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xbee / zigbee real-world range?

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justDIY

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has anyone played with the xbee and zigbee pro modules?

what kind of real-world range can I expect? the specs claim 80/140 ft indoor and 300/4000 feet outdoor (xbee/pro). The indoor range are similar, despite the pro module being sixty times more powerful than the basic module. I guess that is the cost of the centimeter band these guys tx in? My intended application has one node fixed, indoors, and the other node 100-200 ft away, outdoors. I don't think I'll need the full 250kbps data rate, if range can be extended by slower transmission?

also, whats the deal with antennas? the maxtream website shows u.fl, chip and mini-whip as options, but their exclusive distributor digikey has u.fl, chip and 'piece of wire' as the options. I was thinking about going with the u.fl and then a little pigtail with an rp-sma bulkhead to an external rubber duck.
 
Zigbee works in the same frequency range as wifi does, so that 'rubber ducky' isn't really a based loaded antenna (which is what rubber ducky antennas are) it's a full wave whip.
 
there's a guy on sparkfun's forum that has used them and reports that the range numbers are pretty accurate.
 
I've seen some test results that substantiate that those range figures are achievable, although the top outdoor figure is for the most optimistic path, like from one hilltop to another I think. At a few feet off the ground for each end, I don't think you're going to get better than about 500 feet.

If you want the best range, don't use chip antennas. These provide adequate performance only when supported by a significant amount of copper pcb groundplane or other equivalent metal. The groundplane really needs to be about one quarter wavelength below the chip antenna for best radiation performance. I would use a halfwave whip/rubber duck antenna if I were you.
 
xBee's are a little over the top for most applications (both price and interfacing requirements)


If your looking for an RF transceiver, then this is a great alternative

**broken link removed**

* True single chip FSK transceiver 433MHz
* Few external components required
* No set up or configuration needed
* No coding of data required
* 20kbit/s data rate
* 2 channels
* Very low power consumption
* Standby mode
* Operates from a single +3 - 5V DC supply
* Transmit power can be adjusted to a maximum of 10dBm


All that for $33 Australian, its not bad at all.

It does all of the data encoding on the fly, so you can just send data via a basic UART(RS232) command
 
gramo said:
xBee's are a little over the top for most applications (both price and interfacing requirements)


If your looking for an RF transceiver, then this is a great alternative

All that for $33 Australian, its not bad at all.

It does all of the data encoding on the fly, so you can just send data via a basic UART(RS232) command

I dunno about the ISM band. Seems any band there is, has problems. I have a set of remote thermometers on the ISM band, and they have crummy range, not more than 20 feet at best. Of course, their radios could be lower quality than this module. $33 AUD works out to be about $26 USD, so that module is in the middle of the xbee at $20 and the zigbee at $32. does anyone know of a North American reseller?
 
I heard of ranges upwards of 500 meters from the Oatley transceiver. Another advantage for many is that the Oatley transceiver operates from 3 - 5 Volts, where as the Xbee OEM/Pro operate at 3.3 Volts only. And for many, that requires two voltage regulators for both their 5V and 3.3V peripherals.

As far as interfacing simplicity, well you can tell just by looking at the two

**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**

On a side note, The XBee-PRO module operates on an ISM band as well, but around 2.4 GHz - there are many common house hold appliances operating at this frequency these days
 
Xbee Range

I am using a pro module as a base station in my basement with a standard (non-pro) series 1 out in my garage. They are about 70 feet apart, but of course have a few concrete walls and some framed walls between them. Without modification I get no throughput... with an aluminum reflector behind the base station antenna I receive all of my messages (mad from a soda can: http://solarstatus.com/?p=58). I doubt I get full throughput, but I am not sending much data (about 500byte packet every 10sec).
 
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