I was using libelium xbee shields, but then bought some sparkfun shields because they have a neat little prototyping area on them.
Okay so everything worked perfectly with the libelium shields, I wrote a test program to send a single byte from xctu to arduino and the arduino would send it back eg send "a", delay one second, receive "a".
But the sparkfun shield won't work, if I send a byte it sends me back ".",
or "00" if I open the hex window, has anyone had experience with this problem before?? or any idea what to try to solve this problem.
Do the TX and RX lights from the XBee light up when it transmits and receives?
Does the power light light up?
Do you have the switch in the right position for using the XBee?
That switch, instead of the jumpers, is a neat little feature, and the shape of the shield is a great improvement over the old shield Sparkfun sold. Being able (sort of/almost) mount other shields above it is nice, too.
The rx and tx lights do come on, if I send stuff from xctu to arduino, and have the serial monitor open it appears there, but it does not get sent back to xctu.
Okay, I am using xbee pros, but just tried it with a couple of xbee 2mw units I had sitting around, and they work, the libelium shield pulls the power from the ISP headers on the arduino, the sparkfun pulls its power from the 5v pin, maybe this is the problem.
Okay problem solved, for anyone else having trouble:
The good news is that we may have a solution for you. We've identified a specific incompatibility between the XBee Pros and several of our boards. These boards include a diode on the DIN line to protect the XBee from external 5V on that line. This works fine with normal XBees, but the Pros apparently have a lower than normal DIN voltage level, which the diode further drops until it's below the threshold which can be read by the host system.
We're working on a solution for future boards, but for customers currently affected by this problem, we're advising that they solder a jumper across the diode (the diode can be removed or not at your discretion). I'm attaching a graphic showing the location of the diode (D1 in the schematic). Customers who have made this modification have reported that the problems immediately ceased.
If you can't or don't want to make this modification, we'll be happy to do if for you if you send the shield back to us. Let me know if you'd like to do that.
Sorry for this problem, and hope this information helps get you up and running. Let us know if you have any other questions!
-Mike Grusin
SparkFun Electronics
"I mean, being a robot's great but we don't have emotions,
and sometimes that makes me very sad" - Bender
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HI there.
I think i have a problem too with my Xbee Pro and my Sparkfun Xbee Shield. Is this possible to see the graphic they gave you ?
It would be helpful .
thx