Control of Xbee_S1 via AT Commands from UNO

Using Arduino Networking, Protocols, and Devices
#1

What i want to do is to be able communicate with a XBee / control it / read parameters all via AT commands sent from a UNO. For instance i want to make one XBee as a central node and get specific data from 12 more nodes by sequential polling. For this i need to be able to change DL and DH parameters programmitically . The attached code can do this … though now i am just reading the SL and SH parameters as an example.

What i want to be able to do is this : When the Xbee sends some response, besides printing it, i want to strip the response dropping the \r at the end. Tried but getting struck. Any suggestions to do this ? For instance for the command ATSL\r , the Xbee will respond with a 16 bit number. I want o get that number into a variable.

// Code to communicate with a Xbee S1 via AT commands 

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial debugSerial(2, 3);       // RX, TX. 

//######################################

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  debugSerial.begin(9600);
  debugSerial.println(" Starting The XBee Radio !");
  delay(2000);
}

//######################################

void loop() {

  debugSerial.println("NEW !!");

  Serial.print("+++");               // Open a AT session...
  xbeeResponse();
  Serial.print("ATDH\r");           // Do what you want to...
  xbeeResponse();
  Serial.print("ATSL\r");
  xbeeResponse();
  Serial.print("ATCN\r");            // Close the AT session. 
  xbeeResponse();
  delay(2000);
}

//######################################

void xbeeResponse() {
  while ( !Serial.available());        // Wait for XBee to respond..
  while ( Serial.available() > 0 ) {   // Get the response and send to debug spew
    debugSerial.write(Serial.read());
  }
  debugSerial.println(); 
}

PS : In my project the Xbee is just a wireless data link. None of the end nodes Digital or Analog pins are used. So right now dont need API mode.

#2

Ok … modified the code to get the response from XBee as char array instead of just printing it out. But the one thing that i am unable to understand is the process works smoothly only when the Serial buffer is cleared by a dummy read() at the beginning of loop(). If i don’t do this then the debug print stops with the first few responses… why is that ?

// Code to communicate with a Xbee S1 via AT commands
#include <SoftwareSerial.h>
SoftwareSerial debugSerial(2, 3);       // RX, TX.

const byte charNum = 20;
char rxBytes[charNum];
//######################################
void setup() {
  Serial.begin(9600);
  debugSerial.begin(9600);
  debugSerial.println(" Starting The XBee Radio !");
  delay(2000);
}

//######################################

void loop() {

  debugSerial.println("NEW !!");

  while ( Serial.available() > 0 ) {  // Clear the Serial buffer..
    Serial.read();
  }

  Serial.print("+++");               // Open a AT session...
  debugSerial.println(xbeeResponse());
  Serial.print("ATDH 0013A200\r");   // Set the required destination address..
  debugSerial.println(xbeeResponse());
  Serial.print("ATDL 4151274B\r");
  debugSerial.println(xbeeResponse());
  Serial.print("ATCN\r");            // Close the AT session.
  debugSerial.println(xbeeResponse());
  delay(2000);
}

//######################################

// Function to get the Xbee response... use as required.
char* xbeeResponse() {
  char endMarker = '\r';
  char inByte;
  static byte ndx = 0;

  while ( !Serial.available());        // Wait for XBee to respond..
  while ( Serial.available() > 0 ) {   // Get the response and send to debug spew
    inByte = Serial.read();
    if (inByte != endMarker) {
      rxBytes[ndx] = inByte;
      ndx++;
    }
    else {
      rxBytes[ndx] = '\0';              // terminate the string
      ndx = 0;
    }
  }
  return rxBytes;
}
//######################################
#3

Can I use this coding for series 2 ? If no so what is the solution.

#4

Tariqaziz: Can I use this coding for series 2 ? If no so what is the solution.

Yes you can. Its juts a Peer to Peer link up and does not use any of the specific commands related to the S2 . All the AT commands that I have used are common to both S1 and S2 . ( Of course you cannot make a S1 talk to S2 ... trust you are aware of that !!)

#5