestions as to what the problem may be, or how to troubleshoot further?

2023-11-22 at 3:27 PM #18178
Shannon Hicks
Moderator
It’s been a while since we’ve used Xbee modules with our Mayfly boards, so I don’t remember all the tricks to configuring the routers and coordinators, but your Mayfly code looks correct to me. Have you tried removing the wake and sleep commands and just leave the Xbee module constantly powered to see if that helps? Are you using the Mayfly v.05b board for all your tests? There were some significant design changes when we migrated to the v1.0 board, some of which affect how the Mayfly’s Xbee socket behaves.

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