Stalker v2 - powering XBee S2 via pin D5

Products & Technology Arduino & Seeeduino
#1

Hi girls and boys,

I have just tried to power XBee Series2 via jumper / solder place at bottom of PCB as described on wiki (POWER_BEE). Unfortunately it doesn’t work for me as I’m getting endless reseting of the chip. I went to the documents and for Atmega328 the single pin may handle up to 40mA. XBee S2 maximum current should be also 40mA …

Does anybody tried to power (successfully) XBee via pin D5 ??? If so, how, please ?? :wink:

#2

The Digital Pin 5 is control the XBee power regulator Enable pin.
The default setting is aways enable XBee power.
If you need control the XBee power by Digital Pin 5, you need cut the thin wire between VCC and EN.
And solder a bridge between EN and CTL_D5 side.
Note the Digital pin 5 control the XBee power regulator Enable pin, the regulator can supply 150mA. it is not powered from the IO, we are sorry for the mistake and we will correct document.

Digital Pin 5 high is enable the XBee power.
And you should consider XBee power up time.

Thanks
Albert

#3

Hi Albert,

thanks a lot for your information. Please note that in my attempt to power on/off XBee via D5 I cut the PCB connection between Vcc and EN and I made the solder blob between EN and CTL_D5. This is the hardware part.

In the code I set pin D5 for OUTPUT and than I tried to switch XBee on/off by digitalWrite(5, HIGH) (or LOW). Unfortunately the program was not able to run. LED D8 lit on for a while and went off shortly and so on again and again …

I also measured the voltage on XBee +3,3V pin no.1 getting arrising voltage up to approx. 2,9V and then dropping down to 0V and again … When I removed XBee from the socket program started and was “looping” as expected. Stalker worked and now, after turning-over the solder bridge back between Vcc-EN, works with attached XBee without any problem.

I have just got from you another Stalker v2 so I will try to do more tests and I’ll let you know.

Cheers
Vladimir

#4

It seems, the thin wire between VCC and EN is not really cut.
Please check it.

thanks
Albert

#5

I actually got the same/similar problem too.
I verified visually and with multi-meter that there is no connection between EN and Vcc anymore.
As soon as I turn D5 high, the Stalker restarts…
Commenting out the line for setting up the output to HIGH, program runs nice (but the XBee does not transmit anymore).

#6

Hi Zakiem and all others,

so I can also confirm Zakiem’s observation as I went back to my Stalker, I removed again the solder blob between EN and CTL_D5, checked whether bridge between VCC and EN is cut (by multimeter) and … pulling D5 HIGH by program I get continous reseting.

In fact the Stalker concept is very good for remote sensor applications but at least three issues disqualifying it for this job:

  1. stucking RX8025
  2. mulfunctioning XBee powering via D5
  3. impossible to check whether the accu is connected to board or not by non-existing charge_status = 0x08

Seeedstudio guys - is not the time to test real Stalker v2.0 for above issues and provide the users with some significant instruction / help how to aviod these problems ?? Until now I have a feeling your answers are based on theoretical wiring concept “how it SHOULD work” which doesn’t comply to a many user experiences describing “how it REALLY works” …

Nevermind beside the critic words I would like to thank to Seedstudio’s stuff that they try to keep the contact with the users on this forum.

Cheers
Vladimir

#7

I’m having the same problem and observations with powering the XBee on a Stalker v2.1. I verify that the proper hardware changes are being made, but the Xbee does not come back from setting D5 high, no matter how much time I wait. It does work if I never set D5 low (power down the Xbee to begin with).

Is there some demonstration code that shows this working?

#8

I’m afraid, that nothing happend within last year even with new Stalker version. In my opinion, powering XBee via D5 is the designer’ wish only …

For my project (remote Stalker with temperature sensor and XBee powered by Lipol accu recharged by solar panels) I took finally the ideas from book “Arduino Projects to Save The World” by Emery Premeaux with Brian Evans making some small wiring on Stalker PCB in order to put XBee asleep. Beside this I send also the uP into sleep mode in order to reduce the power consumption. Both uP and XBee are waken up by on-board RTC (as far as I have Stalker v2.0 with RX8025 RTC chip I had to also modify some pull-up resistors on v2.0 board). And … it works :smiley: .

If you you’ll put XBee on your Stalker into sleep, don’t forget to modify the “sleep settings” on your router/co-ordinator XBee(-s) :wink: … It can be also the nightmare, nevermind the reduction of power consumption from accu is significant and it is worth of your efforts … :slight_smile:

Have a nice day
Vladimir

#9

Thanks for the information and reference. I’m impressed that you got the v20 RTC to work! That’s the main reason I switched to v21 (the vendor even refunded the v20).

I’m using my Stalker/Xbee for the same reason. One other tip I read was to configure the Xbee as a end node (not router/end node) because as a router it always has to be on to route potential messages it receives. In as an end node, it only has to wake up with firmware when it has to send a message.

Cheers!