Digi XBee has been extensively used in areas of industrial automation, building automation, and personal electronics projects for the purpose of wireless communication. The official website offers tons of detailed information, include various manuals and videos, about how to use it. Xbee looks simple and easy to use, however it is not that easy for a beginner to understand how to make it work. After all, it is made for the industrial automation and this is why it has lots information and all kind of variants.

This website widely collects all the essential information, then make XBee easy to configure and easy to use. This is a quick start guide for XBee, XBee Tutorial!

XBee can be used for wireless communication with low power consumption requirement. A 3.6V 600mA Lithium battery may last 6 - 12 months for powering up an Xbee while the wireless range can up to 1 mile. It talks with well known UART interface and makes it easy to use. In fact, electronics hobbyists use XBee modules in their personal arduino projects. The combination of Arduino and XBee is a popular option for hobbyists.

Nowaday, there are 3 main well known protocols on the market for wireless communication:

• WiFi - mainly be used for Local Area Network / internet access

• Bluetooth - mainly be used for handsfree headset, portable wireless speaker, car stero system, audio streaming devices

• Zigbee - mainly be used for industrial automation, building automation for the applications with low power consumption and low data transfer rate requirements

So, what is XBee and Zigbee? XBee, is the module using Zigbee protocol. Zigbee is a wireless communication protocol like wifi and bluetooth. ZigBee defines a network layer above the 802.15.4 to support advanced mesh routing capabilities. ZigBee is a low-cost, low-power, wireless mesh networking proprietary standard.

XBee Tutorial introduces the Digi XBee modules.

• For wireless part, XBee modules use ZigBee protocol to form the wireless network.

• For electronics part, XBee talks with well known UART interface and makes it easy to use.

• Diagrams and comparison tables make it easy to get the idea

• The application examples of Arduino + XBee

Except industrial applications, people also use XBee for their own electronics projects for wireless communication. Actually, arduino plus XBee is a very popular combination for personal electronics projects. Such as, Arduino + XBee to achieve remote control car/boat/helicopter, Arduino + XBee to achieve online monitor temperature, humidity, and air pressure in the rooms.

For the beginner of using XBee, people might confused with tons of related terminologies. This XBee Tutorial collects all the scattered informations, then simplify and present them with the easy and simple way. Such that the learning / self-study time can be greatly reduced. The saved time can be used to start working on the target projects.

This tutorial series will show you the tip and shortcut about how to make XBee Net Work !

The Content of XBee Tutorial

• XBee Tutorial - Overview

• T01 Zigbee Device Type

• T02 Zigbee Network Type

• T03 The comparison table of Zigbee DigiMesh and 802.15.4

• T04 The XBee modules

• T05 The XBee Pinout and Grove Development Board

• T06 XCTU and Zigbee Network Configuration

  • 1. Transparent Mode

    2. Command Mode

    3. API Mode

    4. XCTU - API Frames Generator & Interpreter

    5. The configuration of transparent mode

    6. The minimum configuration for a Zigbee Mesh Network

• T07 Arduino UNO and XBee Connection

Reference Link

• wiki - Zigbee

• wiki - IEEE 802.15.4

• wiki - Bluetooth