Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Connecting an XBee interface to Arduino
One of the most popular and well-documented ways of connecting to Arduino via an RF
connection is to use an XBee device. This device uses a technology called ZigBee, and it is
made for long-range wireless communications. These types of devices can work up to a
range of 1 mile.
The ZigBee standard is built upon the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, a standard that was created
to allow a set of devices to communicate with each other to enable low data rate coordina-
tion of multiple devices.
The other standard that you might hear as you try to purchase or use devices like these is
XBee. This is a specific company's implementation, Digi, of several different wireless
standards with standard hardware modules that can connect in many different ways to dif-
ferent embedded systems. They make several devices that support ZigBee standard. The
following image shows the type of device that supports ZigBee attached to a small XBee-
specific shield that provides a USB port:
The advantage of using this device is that it is configured to make it very easy to create and
manage a simple link between two XBee series 1 devices. To make this work, you'll need
the following four items:
• Make sure you have two XBee devices that support ZigBee series #1.
• You'll also need to purchase a small XBee-specific shield that provides a USB port
connection to one of the two devices. This will provide communication from a host
computer.
• You'll also need to buy a shield that plugs into your Arduino so that you can inter-
face with the XBee devices. The following is an image of the shield plugged into
Arduino with the XBee device plugged in:
