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Communicate with a ZigBee USB dongle?

Gary Wayne
Intellectual 270 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: Z-STACK, CC2430, CC2531, CC2530, CC253, CC2531EMK, REMOTI

I am currently developing a sensor application based on a cc2430 and Z-stack 1.4.2.1.2.1 in IAR.  It must communicate via ZigBee with a supposedly "ZigBee Certified," USB dongle (Sena ZU-10 ProBee) connected to a PC.  The ProBee is to function as network coordinator with my sensor acting as an end node.  These are the only devices in the network.  A PC application will commnicate with the sensor via the ProBee com port interface.  The ProBee only has basic network and data configuration options available via their Windows-based app, or Hyperterminal AT commands.  There are no provisions for defining/selecting end points, binding, cluster id's etc.  When powering up both devices (sensor running a modified version of GenericApp on a RF04EB) the ProBee detects the sensor and assigns it a 16-bit network address.  However the Coordinator does not respond to a Match Descriptor Request (ZDP_MatchDescReq) or an Active Endpoint Request (ZDP_ActiveEPReq) so that I may deduce a valid endpoint/address to send data to.  Likewise, data coming from the ProBee (eg. character strings from Hyperterminal) do not reach the sensor API, likely for the same reasons.

Can anyone suggest a way to get these devices to commuincate properly and exchange data? It seems perhaps that the ProBee is more tailored to network only with others of its kind and is unsuitable for networking with other ZigBee devices like this sensor (even though it's "ZigBee Certified")?   Is there a more compatible ZigBee USB dongle solution out there?

Thanks for reading. 

  • 0
    Intellectual 570 points

    Hi,

    I don't know how ZU-10 ProBee works, but in case you would like to try another USB gateway, i would advise you to have a look at Telegesis ETRX3 USB stick. It supports match desc. and endpoint simple desc. requests, but you may not be able to use binding.

    About data sending, did you try to snif radio packets ? Maybe this could help you, if you've already done this, can you please post the results of the connection process and the requests you try to send ?

    Thanks,

    Yoann Hilairet

     

  • 0 in reply to Yoann Hilairet
    Intellectual 270 points

    Thanks for your suggestion.  I finally received a reply from Sena (maker of ProBee) and as I suspected they say their application layer is incompatible with any device besides their own.  I emailed Telgesis regarding the suitability of thier device and am waiting to hear back.

    I was under the impression that all ZigBee devices had to use same interface/format in order to be compliant and interoperable.  Isn't that the point of having a standard?  How can the ProBee be "ZigBee Certified" if it can't interoperate with another ZigBee compliant device?

  • 0 in reply to Gary Wayne
    Intellectual 570 points

    Hi,

    you may find some responses/infos into ZigBee Document 074855r05, paragraph 7.2  Compatibility with Other Stack Profiles ; and into ZigBee®Alliance Certification and Testing Policy. This compatibility problem looks strange... Could you post info about Telegesis reply ?

    Thanks,

    Yoann Hilairet

  • 0 in reply to Gary Wayne
    TI__Mastermind 19350 points

    You are working with a very old TI part, CC2430, and the old, defunct (and no longer certifiable for new products) ZigBee 2006 stack. TI will not be producing a ZigBee 2007 / ZigBee PRO stack for the very old generation hardware. Although we have tested inter-operability of TI ZStack 2006 in a netowork of TI ZStack 2007, but not with an Ember ZigBee 2007 network. I don't think it is required to be inter-operable with old ZigBee 2006 in order to be qualified as 2007 certified (thus the lack of inter-op that you see). Note that we have tested and confirmed inter-operability between the Ember ZigBee 2007 network (i.e. your ProBee part) and TI ZStack 2007, such as the latest release, 2.5.0:

    http://www.ti.com/tool/z-stack

    The above stack is for the latest generation of parts, CC2530 SOC and CC2531 USB dongle, please try your inter-operability test with that. TI has a nice sensor demo with data to the PC via the CC2531 with the Sensor Demo App:

    http://www.ti.com/tool/cc2530zdk?DCMP=hpa_rf_general&HQS=NotApplicable%252bOT%252bcc2530zdk

    From above link, page down to see "Related Products" and then see that you can select from 3 tabs, choose the middle one "TI Software" and you will find the tool to run on the PC and the s/w to go in the CC2531

     

     

     

  • 0 in reply to Dirty Harry
    Intellectual 270 points

    Thanks for your comments.  I do not have the parts or evaluation boards to test the new TI chips and stack on.  This sensor was designed and fabed some time ago, hence the cc2430 based design.  It also sat on a shelf for quite some time.  The entire task was just given to me to create the firmware and bring up the board as-is.   Suggesting respining around the new chip and developing an associated USB dongle (which I agree is probably an ideal solution) will likely make some important people very unhappy.  Perhaps I'll try suggesting it anyway.

    Telegesis responded to my inquiry, but they are uncertain if their device is compatible.  Their AT command interface seems to offer more functional options than ProBees though.  But thier device is also Ember-based and necessitates encryption (which we had not planned to implement) further complicating things.

    From what I'm hearing, any dongle out there will likely have the similar compatibiltiy issues because they're almost certainly based on newer hardware and ZigBee 2007/Pro compliant?   Seems the best bet would be a TI, as opposed to Ember, based dongle.  I did find one dongle called the Ubee that's TI based and Z-stack compatible.  But it's full capabilities aren't quite clear to me yet.

  • 0 in reply to Gary Wayne
    TI__Mastermind 19350 points

    Right - there is no need to re-design your sensor for now - you can get it working with a CC2531ZDK - a dongle that is ready to go. Since you don't have SimpleSensorDemo running on your sensor, you will use the CC2531 USB stick as a Network Processor. In the installer is a Z-Tool to interact with the ZNP running on the CC2531 and get data to your PC via a virtual COM port. Z-Tool has a scripting engine. You can also just connect using HyperTerminal or Br@y terminal to the CC2531 USB.

     

  • 0 in reply to Dirty Harry
    Mastermind 9802 points

    Will Z-tool work with the standard CC2531ZNP hex file, or does one need to rebuild it with some compile flag or something? I'm hoping that it would just work without any modification.

    --Derek

  • 0 in reply to Gary Wayne
    TI__Genius 9325 points

    Hi Gary,

    According to ZigBee Alliance Certified Products List(http://www.zigbee.org/Products/CertifiedProducts/ManufacturerSpecific.aspx), ProBee ZU-10 has "Manufacturer Specific" certification.

    To be Manufacturer Specific-certified, the product should be based on ZigBee Certified platform and should not harm other ZigBee networks, but doesn't have to guarantee interoperability.

    - Cetri

  • 0 in reply to Derek
    TI__Mastermind 19350 points

    wrt:

    Will Z-tool work with the standard CC2531ZNP hex file, or does one need to rebuild it with some compile flag or something? I'm hoping that it would just work without any modification.

    Yes, remember the COM port is at 115200.  I just loaded this to try:

    C:\Texas Instruments\ZAP-MSP430-2.5.0\Projects\zstack\ZAP\ZNP-HexFiles\CC2531ZNP-Pro.hex

     

  • 0 in reply to Dirty Harry
    Intellectual 270 points

    One request for clarification, the "CC2531ZDK" USB dongle mentioned the does not appear an actual part.  Are you describing the CC2531EMK development/evaluation module for the CC2531 or the CC1531 USB dongle that comes with the CC2530ZDK?  Or are they really the same thing?  I noted also swra273a.pdf for the CC2530DK lists this as a "CC2531 USB dongle."

    Thanks again for all the advice and comments.

  • 0 in reply to Gary Wayne
    TI__Mastermind 19350 points

    I don't know about the H/W parts and #'s available - maybe someone else does?

    The CC2531 is just a tiny little SOC, pin-for-pin with CC2530. If you mount CC2531 on a pcb with a usb connector and correctly route the corresponding pins, you will have a CC2531 that can plug into and talk to the PC. TI made and sells an example of doing this - what exactly it is called by parts suppliers, I don't know, but let's call it the CC2531DK-Dongle - it is available in a kit and I think for sale individually or as pairs. Finally, RemoTI kit is selling a "nano-dongle" this is like the CC2531DK-Dongle but very, very tiny - only like 1/4" projects from usb port on pc, I am not sure how to buy this individually.

  • 0 in reply to Dirty Harry
    Mastermind 9802 points

    Thanks, that's the answer I was hoping for. So then would Z-Tool work with a CC2530ZNP in UART mode, since it's the same thing as far as Z-Tool knows?

    --Derek