Hey there, looking forward I would like to go ahead and invest in a set of xbee modules for an upcoming project. For the rest of the project, a 3.3v arduino would be simpler to interface with most of the other electronics I plan on using, but i am still slightly unsure about the xbee.
I havent yet gotten the chance to play with any xbees yet, and want to know as much as i possibly can before actually dropping the money on any particular models or new arduinos for the controller board.
It seems like you should be able to more or less directly connect the xbee with the 3.3v pro mini, without the logic converter shields that you need for the other arduino models. Obviously I would need to develop a shield to go along with it to make the connections, especially with their smaller headers, but from what I can understand, there would not need to be any other real hardware to do any sort of logic or power conversions? Just a direct connect between 3.3v regulated output of the mini to the input of the xbee, ground to ground, and then connect the serial ins and outs?
The other thing I was somewhat curious about when i looked deeper into the xbee itself was the huge lack of support for all the features in most if not all of the shields. The shields seems to only give a small 6 or 8 pinout for the basic function of tx and rx serial connection as well as power and w/e other few ones depending on the specific manufacturer and model... What about the other 14 ish data in and out pins the xbee seems to provide? They seem to just be unconnected within the shields?
The other thing I was somewhat curious about when i looked deeper into the xbee itself was the huge lack of support for all the features in most if not all of the shields.
The Sparkfun shield brings out all the I/O to two rows of pads. It says it has level shifting for the 3.3 logic but the schematic linked on their site doesn't seem to show it. If you used it with the 3.3V Pro 328 you wouldn't have to worry about logic levels. I would call Sparkfun and find out how much power is available from the 3.3V regulator. Their site says 150mA which wouldn't be enough to run some of the xbee modules. There is regulation on the shield as well but it is designed to work with a 5V Arduino so I don't know if you can get any use out of it. Maybe cut some traces and patch it into the unregulated on the 3.3V Pro if necessary.
Thanks for the speedy reply! I too noticed the lack of power out from the mini's vcc line. It could only support one of the series 1 boards from what i looked at. But that'll probably be what I end up getting for cost's sake anyways. Maybe ill look into creating a 3.3V regulated output off the mini so there is future expandability to a higher powered xbee. I am more looking at creating my own 'shield' i suppose, but just wanted to make sure I could do direct line connections between the mini and the xbee modules.
I would like to ask, if I'm not taking the 3.3v power supply from arduino pro mini for xbee, can i solve insufficient power supply due to low current supply from arduino. I'm considering using a 3.7v with 1A max current rating lipo battery as xbee power supply.
Currently, I'm using Digi xtend 900 with Arduino ProMini for my project.
Need some advises before purchase the items.