Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Both of your XBees are now configured and ready for communication with
each other. By assigning them a nondefault PAN ID, you reduce the risk that
they will interfere with other XBee networks. If you've successfully configured
the radios, you can skip to the section “Talking with Your Computer Wirelessly.”
ConiguringYourXBeewithaSerialTerminal
If you don't have Windows, you need to do your XBee configuration through
a serial terminal, because X-CTU is Windows only. This process is the same
for both Linux and Mac machines. You use the “screen” application that comes
bundled with the system accessible. As in the first chapter, use the Arduino
integrated development environment (IDE) to figure out what the device name
is for your USB-serial adapter when it is plugged it in. You can find the name
by looking in the Tools menu, under “Serial Port.”
After identifying the device name, open a terminal (you can find the terminal
by searching for it in your system's search box) and complete the following steps:
1. In the terminal, enter the command
screen /dev/ttyUSB6 9600
(replacing
/dev/yytUSB6
with the name of your serial port) and press Enter.
When you press Enter, a connection is initiated to the XBee serial terminal,
and the screen goes blank. Once connected to the radio, as you type the
commands, they will
not
appear in the terminal. The XBee does not echo
your text back to you.
First, I explain the programming process, and then I provide a list of
commands to enter in the terminal. To program the XBee, you need to
complete these steps:
a. Put the XBee in programming mode.
b. Set the PAN ID (ATID).
c. Set the source address (ATMY).
d. Set the destination address (ATDL).
e. Write the settings to the XBee's nonvolatile memory (ATWR).
Once you enter programming mode, entry of the other commands is time
sensitive. If you wait too long between entering commands, you'll exit
programming mode and have to reenter it. This timeout happens after
only a few seconds, so try to be quick. Remember that as you type your
commands are not shown. Furthermore, after each command, a carriage
return is not added to the terminal, so you will be typing “on top of” your
previous commands. Steps 2-7 describe the commands you actually need
to enter into the terminal to program your XBee.
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