XBee

An XBee radio with a U.S. quarter dollar coin. The XBee board is 24.38 mm (0.960 in) wide.[1]
Digi International, Inc.
Public (NASDAQ: DGII)
Industry Computer hardware
Founded 1985
Headquarters Minnetonka, Minnesota, U.S.
Number of employees
 600 (world-wide)
Website www.digi.com/xbee/

XBee is the brand name of a family of form factor compatible radio modules from Digi International. The first XBee radios were introduced under the MaxStream brand in 2005[2] and were based on the IEEE 802.15.4-2003 standard designed for point-to-point and star communications at over-the-air baud rates of 250 kbit/s.[3]

Two models were initially introduced — a lower cost 1 mW XBee and the higher power 100 mW XBee-PRO.[4] Since the initial introduction, a number of new XBee radios have been introduced and all XBees are now marketed and sold under the Digi brand.

The XBee radios can all be used with the minimum number of connections — power (3.3 V), ground, data in and data out (UART), with other recommended lines being Reset and Sleep.[5] Additionally, most XBee families have some other flow control, input/output (I/O), analog-to-digital converter (A/D) and indicator lines built in. A version called the programmable XBee has an additional on-board processor for user’s code. The programmable XBee and a new surface-mount version of the XBee radios were both introduced in 2010.[6]

Form-factors, antennas, and data modes

A pair of XBee radios (through-hole with the wire whip antenna type).

XBee modules are available in two form-factors — through-hole and surface mount (SMT). All XBees, with the exception of the XBee 868LP, are available in the popular 20-pin through-hole form-factor. Certain XBee modules are also available in a 37-pad surface-mount design, which is popular for higher volume applications due to the reduced manufacturing costs of SMT.

XBee modules typically come with several antenna options, including U.FL, PCB embedded, wire, and RPSMA.

The XBees can operate either in a transparent data mode or in a packet-based application programming interface (API) mode.[7] In the transparent mode, data coming into the Data IN (DIN) pin is directly transmitted over-the-air to the intended receiving radios without any modification. Incoming packets can either be directly addressed to one target (point-to-point) or broadcast to multiple targets (star). This mode is primarily used in instances where an existing protocol cannot tolerate changes to the data format. AT commands are used to control the radio’s settings. In API mode the data are wrapped in a packet structure that allows for addressing, parameter setting and packet delivery feedback,[8] including remote sensing and control of digital I/O and analog input pins.[9]

Product line

As of February 2013, the XBee radio family consists of[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ XBee®/XBee-PRO® ZB RF Modules Datasheet (PDF). Digi International Inc. 2010. p. 10.
  2. ↑ http://www.freescale.com/files/abstract/press_release/MAXSTREAM_ZIGBEE_PR.html
  3. ↑ http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=XB24-AWI-001-ND
  4. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_ScqGDY2eo
  5. ↑ http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl.jsp?id=2176
  6. ↑ http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/Programmable-ZigBee-Module-eases-application-development-573823
  7. ↑ http://www.tunnelsup.com/tup/2012/11/30/xbee-s2-quick-reference-guide-cheat-sheet/
  8. ↑ http://www.digi.com/learningcenter/video/player.jsp?videoid=zigbee-at-vs-api-commands
  9. ↑ Robert Faludi (24 December 2010). Building Wireless Sensor Networks: With ZigBee, XBee, Arduino, and Processing. O'Reilly Media, Inc. ISBN 978-0-596-80773-3. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  10. ↑ http://www.digi.com/xbee/

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sensor networks.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, February 12, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.