SparkFun Forums

[daklein]

I fell for the same thing! I got 900 MHz Pro modules (so as to not interfere with 2.4MHz RC) and was assuming direct DIO link would work. oh no, not so.... I'm sure it's possible, but they would have to understand that it's a feature people would want. I was also told to try the 2.4Mhz ones, crash your plane maybe, but the DIO link would work....

[daklein]

I have to hand to Digi though, they do seem interested in pleasing customers. I got two separate actual old fashioned phone calls today, first from the tech support guy who had been helping me, and second from possibly a marketing type of guy or other engineer. They seem sincerely interested in understanding what I was looking for, and talked about adding the direct IO feature into firmware of some of the other radios, at least for point-to-point firmware.

So I'll check back in the future, maybe it'll be available. For others here with xbees without it, you might go to their website and put in your 2 cents.

Or at least I won't bother making a video, they may have called in part because I seemed irked and asked if they had hired a Mr. Head from Microchip recently. http://www.techdirt.com/blog.php?tag=pi ... n=techdirt I think, apparently not. Mr. Head maybe went to work somewhere else.

[stevech]

I fell for the same thing! I got 900 MHz Pro modules (so as to not interfere with 2.4MHz RC) and was assuming direct DIO link would work. oh no, not so.... I'm sure it's possible, but they would have to understand that it's a feature people would want. I was also told to try the 2.4Mhz ones, crash your plane maybe, but the DIO link would work....

I didn't think R/C planes ever used 2.4GHz - range too short, too flakey. I thought all R/C was at 49MHz and below.

In any event, the time duration of an 802.15.4 packet is quite small, like a fraction of one milisecond. You'd have to blast continuously to be at issue. And 802.15.4 like 802.11 is CSMA/CA (listen before transmit), with clear channel assessment (CCA) to share the spectrum packet by packet.

[daklein]

2.4GHz r/c like these: http://www.spektrumrc.com/DSM/Technology/spekTech.aspx

They may work ok from what you explained, haven't tried it, but just didn't think putting a transmitter near a receiver would be a great idea. Maybe if there was some control of what channels the r/c operates on, it could be kept separate from how we set the xbee channels.

[sylvie369]

This white paper gives some information about the frequencies of the channels used by XBees:

http://www.digi.com/pdf/wp_zigbee.pdf