Xbee Maxstream Development Kits
The Xbee Radios are in active development currently and several new features are regularly being added to it. Various development kits are sold by Maxstream which include loading firmware upgrades, cables and interface boards.
The interface boards do not connect to the Xbee directly which is soldered to the breakout board and can be quite costly if you only want to upgrade the firmware.
Xbee Pro and Xbee are the two RF modules which are embedded solutions that provide wireless connectivity to various devices.
They make use of the 802.15.4 IEEE networking protocol for achieving fast peer to peer and point to point networking.
These are desgined in such a way that they can be used for applications where predictable and low latency communication timing is required.
Xbee Pro and Xbee
Xbee Pro and Xbee are Zigbee modules which are compatible with various other devices which use the 802.15.4 Xbee technology. These will include Xbee pro adapters, ConnectPort gateways and various other products which have been designed with the product name of 802.15.4. The devices which do not have this product name would not be compatible with the Xbee Pro and Xbee modules.
These modules can be used when configuration is needed for RF communications or for common footprint for a wide range of RF modules. It provides 250kbps fast RF data rate to end node and worldwide deployment of 2.4GHz. The devices support sleep modes to extend the battery life. The Xbee module provides a power output of 1mW in the North American version.
The range for indoor and urban is up to 30m and the data rate of RF is 250 kbps. The operating frequency is of 2.4 GHz.
Xbee Pro provides a power output of 63 mW for the North American version and an indoor and urban range of up to 90m. the outdoor line is up to one mile and the data rate is again, 250 kbps.
As far as networking is concerned, it uses DSSS type of spread spectrum and it uses peer to peer, point to point network topology. The modules use acknowledgements and retries for error handling and 64-bit address, channel and PAN ID for filtration options. Xbee has 16 channels while Xbee Pro has 12 channels.
Both, Xbee Pro and Xbee are quite small in size and weigh only 3g.
The antenna options available include wired whip, chip antenna and reverse polarity SMA. Xbee Pro and Xbee by Maxstream are development kits which include everything that you will need to create wireless long range data links in a short amount of time.
These kits are based on the Xbee modules series 2 by Maxstream. These modules feature self healing and self discovery mesh networking. It also supports low power utilization, sleep modes, end devices, routers and support for the coordinators.
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