Crosstalk between XBee radios

[ai4presidente]

Hi,
I am currently working on an application that requires me to run two XBee radio transmitter/receiver pairs in parallel. One set is two send data from a camera back to my computer while the second set is two communicate with the plugapod (Radio acts as a serial port). Unfortunately, when I turn on the Camera application my NMITerm window becomes saturated with weird symbols (I suspect this is the data being sent back from the Camera). This means that when the Camera is running I cannot communicate with the PlugaPod. What is the best way to resolve this problem?

Thanks for your help.

[RMDumse]

In the transparent mode (default) for XBees, they will listen to anyone talking on their channel. To keep the simple transparent mode of operation, without having to go to something more complicated involving pairing of the radios, consider putting the two channels on separate channels. The X-CTU software from Maxstream allows a device to be read, then you can choose a different channel, and rewrite the firmwire. You'll have to do both XBee units to be moved to a new channel. Then they seem to work fine side by side.

[Dave]

I believe that this can be done by using the Maxstream X-CTU software to configure one pair of the XBee modules to a different channel. In the Maxstream XBee manual (http://www.maxstream.net/products/xbee/manual_xb_oem-rf-modules_802.15.4.pdf) in section 2.3 there is some information regarding this. I believe that only changing the channel parameter is needed. Parameters are updated in the Modem Configuration tab of the X-CTU software. CH channel default appears to be 0x0C and can go to 0x17 (hexidecimal) for XBee Pro modules.

[ai4presidente]

Thanks for your prompt reply. I think I am close to fixing the problem, but when I change the channel in MaxStream of the USB Serial Port (the XBee that is connected to the PlugaPod) I find that I can no longer communicate with the plugapod. For example, I changed the channel from C to D, and updated the modem using the X-CTU. However as soon as I did this, I lost the ability to communicate with the PlugaPod. I think I am doing something wrong but I cannot figure out what it is.

When I changed the channel back to C, I was able to communicate with the PlugaPod.

[RMDumse]

Sounds like your half way there. Take the XBee off the PlugaPod(TM) and swap it with the XBee on the serial port. Use the X-CTU software to reprogram that XBee to channel D as well, and your comms should be back.