XBee RF Transceiver

Initial setup

At first the PICAXE and XBee would not talk. I had to make the following changes to get things to work:

Wire things as shown in the photos below. Note the use of a MAX3232 to balance RS-232 voltage levels - see: http://trainelectronics.com/RaspberryPi/#Connecting_to_the_built-in_RS-232_Port_with_a_MAX3232
You must not feed 5 volts to any pins on the XBee. That is why I used the MAX3232 to guard against this issue - see:
http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl?id=2160 for details.
Change the baud rate for both XBee's from 9600 (the default) to 2400 (needed for the slow clock on the PICAXE) - see Screen Shot #1 below
Change the PC Settings baud rate to 2400 - see Screen Shot #2
Program the PICAXE as shown below
Select the Terminal screen - I had to reset the XBee to get the link working the first time I did this.

Screen Shot #1

Screen Shot #2

Symbol SerSend = b.4 'pin 9
Symbol temp    = b1

Start:
   temp = temp + 1
   serout SerSend, N2400, ("temp= ", #temp, 13,10)

'serout SerSend, T2400, ("temp= ", #temp, 13,10)' use this if on 3.3 volts / no MAX3232
goto start

Screen Shot #3

This photo shows the Spark Fun USB XBee board (see: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8687 ) - a reset button has been added by connecting the RST pin and ground pin to a NO momentary switch. This unit is connected to a PC running the X-CTU program in terminal mode.

This is the transmitting unit. A PICAXE 14M2 in installed on a D-Axe board (on the right) - see: http://www.aztecmcu.com/catalog/i19.html
The XBee is on the left mounted to a prototype board using another Spark Fun board - see: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/8276 -A 3.3 volt regulator has been added to that board so that 5 or more volts can be used to power the circuit.
The device between the two is a MAX3232 board that is described in detail here: http://trainelectronics.com/RaspberryPi/#Connecting_to_the_built-in_RS-232_Port_with_a_MAX3232
The wires at the top go to the programmer, those in the lower left and lower right supply power to the two boards.

These photos show the addition of the 3.3 volt regulator to the Spark Fun breakout board.

Rather than use the MAX3232 to make sure that a 5 volt microcontroller pin connects to the 3.3 volt XBee you can (if your microcontroller will work on 3.3 volts) operate everything from a 3.3 volt supply as shown here. The PICAXE on the right is a 14M2 which will operate down to as few as 3 volts. It is connected directly to the digital input pin on the XBee. The programming cable in the upper right is for the PICAXE.

The PICAXE shown above can be swapped out for a PIC16F684 using the program shown below. Note that this program sends data at 9600 baud so that the speed settings on both XBees can be left t otheir default settings rather than switching from 9600 to 2400 baud.

Include "modedefs.bas"
ansel = 0
cmcon0 = 7
Serial_out var gpio.0 'pin 7

Temp1 var word

Serout serial_out,t9600,[13,10,"d. bodnar Ver 1.0",13,10]
Serout serial_out,t9600,[13,10,"09-30-13",13,10]
Serout serial_out,t9600,[13,10,"XBee test @ 9600 baud",13,10]
pause 1000
gpio = %00000000 '3 & 4 inputs - others outputs
temp1=0
top:
serout serial_out,t9600,["Temp1 = ",#temp1 , 10,13]
temp1=temp1+1
goto top:

XBee to XBee Serial using PICAXE & PIC

This program for the PICAXE sends data to the XBee

'd, bodnar 10-7-13 working to send to XBee via serial
setfreq m16 'should give 9600 baud when set to 2400
Symbol SerSend = b.4 'pin 9
Symbol temp = b1
serout SerSend, T2400, ("XBee test - running on 3.3 volts", 13,10)
serout SerSend, T2400, ("Serial Out Test - d. bodnar - 10-7-13", 13,10)
pause 8000
Start:
if temp = 255 then
serout SerSend, t2400, ("This is at m16 / 2400 which gives 9600 from PICAXE - cool!", 13,10)
pause 1000
endif
temp = temp + 1

serout SerSend, t2400, ("temp= ", #temp, 13,10)
pause 50
goto start

This program for the PIC receives data from the XBee and displays it on the terminal

'd. bodnar 10-7-13
'rx test from XBee - WORKING for 3 DIGIT value!
Include "modedefs.bas"
ansel=0 'use pins as digital rather than analog
DEFINE OSC 8 'use 8 mhz oscillator
OSCCON = $70 'set clock speed
CMCON0 = %00000111
CCP1CON = %00000000
SerialOut var porta.0 'pin 13
LED4 var portc.3 'pin 7
d1 var byte
d2 var byte
d3 var byte
trisc = %00000000
trisa = %00001000

serout serialout,n9600,[12,10,13,"Ver 1.1 XBee RX test",10,13]
serout serialout,n9600,["(c) d. bodnar 10-07-13",10,13]

RXTest:
serin led4, 6, 100, skipper, ["temp= "], d1, d2, d3
serout serialout,n9600,[d1,d2,d3,10,13]
goto rxtest:

skipper:
serout serialout, n9600,["nothing",10,13]
goto rxtest: