XBee radio hardware

Here is an overview of all the XBee product families that Digi currently produces and that use the common XBee through-hole pinout (a few other families use a surface-mount design, but these are not discussed here):

Sometimes you will also see the terms Series 1, which is the name originally used for the XBee 802.15.4 family, and Series 2, which is a retired family that used the same hardware as XBee ZB but with a different firmware (ZNet 2.5) and radio protocol. This old naming is still reflected in the names used for individual hardware boards, which use names such as S1, S2, S2B, and so on.

As noted earlier, some modules are available in normal and PRO variants. These PRO modules use the same radio and serial protocol as the regular modules, but feature a more powerful transmitter and more sensitive receiver, allowing for a significantly extended range (and also requiring more power, of course). Since the radio protocol is the same, the normal and PRO modules of the same family can be intermixed.

Most of the XBee modules are available in a few different versions, differing only in the antennae they use. The easiest are the PCB antenna, which uses copper on the circuit board as the antenna, and the wire antenna, where a short piece of wire sticks up from the board. Both have similar performance. There are also modules available with a u.FL or RPSMA antenna connector, allowing them to have an external antenna (useful for projects inside a box, needing maximum reception). When in doubt, get the PCB antenna version, as it is the least fragile and performs well.

For a few more details about the available boards, also see this guide from SparkFun: https://www.sparkfun.com/pages/xbee_guide.

In this book, all examples (and most of the discussion) focus on the XBee ZB modules, but most of the material presented also applies to the other modules. Where significant differences occur, these will be noted and (concise) instructions for other module types will be given. Therefore, if you decide to use the XBee 802.15.4, XBee DigiMesh 2.4, or XBee-PRO 868 modules (or any of the PRO variants), you can still work through this book normally. The XBee-PRO 900HP modules are not discussed in this book, but these are expected to work in a very similar way to the DigiMesh modules.

Instructions for the Wi-Fi modules are not included, since the setup and operation of Wi-Fi are significantly different from the other modules. However, a lot of the more general information (API frame format, XCTU operation, and AT commands) applies equally to these modules.

For each of the XBee module series, Digi publishes a lot of documentation. This documentation can be accessed from the Digi website, through the Support section. The most important document is the Product Manual, which contains info on the hardware, network setup, a full list of commands and API frames supported, and so on.

Even though all the information you need for these examples is included in this book, you are encouraged to get familiar with the product manual for your XBee modules as well. The manual will be a lot more detailed in some areas and is easy to use as reference material for commands, configuration values, frame types, and so on.

Note that, within the ZigBee ZB family, there is a division between older boards (using S2 or S2B hardware) and newer boards (using S2C hardware). These boards are largely compatible, but there are two separate product manuals available with largely identical content (which are both titled Product Manual: XBee / XBee-PRO ZigBee RF Modules). Be sure to get the right one for your boards.