What does a blinking PWR led mean on a Arduino Wireless Shield (Xbee)?

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Hi,

I am trying to set up a wireless network using Xbee and Arduino. Each node is composed of an Arduino Mega, an Arduino Wireless Shield (http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoWirelessShield) and an Xbee S2. Later I'll add some sensors.

After changing the Firmware on one of the Xbee ship, I don't manage to discover the chip any more in X-CTU. I notice that on working nodes the PWR LED of the wireless shield is on, but with the 'faulty' chip this light is blinking. Does anyone know what is means? It might be irrelevant, but I was hopping it might help me debugging my Xbee chip. I am sure the problem come from the chip as the rest of the hardware work fine with other chips.

Thank you for any help you can provide

2

Does anyone know what is means? It might be irrelevant, but I was hopping it might help me debugging my Xbee chip.

It sounds to me like you toasted the XBee, causing the shield to short circuit and reset. Toss the XBee.

3

Thanks. That's not really the answer I was hopping for, but it is useful.

4

We thought that some of our XBees were dead when in fact they where not. But we never observed that blinking that you mentioned.

These are some ideas:

  • If the shield has some switches, they might need to be configured correctly.
  • Using another USB adaptor to connect to the XBee, to make sure that the problem is the XBee and not of the adapter.
  • In some configurations the XBee sleep and don't answer.
  • There are some "unbricking" procedures on the Internet involving accessing the bootloader.

Let us know what you have been trying so far :slight_smile:

5

Digi says that Arduino and Arduino shield cannot be used for restoration procedure: http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl?id=3402 so I will have to start by getting another USB adaptor.

6

Have you checked this video

?

I haven't tried that myself. It seems that they don't use an adapter. They do use a breakout board.