XBEE Pro Shield V3 - advice requested

[Southpark]

Hi all,

Has anyone here used the Xbee pro shield v3 (or even something like looks like it? - please see the attached photo).

Recently I bought a bunch of these shields that are made to connect to the Arduino Uno.

For about 1 day, I've been trying to get an Xbee Pro module (mounted to this shield/Uno combination) to send something ultra simple.... such as 'hello' wirelessly to a Xbee pro/Xbee explorer combination.

So far, no success. But after reading up on lots of information on the internet about this particular Xbee pro shield, I think I'm getting closer to sorting out my issue. But I think that anyone that has experience in using this shield could help me a lot as well.

Anyway, my arduino sketch requires the Dout pin from the Xbee Pro module to be connected to Uno pin 2, and requires Din from the Xbee Pro to be connected to Uno pin 3.

I believe that the software (sketch) that I have is all good. It is very simple as well. Unfortunately, the xbee shield/uno combo is not getting the wireless message transmitted. But at least diagnosis software (called XCTU) was able to get wireless communications (serial console text communications) working while everything was connected up via USB.

The problem is - when my UNO/shield/xbee pro combo is in standalone mode (disconnected from computers and usb etc), this unit is not yet able to send wireless data to the XBEE explorer unit.

I notice via multimeter continuity measurements that when I move the XBee shield switch to the 'USB' position, the Dout pin of the xbee pro module gets routed (connected) to Arduino Tx (pin 1).

And when I move the XBee shield switch to the 'XBEE' position, the Dout pin of the xbee pro module gets routed through to Arduino Rx (pin 0).

I also notice that the "Din" of the XBee pro always remains disconnected, regardless of the switch position. So I'm thinking that this isn't going to help things along if Din always remains disconnected.

Anyway, it seems that the pin configuration in my sketch software (requiring Dout to connect to arduino pin 2 and Din to connect to arduino pin 3) doesn't align with the hardware side of things.

So that question I'd like to ask here is :

Would I just need to solder an additional header connector to this Xbee shield and manually run a wire to patch Dout to arduino pin 2; and then run a different wire to patch Din to arduino pin 3?

About 1 day ago, I had no information at all about this Xbee shield board, and I had assumed that this shield had Dout and Din pre-connected to pin 2 and pin 3 respectively. So I was thinking of going ahead to patch things through manually.

But, as mentioned, when the switch is in the 'xbee' position, Dout becomes internally hard-wired to arduino Rx pin (pin 0).

Can I safely go ahead with manually connecting Dout to arduino pin 2, and connecting Din to arduino pin 3?

Thanks for your help in advance!!!

[Southpark]

I decided to just go for it, and use wires to physically connect the "Dout" pin to arduino pin 2, and the "Din" pin to arduino pin 3. The wireless transmissions from the UNO/Xbee shield combination finally gets through to the Xbee explorer unit.

The main things are to: load the sketch software into the UNO only after the switch on the xbee shield is set to the 'USB' position. After the software is loaded, then I put the switch into the 'XBEE' position.

For the Xbee Explorer module, I used the XCTU software to make this unit a 'coordinator' device.

For the UNO/xbee shield module, I used XCTU to make this unit an 'end user' device.

I ensured that the baud rate settings (configured using XCTU) for both devices were the same...eg. 9600 baud.

And within the XCTU console window, I ensured that the icon button that says 'close serial connection' was activated (ie showing a green coloured icon).

I also found that the 'CH Channel' value (in the configuration window of XCTU) needs to be identical for both the Coordinator side and the End-User side. And I learned that the coordinator's CH channel number is automatically assigned by the XCTU software. Therefore, it was necessary to ensure that the End-User side is configured for the same 'CH Channel' value as the Coordinator's 'CH Channel' value. However, in order to use XCTU to configure the UNO/Xbee shield unit, it was necessary for me to move the switch to the 'USB' position, as well as needing to temporarily remove the wires that I had added. An alternative way to configure an XBEE pro module, would be to just plug the XBEE pro module into a spare XBEE Explorer module. This can save the hassle of flicking switches and disconnecting wires etc.

So, what I learned from all this is - the XBee shield requires you to manually connect (using real wires) the Dout and the Din pins to arduino digital pins of own choice. It's not just a matter of plugging in an XBEE module.

[GaganP]

Hi, I've the exact same shield but they are working great so far and I have no problems with them . Connect your Xbee to the top and for programming the Arduino select 'USB' on the shield and for data transmission, select 'Xbee'. I'm using Xbee S2 and Arduino Mega 2560.

[GaganP]

Actually I did not use any wire. Mine works perfectly without the wires. Have you switched the switch to 'Xbee' while sending data.

(According to me, in the 'USB' mode the Arduino can be programmed and the Xbee does not send any data)

PS:My photo file is too large and i cannot upload it.

[Southpark]

GaganP:
Actually I did not use any wire. Mine works perfectly without the wires. Have you switched the switch to 'Xbee' while sending data.

(According to me, in the 'USB' mode the Arduino can be programmed and the Xbee does not send any data)

PS:My photo file is too large and i cannot upload it.

Thanks for your kind reply and your time.

And thanks for letting me know that your xbee pro shield didn't require extra wires!

I've attached a new photo to show my configuration. I have the UNO/shield unit connected to a power bank, so this unit is standalone (not connected to a computer), with the switch set to the 'xbee' position. And the xbee explorer unit is connected to a computer (via USB cable). The setup is finally working.

The initial problem with my xbee pro shield v3 boards is that : when the switch is in the 'xbee' position, the Dout pin of the xbee is routed only to the UNO RX pin 0. And the Din pin of the xbee remains completely disconnected from all arduino pins. I used my multimeter to test for continuity between the xbee pins and the arduino header pins. So it looks like - for my xbee pro shields - the only way for me to get Dout linked to say pin 2, and Din linked to pin 3 is to manually patch things together using real wires.

Without the manual patching, the UNO header pins 2, 3, 4, 5 etc were always physically disconnected (isolated) from all of the xbee pins. So I wasn't able to use software patching to achieve the required connections for Dout and Din.

After I did the manual patching, the UNO/shield unit was then able to send the 'hello' message to the xbee explorer.

When the switch is in the XBEE position, the Dout pin still remains connected to arduino RX pin 0. I found this through multimeter measurement. But since I patched Dout to arduino pin 2 as well, then my Dout pin is currently connected to both arduino pin 2 and arduino pin 0.

At the moment, I just got to make sure that the 'CH Channel' values (configured using XCTU) for both sender and receiver XBEE modules are the same value.

In order to do any XCTU configuration when using my xbee pro shield, I need to put the switch into 'usb' mode, then physically remove my patch wires, followed by connecting the shield/uno module to the computer via USB cable. If I don't remove my patch wires during configuration, then XCTU can't get through to the xbee pro shield/uno for software configuration. So after the XCTU configuration, I just need to remember to remove power to the UNO, then flick the switch back to the 'XBEE' position, then do the physical wire patching again, then power up the UNO again.

Thanks again for letting me know about your shield. I'll keep what you said in mind! Thanks again.