After brief introduction to XBee, come the real practical and interesting part. Running a XBee has two options; whether you make your own board for development or buy one from SparkFun.

Xbee Explorer Serial

Xbee Explorer USB

Why would you need one anyway ? Actually first of all Xbee requires and works upon 3.3 volts. These boards provide regulated supply of 3.3v and a level translator for serial communication. What I suggest is to make your own replica of Xbee Explorer Serial, in case you want to connect XBee with PC. Schematic for XBee Explorer Serial is below;

XBee Explorer Serial - Schematic

This schematic is a all what you want for programming, firmware update and  data communication within PC and Xbee.

But if you choose to interface XBee with a MCU such as PIC, AVR or 8051 which has TTL UART then I prefer you to use Logic Level Converter available from SparkFun. A very easy to use MOSFET based level converter, in a DIP Package.

Another issue you will be facing while prototyping is that XBee has 2mm header pins, while 2.5mm veroboards and breadboards are more common. I made a converter of my own, just to save time , as follows;

2mm to 2.5mm Conversion

2mm to 2.5mm Conversion

Homemade XBee Serial Explorer

My XBee Serial Explorer can be connected to any TTL-UART Microcontroller, with the help Logic Level Converter. And the serial connection gives access to DTR,CTS and RTS along with Rx and Tx which are required for firmware update and communication. All in all, this is a simple prototype board conjuction of SparkFun’s Xbee Serial Explorer and SparkFun’s Logic Level Converter.

Now you are done with the hardware, in next post we will come to the software part. And if you are a good self-learner give it a test and download X-CTU. It provides you a neat GUI for configuring and updating XBee. It also has a communication and range test which makes it must-have for XBeeERS !

Happy XBeeING =)