XBee Explorer Dongle price, review and buy in Pakistan. Original Sparkfun product, competitive price. for further Information Contact Us.
XBee Buying Guide
Welcome to the wireless world of XBee. Maybe you’ve heard of it,
maybe you haven’t, either way you are in for a fun ride. XBees are tiny
blue chips that can communicate wirelessly with each other. They can do
simple thing like replacing a couple of wires in serial communication,
which is nice when you want to make a remote for your paintball vehicle.But which of the dozen or so modules do you want? What’s the difference between Series 1 and Series 2? Why are there so many antenna? Why are some of them Pro, and does this make the regular models feel inadequate? And most importantly why does Sparkfun have so many boards for XBee and which ones do I need?
There are lots of different types of modules which we are going to go over, but one of the nice things about these is that all the modules regardless of the series or type have similar pinouts. Power, ground, and your TX/RX lines are in the same place making the chips pretty interchangeable for most of the simpler applications. Some of the more advanced features are not always compatible, but for starters its not something to worry about. Now that you are ready to start learning about XBee and what it all means here is a breakdown of the XBee world.
What's an XBee, what's a Zigbee, what's a Bumblebee?
- XBee – According to Digi “XBee modules are embedded solutions providing wireless end-point connectivity to devices. These modules use the IEEE 802.15.4 networking protocol for fast point-to-multipoint or peer-to-peer networking. They are designed for high-throughput applications requiring low latency and predictable communication timing.“ So basically XBee is Digi’s own Zigbee based protocol. In layman’s term they are wicked cool, and fairly easy to use wireless modules.
- Zigbee - An alliance and a standard of cost and energy efficient mesh networks. XBee uses the Zigbee standard and adds to it and wraps it up in their own neat little package. http://www.zigbee.org/.
- Bumblebee - A tuna company, an insect of the family Apidae and the genus Bombus, or a small yellow Autobot. Which ever definition you choose they are fairly awesome and completely irrelevant to our talk of wireless XBee modules.
Series What?
- XBee Series 1 (also called XBee 802.15.4) - These are the easiest to work with, they don’t need to be configured, although they can benefit from it. Because they are easy to work with we recommend these especially if you are just starting out. For point to point communication these modules work as well as the Series 2 but without all the work. A Series 1 module won’t say Series 1 on it, but it also won’t say Series 2. If it doesn’t say then your module is a Series 1. Series 1 and Series 2/2.5/ZB hardware are NOT compatible. Don’t try to mix and match, don’t even think about it, it won’t work, not even close. Nope, stop thinking about it…! Datasheet
- XBee Znet 2.5 (Formerly Series 2) Retired - These are the fun ones. Series 2 modules must be configured before they can be used. They can run in a transparent mode or work with API commands, but this all depends on what firmware you configure these with. These also can run in a mesh network making them highly configurable and awesome modules. It also makes them harder to use modules. These modules are in no way compatible with the Series 1 modules so stop thinking about trying! These modules are no longer sold but are being replaced with the mostly compatible ZB modules. Datasheet
ZB (the current Series2ish module) - Basically
the Znet2.5 hardware with new firmware. Meaning they can also run in a
transparent mode or work with API commands. They can also run in a mesh
network making them highly configurable and awesome modules. You can
grab the new firmware and upgrade them yourself. The firmware between
the two is not compatible (but is easily interchangeable) so you will
have to pick which firmware you want to use on your network and stick
with it. These are often call Series 2 modules, so if you hear someone
talking about Series 2, they might be talking about these. It may not be
the correct term, but it does distinguish these from the Series 1
modules which is usually all people want to know. These modules will not
work in any way shape or form with the Series 1 so stop thinking about
it. Stop it! Datasheet- 2B(the even more current Series2ish module) - These new modules improve on the hardware of the Series 2 modules improving things like power usage. They run the ZB firmware but because the hardware has been changed they can no longer run the Znet2.5 firmware. So if you are looking to add this to an existing 2.5Znet network beware. Currently some of our boards are 2B and others are ZB
- 900MHz - Technically not a series but it is a family just like the others. The 900s can run 2 different types of firmware, the DigiMesh firmware and the Point to Multipoint firmware. Digi actually sells both modules, the hardware is the same just with different firmware. Sparkfun only sells the point to multipoint version, but hey, you can change the firmware yourself. These modules should be more or less plug and play but of course can benefit from all the cool features you can configure.
- XSC - Basically these are 900 modules that sacrifice data rate for range. The regular 900 modules have a data rate of 156KBps (the others are all around 250Kbps) but the XSC module is only about 10Kbps. On the other hand if you attach a high gain antenna you can get a range of about 15 miles and 6 miles with a regular antenna. These modules do not require configuration out of the box and have some other differences including a different command set so make sure you check out the datasheet.
- XSC S3B - This is an upgraded version of the XSC
modules which is less power-hungry than the previous generation despite
having a higher selectable transmitting power of 250mW. This higher Tx
power allows for line-of-sight range up to 28 miles with the right
antenna. The S3B modules also feature higher-throughput than the
previous generati
on XSC modules.
Antenna, Antennas, Antennae...
- Chip Antenna – Basically a small chip that acts as an antenna. Quick, easy, cheap, not in the way. These are being phased out in favor of trace antennas, which are essentially the same but printed directly to the circuit board.
- Wire Antenna – Well its a small wire sticking up, a little more of what you think of when you think of antenna.
- u.FL Antenna – A tiny connector to connect your own antenna, this is great if your object is in a box and you want your antenna outside the box.
- RPSMA Antenna – A bigger connector to connect your own antenna, once again great if your object is in a box and you want your antenna outside the box.
- Trace Antenna – Also called a PCB antenna, these are formed directly on the module with conductive traces. They perform about the same as wire antennas.
Regular, Pro and other things
- Regular vs Pro - There are a few difference between the regular XBees and the XBee Pros. The Pros are a bit longer, use more power and cost more money. That’s pretty much it. The greater power means longer range (1 mile instead of 300ft) so if you need the range or like to spend more money, then use the Pros, otherwise stick with the regular models. You can mix and match these on the same network.
- 900 vs 2.4 - Most of the Xbee modules operate at
2.4GHz, but there are a few that operate at 900MHz. Basically 900MHz
can go a lot farther with a high gain antenna (up to 15miles for the Pro
modules and a high gain antenna). Also the lower the frequency the
greater penetration the signal has. 900MHz is also not allowed in many
countries (although there are 868MHz versions available from Digi that
are allowed in many other countries). You can NOT mix and match these on
the same network.
XBee 1mW Wire Antenna Sparkfun In Pakistan
Description: This is the very popular 2.4GHz XBee module from Digi. These modules take the 802.15.4 stack (the basis for Zigbee) and wrap it into a simple to use serial command set. These modules allow very reliable and simple communication between microcontrollers, computers, systems, really anything with a serial port! Point to point and multi-point networks are supported.
Not sure which XBee module or accessory is right for you? Check out our XBee Buying Guide!
Note: If you are using these outside of the United States, please check with your local laws regarding radio communication.
Features:
- 3.3V @ 50mA
- 250kbps Max data rate
- 1mW output (+0dBm)
- 300ft (100m) range
- Fully FCC certified
- 6 10-bit ADC input pins
- 8 digital IO pins
- 128-bit encryption
- Local or over-air configuration
- AT or API command set
- Trace Antenna
