Sparkfun Electronics Explorer Dongle Manual Download Page 13

Recovery

If your XBee seems bricked, don’t worry! You can most likely recover it. To 
get to the recovery screen, click the 

Tools

icon, and select 

XBee 

Recovery

.

Once again, you’ll need to select your COM port, and you’ll also need to 
select the product family. This can be found on the bottom sticker of your 
XBee. If you’re using a series 1 module, the family should be 

XB24

Beyond that you’ll need to select a “Function Set” and “Firmware Version”. 
For both of those you should be safe selecting the top-most values in the 
list.

Once you’ve made all of those selections, 

click Recover

.

The recovery process may take a few minutes. You’ll be prompted to 

reset 

your XBee

. If your Explorer has a reset button, simply press it when 

prompted, otherwise see the “Reset” section below.

During recovery, if XCTU can find your XBee it will. It’ll also 

update the 

firmware

, and set you back to the 

default settings

. If you know what got 

your XBee bricked in the first place…maybe don’t do that again.

XBee’s Not Communicating, Reset to Defaults

If no matter what changes you make to the config settings your XBee’s just 
won’t communicate with each other, try resetting them both to the default 
values.

In the config tab, click the “Load default firmware settings” icon – 

(not sure how to describe that icon). Then 

click Yes

to confirm that you 

want to reset everything.

If you’re presented with any red-backgrounded error notifications (like 
below), first try to 

refresh the value

, by clicking the green icon –

.

Page 13 of 16

Summary of Contents for Explorer Dongle

Page 1: ...networks with dozens of XBees or just a pair swapping data You can use them to remotely control your robot or arrange them all over your house to monitor temperatures or lighting conditions in every r...

Page 2: ...omputer with X CTU installed The latest version of X CTU is available for both Mac and Windows Suggested Reading This tutorial builds on some lower level electronics concepts If you re not familiar wi...

Page 3: ...rd compatible headers So if you want to make use of the XBee s extended functionality you can solder some header pins into those or even just solder some wire XBee Explorer USB Dongle The XBee Explore...

Page 4: ...ed to your computer it probably won t be your last there is some driver installation to get out of the way We ve written a tutorial detailing How to Install FTDI Drivers tutorial So go ahead and plug...

Page 5: ...e headers don t fit your purpose you can alternatively solder in female headers to plug jumper wires into or even just bare wire Just make sure you don t solder anything into the top side of the board...

Page 6: ...window also allows you to specify more specific serial characteristics like baud rate data bits and stop bits Assuming this is the first time you ve used your XBee you can leave those settings alone S...

Page 7: ...et up You can certainly perform this test with both XBees connected to the same computer as well just make sure you select the correct port number when you re adding the second XBee If you add a secon...

Page 8: ...ted to If you have two XBees connected to your computer you can switch between each radio s console by selecting the device on the left First open a serial connection on each device by clicking the co...

Page 9: ...Bee communicates over Most XBee s operate on the 2 4GHz 802 15 4 band and the channel further calibrates the operating frequency within that band You can usually leave the channel setting alone or at...

Page 10: ...lue like 894B Type your 16 bit network ID into the white text box next to PAN ID MY Address MY Your next job is to create addresses for each XBee in your network These values should be unique to each...

Page 11: ...rom one XBee to the other via the console As long as the addresses and PAN ID s match up you should have the same success as last time While it may seem like a lot of work to get right back to where y...

Page 12: ...e is hiding it s because the baud rate has been altered A quick fix for this is to select all possible baud rates in the discovery window then click Finish The discovery process works a lot like the a...

Page 13: ...reset your XBee If your Explorer has a reset button simply press it when prompted otherwise see the Reset section below During recovery if XCTU can find your XBee it will It ll also update the firmwa...

Page 14: ...er settings should all be compatible Try communicating over the console again Resetting Old Pre Reset Button Explorers When it s having trouble communicating with an XBee XCTU may present you with a n...

Page 15: ...vantage of the XBee s unique abilities check out this guide XBee Wireless Class Materials Check out our teaching materials for the XBee class we lead every once in a while Going Further With XBee and...

Page 16: ...ot is our popular Arduino based robot platform Once you get it rolling you can take it a step further by controlling it with an XBee Page 16 of 16 6 24 2015 https learn sparkfun com tutorials explorin...

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