In this activity you will create a tool to allow you to play games such as Red Light/Green Light. To create the game, follow the steps below.

Transcription

1 Example: Hello World In this activity you will create a tool to allow you to play games such as Red Light/Green Light. To create the game, follow the steps below. If you get stuck, go to the Troubleshooting links at the end of the example. 1. Requirements Hardware Two XBee Series 1 modules Two XBee breadboard adapters One XBee USB adapter Two solderless breadboards to configure the XBees One push button One LED One 330 resistor Jumper wires Two 9V battery clips Two 9V batteries Two breadboard power supplies One mini USB cable Steps

2 1. Requirements 2. Add the XBees to XCTU 3. Configure the XBees 4. Connect the components 5. Put it all together 6. Play the game 7. Troubleshooting Learn more

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4 XCTU or later. Software For further information about XCTU, go to the XCTU walkthrough. 2. Add the XBees to XCTU Ensure that the XBee is seated firmly in the XBee USB adapter. Plug the XBee USB adapter into your computer using the mini-usb cable provided. Open XCTU. Make sure you are in Configuration working mode. 5. Click Discover radio modules from the toolbar. 6. In the Discover radio devices dialog, select the serial port(s) in which you want to look for radio modules. If you do not know the serial ports where your modules are attached, select all ports. Click Next. 7. In the Set port parameters window, maintain the default values and click Finish. 8. As XCTU locates radio modules, they appear in the Discovering radio modules dialog box. Once the discovery process has finished, click Add selected devices. 9. At this point, you should see something like this in the Radio Modules section on the left: The port number and MAC address do not necessarily have to be equal as shown in the picture. 3. Configure the XBees 1. Restore the default settings of all XBees with the Load default firmware settings button at the top of the Radio Configuration section. 2. Use XCTU to configure the following parameters: Param 100px Leader 100px Follower Effect CH C C Defines the frequency to use to communicate. This must be the same for all radios on your network. ID Defines the network that a radio will attach to. This must be the same for all radios on your network. DH DL DH and DL combined form the destination address. This is where the notifications are sent when the button value changes. The address being configured here is known as a short address. A short address is assigned during configuration. An XBee also has a long address (SH and SL combined) which is assigned permanently when the unit is manufactured. MY Defines the XBee's short address. D1 DI [3] DO High [5] Sets the DIO1/AD1 pin as digital intput in the leader and digital output in the follower. This pin is connected to a button in the leader and to an LED in the follower. IC 02 Configures the Leader to transmit an I/O sample when pin DIO1/AD1 changes (binary) = 02 (hexadecimal) IA 1234 Defines the address of the transmitting module (leader) to pair for I/O.

5 keep the default value. 3. Write the settings of all XBees with the Write radio settings button at the top of the Radio Configuration section. 4. Connect the components 1. Create the following two circuits with your components and XBee breadboard adapters. Ensure that each wire is connected to the same column on the breadboard as the pin of the XBee breadboard adapter footprint. This will ensure that the signals to the XBee are correct. Leader Click to expand diagram Follower

6 Click to expand diagram Push down firmly on each breadboard adapter board to ensure it is seated properly on the breadboard. Do not be afraid to use a little force. Insert each XBee into the bread board associated with the configuration for that XBee. Push down firmly on the XBee to ensure it is seated properly on the breadboard adapter. Double check that the breadboard adapter and XBee are positioned in the correct location and oriented the same as the images below. Incorrect placement has the potential to result in damage to components. Leader Click to expand diagram Follower

7 Click to expand diagram 5. Put it all together Apply power using the included 9V batteries and battery clips. When you press the button on the leader board, the LED on the follower board turns off and turns back on when the button is released. 6. Play the game Leader Follower Push the button to indicate to others when they can advance. Call racers out if they move when the light is on. Run toward the button pusher. Do not move when the light is red. 7. Troubleshooting If you are encountering problems, these suggestions may help:

8 General How do I find the serial port of my module? You can remove the XBee Grove Development Board from the USB port and see which port name disappears from your port list. The name that disappears is your XBee board. Many people figure out which port is right via trial and error, but you can also use XCTU to find it: 1. Open XCTU and discover the radio modules attached to your computer by clicking on the top-left corner. Select all ports to be scanned. Click Next and then Finish. Once the discovery process has finished, a new window notifies you how many devices have been found and their details. The serial port and the baud rate are shown in the Port label. An error saying that the port is already in use by other applications is displayed. The serial port where the local XBee module is connected can only be in use by one application. Check that the connection with the module in the XCTU console is closed and there are no other applications using the port. The error 'Device driver software was not successfully installed' is displayed. Sometimes when you connect the XBee Grove Development Board into you computer, the operating system cannot install the driver automatically. If you get that error, try to remove and re-insert the board into your computer. If the OS is still unable to install the driver, remove and re-insert the board into another USB port. As a last resort, install manually the USB drivers following the instructions that appear in the step 4 of the Downloading and installing XCTU section. How can I physically identify the XBee modules? Once you have added the modules to XCTU, a simple way to identify them is to read the radio settings of each one and check the Rx and Tx LEDs of the XBee Grove Development Boards. These LEDs indicate that the XBee module is receiving (Rx) or transmitting (Tx) information through the serial port. When you read or write the settings of a module, its Rx and Tx LEDs blink, so you can identify which module is connected to each serial port.

9 An error is reported when installing XCTU. XCTU requires Administrator permissions XCTU Check that you have Administrator access on the machine where you are installing XCTU. On Windows systems, a User Account Control dialog may appear when you install XCTU or try to run the XCTU program. You must answer yes when prompted to allow the program to make changes to your computer, or XCTU will not work correctly. Note that you may also need to talk to your network manager to gain permission to install or run applications as administrator. No radios are found when discovery is performed or no serial ports are listed. Check cables Double check all cables. The USB cable should be firmly and fully attached to both the computer and the XBee Grove Development Board. When attached correctly, the association LED on the adapter will be lit. Check that the XBee is fully seated in the XBee Grove Development Board When the XBee is correctly installed, it should be pushed fully into the board and no air or metal should be visible between the plastic of the adapter socket and the XBee headers. Also, double check that all ten pins on each side of the XBee made it into a matching hole in the socket. Check the XBee orientation The angled "nose" of the XBee should match the lines on the silk screening of the board and point away from the USB socket on the XBee Grove Development Board. Check driver installation Drivers are installed the first time the XBee Grove Development Board is plugged in. If this process is not complete or has failed, try the following steps: Remove and re-insert the board into your computer. This may cause driver installation to re-occur. Remove and re-insert the board into another USB port. (Windows) Open Computer management, find the failing device in the Device Manager section and remove it. You can download drivers for all major operating systems from FTDI for manual installation. Check if the modules are sleeping The On/Sleep LED of the XBee Grove Development Board indicates if the module is awake (LED on) or asleep (LED off). When a module is sleeping, it cannot be discovered in XCTU, so press the Commissioning button and will wake up for 30 seconds. After resetting an XBee to factory defaults, XCTU reports errors for the KY and DD settings. This is a known issue with the versions of XCTU or less. When the Invalid settings dialog appears, it is safe to continue to write settings. AES Encryption Key (KY) is a setting that must be set by the user when encryption is used and does not apply with factory settings. Device Type Identifier (DD) is a diagnostic parameter which is not used in the operation of the radio and can safely be set to any value. Circuit assembly Do I need to match the wire colors used in the diagrams? No, in many of the diagrams the color of the wires indicates something unique about its role in the circuit such as power, ground, and so forth. However, the color does not matter when assembling the circuit.

10 Things to check first. Is everything fully inserted? My circuit doesn't work Make sure that all components are fully inserted into the breadboard, sockets or connectors. When connecting, ensure that the wire or headers are aligned correctly and push firmly and evenly on the part. Header pins on the XBee or breadboard carrier boards should insert fully such that the plastic molding sits flush with the socket or board. Do wires connect to the correct pins? Check the diagram against the circuit that you have built. It can be easy to place wires so that they are one row off from the desired location. If you have any questions about which portions of the breadboard are connected, check out How to use a breadboard which describes the anatomy of a breadboard. This will help you to understand component placement in each game. Are all XBees configured correctly? Make sure that the configuration of each XBee matches the settings provided in the instructions. Before you configure the XBee, restore each module's default settings using the factory defaults button at the top of the Radio Configuration section. An LED does not light when expected. Check LED polarity An LED has a correct installation direction. When installed backwards it will not light when expected. The long leg of the LED (anode) must be provided with a higher voltage than the short leg (cathode). In most of the projects, the cathode is connected to ground and the voltage to the anode is controlled by connecting it to a digital output on the XBee or Arduino. Another way to identify the cathode if you've clipped the wires, or want to check while it is installed is to look at the colored plastic housing. Many LEDs will make the body flat on the cathode side as well. Check resistor Resistors are placed in series with each LED to ensure that it does not receive too much current. Compare the stripes on the resistor being used to check that you are using the correct resistor. The resistors in these games are 330 and should have stripes that are orange-orange-brown.

11 Arduino Do you get an error when uploading code to the Arduino? If the Arduino IDE displays the message "Problem uploading to board." after you click Upload, enable the option "Show verbose output during upload" in the preferences (File menu > Preferences): Click Upload again, and find the error message that appears above the line Problem uploading to board. See / for suggestions. Does the error message read "avr_dude: ser_send(): write error: sorry no info avail"? This error appears occasionally on 64-bit versions of Windows. In order to upload code successfully to the Arduino, you must reset the Arduino at a specific time during the upload In the Arduino IDE, click Upload. Press and hold the RESET button on the Arduino board. Release the RESET button on the Arduino board when messages like the following appear in the Arduino message window: PORTS {COM1, COM3, COM24, COM29, } / {COM1, COM3, COM24, COM29, } => {} PORTS {COM1, COM3, COM24, COM29, } / {COM1, COM3, COM24, COM29, } => {} PORTS {COM1, COM3, COM24, COM29, } / {COM1, COM3, COM24, COM29, } => {} 4. After the code is uploaded to the Arduino, the following message appears at the bottom of the window: avrdude done. Thank you. Learn more For more information about the hardware and software you use in this activity, see: Using XCTU to configure an XBee More about networks More about XBee digital I/O XBee pin pairing More about breadboards Connecting power Wiring a switch Wiring an LED