ZigBee

[anton]

Hi bjonos,

Done any more work on this Anton?

I'm sorry, but the modules are still in one of my drawers and I haven't started yet.

Anton

[ful babu]

i hav the new microchip mrf24j40, and am tryin to compile the zigbee stack in microc compiler for that, wish me luck

[kayh]

I payed R299.00 exc for one module like above. That is +- $50.00 USD

And that is a transciever module? This is a peer-to-peer network, or master/slave? Sounds like it's similar to bluetooth, but more suitable for microcontrollers. I can see lots of possibilities.

Look at XBEE ($20USD/ transceiver) from maxstream (just google it) modules quite reasonable and have everything you need (300ft and 1000ft range versions) except 3.3V power supply. Interface is easy serial port, exept you might need buffer to convert to xbee's 3.3V levels.

[joseLB]

...Interface is easy serial port, exept you might need buffer to convert to xbee's 3.3V levels.

Hi kayh
I don't know these chips, but for your explanation, I understood that could connect for example, 2 pics thru their serial port, that is, at one side a PIC and one of these chips and at the other side another PIC and another chip. And, just send from one PIC to other streams of data, just as if they where connected thru wire?

Or I will neeed a bunch of code to construct streams of data (specific protocols), for addressing, setup, etc., etc. (like SPI and other standards)?
Jose

[Dxprime]

Hi Anton,

Who was the supplier of the ZIgbee hardware?

M

[anton]

Hi Dxprime,

I bought my XBee Series 2 modules from Avnet in Johannesburg.
I can also get then for you. Please feel free to mail me (link below)

Anton

[LGR]

FWIW, Microchip has Zigbee chips now for ~$3 (IIRC), but they require some passive components, and the PCB requires 4 layers, but they also have them supplied in modules with all passives and antenna for ~$10 for development and small-scale manufacturing. If someone is going to develop libraries, this would seem to me to be the logical target.

[cpetersen]

Hi Guys,
also check Jennic, they have been working in the ZIgBee domain for quite some time and appear to have good solutions.

re range:
I was involved in Freescales ZigBee development some years back, I remember we did a lot of tests and competitive benchmarks between chipcon and freescale. Doing open field tests, the sky was the limit in turns of range; 500-600 meters at 0dBm transmit power and less than 5% retransmitted tokens for the freescale 2.4GHz solution.

Moving indoors, this changed drastically due to multipath reflections distorting the signal. in a modern steel and concrete building, we operated from 90 meters line of sight down to 40 meters in odd locations. Chipcon wasn't even half of that in a) that environment, b that revision of silicon, c) that pcb antenna layout.

lesson learned:
- the radio spec is less of an issue, it mostly depends on the antenna design and your environment.
- Be realistic about your range expectations.

All the best,
Christian