Comments: Wireless RC Robot with Arduino and XBees
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Thanks for sharing this! Do you still get the power savings of XBee3 even with the Series 1 firmware loaded on the radios?
You are welcome. =) I never explored that specification of the XBee 3's with the Series 1 (i.e. 802.15.4 ) firmware loaded on the radios. I would have to hook it up to a meter in order to compare.
Looking briefly at the migration datasheet [ page 3 and 4 => https://www.digi.com/resources/documentation/digidocs/pdfs/90002279.pdf, it appears that the transmitting XBee 3 with the firmware seems to be listed as only one current value of 40mA which is lower than the legacy "boost mode" instead of the "normal mode". However, the receiving XBee 3 with the firmware seemed to have improved with 15mA which is lower than the legacy "boost and normal modes". Is that what you were referring to?
Yes that is what I was getting at. Sorry for not asking more clearly! Any findings?
Sorry for the delay in reply. I was not able to set it up and test until now. With the Series 1 firmware loaded on the XBee3 w/ trace antenna, I measured the amount of current with a multimeter when transmitting/receiving packets. The amount of current that it pulls when transmitting is ~17.1mA and idle/receiving is ~16.2mA. For the XBee 3 Pro w/ trace antenna, the amount when transmitting is ~20mA and idle/receiving is ~16.2mA.
Compared to the legacy XBee Series 1 modules, the amount of current when transmitting is ~55.0mA and idle/receiving is 52.6mA. The XBee 3 modules appear to match the migration specs at or below the expected operating current for power savings under my tests. =) In terms of the "boost mode," I couldn't find the setting in the XCTU with the Series 1 module that I had.
Not yet. Sorry, it's not on the top of my priorities to check currently. I'll put it in my queue to test the XBees out.