SparkFun Forums

[menedem]

Hello,

Sparkfun has been a great resource for me for several projects. Now, I am looking to tap into Zigbee. Do you folks have any plans to carry components that support 802.15.4, or any sort of Zigbee development tools?

Thanks,

Dmitry.

[daemondust]

I am very interested in Zigbee/IEEE802.15.4 radios as well.

Incidently, I noticed that TI recently acquired Chipcon, so I'm expecting to see some nice combinations of a 802.15.4 MAC and a MSP430 in the next few months.

[jayjay]

Former Motorola www.freescale.com has some demo Zigbee platform.

HTH
Jay

[menedem]

I am very interested in Zigbee/IEEE802.15.4 radios as well.

Incidently, I noticed that TI recently acquired Chipcon, so I'm expecting to see some nice combinations of a 802.15.4 MAC and a MSP430 in the next few months.

There is already an IEEE802.15.4 platform that combines Chipcon and MSP430, moteiv, www.moteiv.com.

It is a pretty interesting platform, built around Berkley's TinyOS. Unfortunately, due to some legalities, they do not offer Zigbee portion, data and network layers that is.

DMitry.

[menedem]

Former Motorola www.freescale.com has some demo Zigbee platform.

HTH
Jay

Jay,

Thank you, I will check them out.

Dmitry.

[daemondust]

There is already an IEEE802.15.4 platform that combines Chipcon and MSP430, moteiv, www.moteiv.com.

It is a pretty interesting platform, built around Berkley's TinyOS. Unfortunately, due to some legalities, they do not offer Zigbee portion, data and network layers that is.

DMitry.

I've used their Tmote Sky, and I wasn't very pleased with it. I'm sure the hardware's great, but I didn't have time to wrap my head around nesC, and I hated their build environment. I was fighting with Cygwin as much as anything else.

What I'm hoping to see a MSP430 and a 802.15.4 radio on the same silicon.

[jayjay]

Dimitry

You may also want to checkout the modules offered by Helicomm http://www.helicomm.com

They are Zigbee capable modules built around Silicon Labs (former Cygnal)'s 8051s. Costs around USD50 from Mouser.

HTH
Jay

[Unterhausen]

I've used their Tmote Sky, and I wasn't very pleased with it. I'm sure the hardware's great, but I didn't have time to wrap my head around nesC, and I hated their build environment. I was fighting with Cygwin as much as anything else.

The whole tinyos scene is a little scary. We built an application at work, and it was a fight the entire way. No one release had all the different pieces of code that we needed to have our system work. Since tinyos is built by researchers, there is some chance that the developers will just walk away from it and leave us stranded.

[matthev]

[quote="menedem"]Hello,

Sparkfun has been a great resource for me for several projects. Now, I am looking to tap into Zigbee. Do you folks have any plans to carry components that support 802.15.4, or any sort of Zigbee development tools?

Thanks,

Dmitry.[/quote]

Maxstream has a packaged OEM solution that supports 802.15.4. They say they are zigbee compatible too, but I'm not so sure that they are yet.
http://www.maxstream.net/products/xbee/ ... zigbee.php

According to a freescale press release, the Xbee uses Freescale chips:
http://www.freescale.com/files/abstract ... EE_PR.html

And there are high and low-powered versions (1mW max vs. 100mw max). AND they offer a nicely packaged unit with cables, power supply, null modem adapters, etc for not too much. I thought it was a nice deal.

-Matt

[SOI_Sentinel]

Unfortunately, I don't know where TI's going with Chipcon right now. They have previewed an integrated part (2430/1) that has the 802.15.4 RF end memory mapped into an enhanced 8051 core now. This is probably just completing an already in progress part, and after that's in production they'll move on to integrating the MSP430 core.

[teekay_tk]

I have used the micochip zigbee develpmen kit. you can find out more about it on microchip.com/zigbee
they use chipcon chip and pic18f4620. almost fully zigbee comaptible code is provided for the C30 compiler (free). i have tested a few routines and it seems to be workin fine. also www.rfsolutions.co.uk have some compatible modules with PIC and Zigbee on a small PCB and a microstrip antenna.

[Philba]

I've used their Tmote Sky, and I wasn't very pleased with it. I'm sure the hardware's great, but I didn't have time to wrap my head around nesC, and I hated their build environment. I was fighting with Cygwin as much as anything else.

The whole tinyos scene is a little scary. We built an application at work, and it was a fight the entire way. No one release had all the different pieces of code that we needed to have our system work. Since tinyos is built by researchers, there is some chance that the developers will just walk away from it and leave us stranded.

there are a number of companies as well a broad group of researchers building on tinyOS and its open source so it is likely to not to just die off. I like the cost implications of tnyOS vs zigbee.

By the way, I was at the embedded systems conf in San Jose yesterday and the zigbee sessions were completely jammed.

[wiml]

Since tinyos is built by researchers, there is some chance that the developers will just walk away from it and leave us stranded.

Well, it's not like that doesn't happen with commercial suppliers either. It's happened to me. And when it's closed-source, you don't even have the option of picking up where they left off...