Author Topic: ZigBee mesh with Axon Mote  (Read 2789 times)

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Offline ivernTopic starter

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ZigBee mesh with Axon Mote
« on: March 17, 2012, 02:40:04 PM »
Does anybody happen to have an example of setting up a ZigBee mesh with Axon Motes lying around?  It'd save me some digging.  I'm not talking about point to point communication (there's tons of examples for that), but a real mesh.

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Re: ZigBee mesh with Axon Mote
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2012, 05:10:20 AM »
There are a hundred different ways to implement a mesh network, and the best way depends on your requirements.

How many Motes will be in this network, and what is there physical distribution? Is the network fixed or changing? Is there a master unit?

I can help you write the code.

Offline ivernTopic starter

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Re: ZigBee mesh with Axon Mote
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2012, 08:08:55 AM »
Well...I don't have a firm spec, or any spec.  Just experimenting to see what's possible and get a stronger grip on what I can do with it, and I figured some samples would give me a general idea of where to start.  I definitely want to set up a PAN controller if possible, though.

I do have a question right now:  Can a Mote mesh with an XBee if they're both on the same frequency?  I know they both implement 802.15.4, but I don't (currently) know enough about that protocol to know if that's a strong enough constraint to allow them to connect.  If not, I might experiment with physically connecting an XBee with a Mote to build a bridge between the two networks.


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Re: ZigBee mesh with Axon Mote
« Reply #3 on: March 18, 2012, 08:22:16 AM »
While the Xbee and ATmega128rfa1 both claim to be Zigbee, I'm betting they won't be compatible - at least not out of the box without some software hack. The ATmega128rfa1 also has features that the Xbee doesn't support.

I don't own an Xbee at the moment, so haven't tried. Give it a quick try and let me know!

Offline ivernTopic starter

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Re: ZigBee mesh with Axon Mote
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2012, 08:36:33 AM »
Well, I've received the XBees I was waiting on and have them set up in a small PAN.  The next step is to set up the Motes to connect to the ZigBee mesh.  I found what seems to be the right SDK for this (Atmel's BitCloud for megaRF SDK), but now I need to figure out the little differences.  What I'll probably do is try to set up the Motes in a network of their own first using BitCloud, then bring the networks together.  It's going to be some time before I have any code worth showing, though--time is limited.

Offline ivernTopic starter

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Re: ZigBee mesh with Axon Mote
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2012, 08:57:36 AM »
I ran into another snag that I'll be sorting out over the weekend: the samples provided by Atmel are set up to work with either the STK600 or RCB.  Fixing the build files shouldn't be too bad, but I suspect there are going to be other differences.  Any chance I could get the current Mote wireless code? (doesn't seem to be in Webbotlib).  It should help me figure things out.

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Re: ZigBee mesh with Axon Mote
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2012, 09:41:28 AM »
I sent you an email with the Axon Mote code.

Keep me updated on your progress :)

 


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