This purpose of the blog is to document my work on managing energy usage around the home. At the same time I'm also learning how to harness the potential of the incredible range of low cost devices which enable computers to interact with the real world. But there is a massive amount of information to sift through and decisions to make so these posts document the course taken and where possible share my findings. So, back to the work in hand.
Having obtained the XBees and extras to connect them to a PC and power supply etc, it's necessary to prepare them. This is especially necessary because they are capable of working in a variety of ways and is the reason why they may appear more expensive that similar devices.
For example, they have the capability to form a complex wireless mesh network and this requires the nodes within the mesh to adopt specific roles. Hence they need some initial configuration to set up the role they will be performing and this applies even in a simple point to point application. The roles are co-ordinator, router or end node.
The method of doing this is explained in detail in Building Wireless Sensor Networks by Robert Faludi and I would expect on the Digi web site.(although probably not as succinctly!). It's not a complex process but too detailed to cover here. It requires some support software from Digi, who manufacturer the XBees. This software can be found here. This software downloads the firmware to the Xbee as required by the role it is to perform.
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