Raspberry PI and Zigbee

[rajn]

What do you think ?

[RichC]

You should be able to get started quickly with a Zigbee module from Farnell/Digikey. I was looking into them a few years ago and there seemed to be enough data and development kits.

Do you have a project in mind?

[rajn]

While there are many applications , My interest is in Home Automation

[The Cageybee]

Probably the easiest to use for the hobbyist is the Xbee.

Really easy to interface as it just uses an ordinary ttl serial conection and I believe can be run at(or does run at) 3.3v, so no level shifting needed.

So it would be very simple to setup, only 4 wires to the Xbee (Rx,Tx,Vcc,Gnd) and just send/receive data and commands out through the serial port which can be done with pretty much any scripting/programming language ever made.

Of course if you wanted to get really fly you could always hook it up over spi for increased speed, but given the fact that Xbees/Zigbee protocol is so low bandwidth it might not be worth the effort as you have to write a driver to shift data in/out.

[TonyD]

The Cageybee said:


..

Really easy to interface as it just uses an ordinary ttl serial conection and I believe can be run at(or does run at) 3.3v, so no level shifting needed.



Yes, the XBee is a 3.3V device.

[TonyD]

The Cageybee said:


..

Really easy to interface as it just uses an ordinary ttl serial conection and I believe can be run at(or does run at) 3.3v, so no level shifting needed.



Yes, the XBee is a 3.3V device.

[riderred]

What about a lower cost option?

[error404]

Less than the ~$20 for an assembled XBee module? Not likely. The parts themselves are pretty cheap and there are Linux drivers for some of them, but you would need to build the module yourself. That's pretty non-trivial when most of the parts come in tiny QFN packages. Maybe some enterprising Chinese have done it though

Also see: http://sourceforge.net/apps/tr.....igbee/wiki

[riderred]

Would I be better off using Bluetooth.  I want to distribute the same file to several Raspberry PI's in a citca 10m radius (further would be good).  I have seen Bluetooth USB devices from £3.50.  Would that be a better choice? 100KBits bandwidth would be fine.

[hayesey]

Look for XRF modules, they are about £10 on ebay and also present themselves as a simple tty serial device.  I have some connected to Arduinos.  What I also like about the XRF module is that it doesn"t share it"s radio space in the 2.54GHz band which is very congested with things like Wifi networks and tv-senders etc…  I already have enough problems in my house with Wifi and my tv-sender interfering with each other.

They claim a range of up to 300metres too, certainly way more than you"ll get from Bluetooth anyway.  I will be connecting one to a Pi whenever I manage to get one.

They are also pin and form factor compatible with xbee modules too.

Don't honestly know what throughput they achieve but I'm sure the information will be out there.  My main use is to send data to/from my Arduino heating thermostat back to my server which logs it so I'm only sending a few characters every ten seconds or so.

[error404]

riderred said:


Would I be better off using Bluetooth.  I want to distribute the same file to several Raspberry PI's in a citca 10m radius (further would be good).  I have seen Bluetooth USB devices from £3.50.  Would that be a better choice? 100KBits bandwidth would be fine.


WiFi? Bluetooth might work. Typical serial RF modules do not handle contention, but could work for you if you can tolerate that.

[alchoper]

Edit by Abishur: You posted this exact same information linking to a commercial product 4 times in rapid succession.  I'd like to think that since they were on topic in the threads you posted them to that you were just trying to be helpful, but 4 times in such rapid succession as your first 4 posts ever comes off as a little spammy.  If that was just an unfortunate accident, I hope you stick around and keep contributing, but I do ask that you refrain from posting links to commercial products until we get to know you a little better

[illusionist]

Guys,

I am relatively new to this area. If I were to create zigbee network using PI, which one would you recommend me ? The options which I can think of XBee, Jennic and TIs. They all have their own Pros and Cons. If I want change the device on the fly and etc, easy app development , which one is better ?

Thanks,
Illusionist

[jackwatt]

I too am in the same situation, I have to read the temperatures and more generally of the analog values ​​and have a refresh rate of about 20 ms, I recommended zig bee, xbee or xrf? the sensors xrf of ciseco are compatible with the communications chip xbee? I would like to check with a generator so I would also need 2 analog outputs! help please