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Home Product Categories ZigBee & 802.15.4 WRL-09819
XBee Explorer Dongle
sku: WRL-09819
Description: This is the Xbee Explorer Dongle unit for the XBee line. With the Xbee Explorer dongle you can now plug the unit directly into your USB port. No cables needed! This unit works with all XBee modules including the Series 1 and Series 2.5, standard and Pro version.
You get the red board only. XBee modules sold below.
Documents:
Pricing
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Comments 36 comments
I was under the impression the XBee Explorer’s regulator only provides 150mA. It looks like this dongle uses the same regulator. My understanding is some of the Pro modules require 500mA. Has anyone been successful with these—maybe it uses 500mA in such short bursts that there is no problem?
We’re currently sourcing a better regulator.
The description is certainly misleading, since I bought this planning to use it with the XBee Pro 50mW and it’s not practical. It simply can’t supply current when transmitting and if I try to send more than a few bytes at a time the module resets.
1) What regulator part it has?
2)I have already bought a dongle.
How can I tell which regulator it has?
In http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8687 say that
“Note: As of August 2010, all new boards now include a MIC5219 voltage regulator which is good for 500mA."
AND HOW ABOUT THIS PRODUCT?
i saw a few holes under this card i wonder what would it be if i would set up an external power regulator unit and connect Vout pin of regulator unit to this dongles 3.3V hole?
I’ve purchased several variants of the xbee explorer and just learned they will not work with all the PRO modules I’ve purchased. I know you are all about fun, but I’d appreciate a bit of QA on your offerings.
Let me know when you have a version that supports the 500mA that the pro xbee variants use.
remember spark-qa.com isn’t registered yet…
Does this version use the MIC5205? Back last year I suggested using the MIC5219 (which is the same format but 500mA) for the FunnelIO.
Versions of the new FIO and all the XBee kit would be great with a regulator like that which supports the Pro power draw.
Great little dongle works great, the only things I think could make this better is if there was a reset button on it, and if the indicators would be on both sides of the board or if they could be seenfrom both sides of the board.
can you please tell me how it works without a reset button.when i try to write my configuration the xbee it says press and release the reset button t ocomplete…..don’t know what to do…..
thanks in advance
You can also power-cycle the XBee to reset it, by gently lifting it out of the socket and replacing it.
Does this enable DTR and RTS flow control? I am having trouble reflashing an XBee and I get the feeling that DTR and RTS are required.
I am waiting for one of these to arrive with an arduino and a pair of 2.5 series chip xbees.
I am trying to understand how it will appear in my PC. Does it show up as a com port that I treat as a serial I/O?
Or is it a modem? I want to use Pure Data to play with it and am just trying to wrap my modest brain around it.
The transition to software development has been slow for me.
Hello. Reading the coments and discussion related, finally, the dongle can be used with pro versions of XBee???
Another beginner question: put the dongle on the computer and just use x-CTU software to configure xBee??
If so, all right!!
See you all.
can anyone tell me to establish a p2p connection between “xbee 1mW chip antenna” modules how many explorers i have to buy? If I buy only one explorer and configure one xbee and then the other and then place those in my circuit will it work? waiting for reply plz help…… thanks in advance
Does this work with the 60mW XBee PRO Series 1 module? The comments say it got some problems with the PROs…
A possible replacement for the regulator is MIC5319 from micrel. I haven’t tried it yet but it claims a 500ma with a 200mv dropout. Same pinout and configuration as the one that is used on the board.
For people asking how to reset a bricked XBee, follow the instructions here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Changing-Xbee-Baud-Rates/step5/Un-bricking-a-frozen-Xbee/
Since the XBee Explorer doesn’t have a reset button, take a piece of wire and short the RST pin on the back of the board to GND. You must do this while the X-CTU program displays the message window indicating it cannot connect to the XBee.
I tried to short reset to gnd with a wire but that didn’t work for me. If you read through the link, it suggests soldering on a couple of wires and running them to breadboard to create a reset button. I did this and was unable to unbrick all three of my Xbees.
Try writing the configuration to the firmware using baud 9600 and using one of the preset firmware from the list, do not attempt to read the firmware before. For e.g. if you have a XBEE Pro series 2 use the XBP24 firmware option. I thought I had a few messed up XBEE’s it seems some XBEE’s dont come with a firmware preset. Only sure thing preset is the Baud at 9600
Try it and see
Will someone at Sparkfun come out and just answer the questions about these boards and the Pro models? I have 2 900 MHz modules, are these going to work or not. The regulated boards sure didn’t.
soldering a jumper between the dio and din pins coupled with an old-school motherboard jumper is a great way to use this device to detect range capabilities in an xbee network.
maybe this will help people like me when they are starting to experiment with these cool devices :)
Has anyone purchased one of these lately? Has the regulator been replaced with the 500mW regulator (MIC5219) that is now being used on the XBee Explorer USB (SKU WRL-08687)? And if so, can we get the product listing updated like the other one? I would think they both would have been updated at the same time, but it would be good to get confirmation.
I recently bought a pair of Pros with the dongle and everything is working fine.
Yes, the XBee Explorer Dongle has the Voltage Regulator MIC5219.
Does anyone know if C# or C++ will work with this?
The driver creates a standard COM port, so yes, it will work with any language that can access COM ports.
From my experience, C# has the best port libraries (System.IO.Ports.SerialPort).
Ohh! (facepalm) So you don’t program it, you can just talk to other Xbees with it! I am trying to get started with Xbees. Which would you recommend: getting one of these, or getting another Arduino?
I would advise you to come up with a project idea you really like and then buy the parts specific to that project. You’ll learn a lot more that way, and avoid spending money on parts you may end up only using once.
If that isn’t an option, I would recommend you go with the XBee option.
Well, what I meant was this: I could either get another Arduino, hook up an Xbee to that to communicate with my other Xbee, or I could use this adapter. In other words, why buy this when you can get an Arduino that does the same thing (with a little bit of extra code), and a lot more?
I m going to buy XBee Explorer, can any one tell me that either it act as virtual comport in window or communicate as specific device?
@Member243046: When you plug it in, it shows up in Device Manager under Ports (COM & LPT) category as USB Serial Port (COM19) (well, it’s COM19 on my system). You must first install the FTDI driver set. Because of the way the FTDI drivers are designed, in Device Manager under Universal Serial Bus controllers category, the entry USB Serial Converter also appears. You use a virtual serial COM port to communicate with this device.
One constant frustration I have with Sparkfun’s schematics for their breakout boards ia that they consistently omit part numbers for certain parts, such as power regulators. This makes it impossible to tell if the current available is sufficient. This board’s schematic is a case in point, but there are dozens of other schematics lacking this critical information.
We’re trying to be better about this, but you can ALWAYS ask. The voltage regulator is a MIC5219-3.3M5, datasheet here.