Compatibility with Ember Zigbee Pro 2007 Stack

Yes.

Thanks, My customer is having an occasional problem connecting to a Xbee coordinator. Is there anything we can suggest that he look at to help debug the issue?

Here is his question:

We have been trying to integrate with an Xbee module running Zigbee 2007 Pro (Ember stack) and are having some trouble.  Our TI router is not reliably associating with the Xbee coordinator.  Do you have any suggestions?  Has TI done any interoperability testing?  We are using Z-stack 2.2.

Thanks in advance,

Chuck

Can you give some details on what "reliably" means? Never, 10%, 90%, ??

Hi,

I'm also interested in Ember-TI compatibility. In one project we are trying to join Ember based devices (EM250, EmberZNet 3.5.0) to TI based network (CC2530, ZStack-CC2530-2.2.0-1.3.0). Complete failure. Ember devices does not see the TI network during scan. We tried direct join with exact network parameters and it failed too with "No beacons" error. We tried this vise a versa - TI node is not able to find and join Ember network too. At the same time, Ember chips in sniffer mode are able to capture traffic going inside the TI based network and Ember software (Insight Desktop) is able to fully and correctly decode packets. Are there any specific hints on stack configuration on TI or Ember side to match them?

Victor, this is quite bizarre as I've not had any fundamental issues like this in all my interop testing at Smart Energy interop events. Some screenshots of the sniffer traces and more detail of the network configuration would help.

Actually this thread might help: http://e2e.ti.com/forums/t/9090.aspx

Sending me to traces and sniffer was a great idea... The real point was mismatch in what TI and Ember give a little bit different names :-) After syncing stack profile on both sides everything works to both sides. Thank you ;-)

I have a problem trying to associate our Zigbee device running EmberZNet stack (v. 4.2.0) with Exegin Q52 bridge device (running Z-stack, I believe) configured as a router.Our device sends Beacond Request, and Q52 sends Beacon frame in response which is successfully received by our device. However EmberZNet stack simply ignores this beacon. I've narrowed down the problem to "Final CAP Slot" field. EmberZNet stack expects this field to be set to 15 for nonbeacon-enabled network, and Q52 sets this field to 0.

As far as I understand, this is an Ember bug, not TI. There is no requirement in 802.15.4 for this field to be set to any particular value for nonbeacon network, so any value should be acceptable. What I don't understand is why this issue didn't come to light during interoperability tests? Or maybe the latest versions of Z-stack now sets this field to 15 too? And Q52 uses some outdated version of it?

We have just verified that TI's 802.15.4 software (TIMAC and Z-Stack) also sets the "Final CAP Slot" field to 15. In non-beacon mode, the setting of this field should not matter. My understanding is that the Exegin product does not use Z-Stack. Perhaps you can address this issue directly with Exegin and Ember.

Thank you xyzzy, this sounds reassuring. Probably this is also changed in the latest Exegin firmware. I will have a chance to check this later

Hey everyone, 

I am a new user of Ember's EM250 module and am in need of a zigbee stack for implementing the zigbee part on the same. Does anyone have an idea where i can get a free complete version of the same or a discounted version available for students or in general academic projects? I have tried lots of sources but am unable to find it anywhere...

Rohit 

Also, does anyone know if TI's Zstack is compatible with EM250 platform or Ember platform in general?

Hi,

it works fine for me. I'm working with EmberZNet Pro 4.3.0 for EM250 and TI Z-Stack 2.4.0. No problem on my side.

yoann

hi yoann, 

thanks a lot for the reply.

I have some further doubts. For developing applications using a self-developed board of EM250, do i need EmberZnet pro neccessarily or will it suffice, if i just use the xiDE of Ember along with the TI Zstack? And then of course, port the zstack into the main code developed using xiDE?

If i necessarily need the ZNet pro, is there any place from where i can procure it at reduced rated for students or something... ?

Rohit

Hi,

in case you would like to port Z-Stack to EM250, you have to keep in mind that TI's stack comes with different libraries which are not accessible to users (TIMAC lib, router lib, end device lib, security lib...). To port Z-Stack to EM250, you'll have to re-create those libraries on your own or using open source codes, because I think TI's libraries won't work/compile with xIDE.

From my point of view, porting Z-Stack to EM250 would take a while. Moreover, I encourage you to buy EM250 dev kit because (I think) Ember ZNet stacks are simpler to understand & program for students. I would like to alert you on the fact that Ember's support is (I think) better than TI's LPRF forum. If you choose to buy EM250 dev kit, I am afraid that there is no stack at reduced cost.

yoann

Interesting discussion.

Porting the Z-Stack to EM250 will not be an option if you read the click wrap when you install it. Ember ZNet and our Z-Stack should work and coexist with no problem.  

LPRF Rocks the World   

An interesting tidbit for folks that may try this interoperability exercise. Check to make sure the configuration settings for the stack profile setting match on both sides. I noticed that the Ember stack defaults to 0x00 (network specific), whereas I believe it should be set to 0x02 (ZigBee Pro).

Yes, you are right. The ember stack would set its stack profile when we select the no security stack automatic. So we have to setup the ember to use zigbee pro(stack profile == 0x02) at first. 

Now I could take them to work together already.