zigbee network assciation problem on our new EndDevice Board

[sharmila]

We have successfully tested our new End Device board for TX and RX using the beekit PER test program TX-RX and another freescale 12323 SRB.

Our board hw design is exactly based on MC131213 SRB board. The beestack code base used is 1.0.2.

But we are facing problem when running GenericApp zigbee end device code on our board and standard NCB co-ordinator kept at very close distance. We have observed that it is not able to associate. It is continuously sending beacon requests, but seems to be not able to receive any beacon from co-ordinator. If we load the genericapp end device code on other Freescale SRB board, this FS board works fine.
Any hint on this ? is there any timing related or any other physical parameter to be tuned for our board ? Help on his is very much awaited.

Regards,
..Sharmila

[Mads]

Sharmila,

Please remember that the PER testing and not a ZigBee application.

I still believe you got an RF problem, probably in your receive part.

I can only recommend you to:

1. supply a daintree log file (which also will list the LQI.

2  set a breakpoint in the SearchForSuitableParentToJoin() function and check what the link cost is of the beacons received.

Note the number 2 item is for experts you must know what you are doing and looking for.

BR,

Mads

[sharmila]

We are working on improving the RF quality on boards in terms of range.

But still what I fail to understand is why the PER test program i.e. SMAC transmission and reception works and not the zigbe/MAC prgram.

As I mentioned the boards are kept at very minimum distance and the quality shown is almost -40DB by SMAC prgram. It  shouldl show similar in the Zigbee program ?  The End Device zigbee program  is continously transmitting the BeaconRequests and we have observed on our sniffer software the co-ordinator is transmitting Beacon Frams in response to that. (The test in non-beacn mode. ) But End Device is unable to receive anything. We even changed the maxLinkCost threshold to minimum. Still it is unable to receive.

Does the streaming mode of RF in MAC/zigbee and packet mode in SMAC has anything to do with this ?

[Mads]

Sharmilla,

Please continue this discussiong through the Ticket you have created in the support system.

a ZigBee node will not associate to a network unless the link quality is good, which means that if your

RX path is not good this will not happen.

Now SMAC is very simple and does not have a scheme like the one above.

I can only guess that either you are not receiving any beacons or your ZigBee configuration is wrong.

BR,

Mads

[CecchiSandrone]

I have the same problem. I'm making some experiments with 2 13213-NCB boards and with SMAC PERTest Demo I get 4% PER and an average RSS of -85 dBm at a distance of 100m (Line-of-sight). If I use a Zigbee app (for example Generic App) I can't find a coordinator unless staying at 40-50m distance LoS. So there are some "QoS" rules in Zigbee that prevent a ZED or ZR to connect a ZC with a bad link quality. What types of parameters or thresholds can I change to slightly increase this range? Is tx power manageable by Zigbee stack?

Message Edited by Cecchi Sandrone on 2007-11-28 05:07 PM

[CecchiSandrone]

I'm successful with my experiment, modifying #define maxLinkCost in BeeStackInterface.h. Obviously this change is not conformant with ZigBee and can be used only in special cases.

[Mads]

Sharmila,

My Best guess is that you have NOT configured the antenna switch. have you used the User defined target editor to setup your hardware ?

Remember to select whether you use an internal or external antenna switch.

The default settings for the SRB board is external antenna switch, if you have not set this correctly you will expirence very very bad performance.

ZigBee also does not attempt Association if the link quality of the beacon responses is bad, so it could be that you got RF performance problems.

BR,

Mads Westergreen

[sharmila]

Well, but the same genericApp program is working fine (successful association ) on standard Freescale SRB as end Device with the same co-ordinator. Secondly our board rdesign is also replica of this SRB board.

Besides, regarding the RF quality I have checked the TX and RX of or board using te beekit PER tx-rx programs. At very close distance it is showing receive quality of -40 DB approximately ,which must be acceptable for association. The co-ordiantor and our new end-device is also kept at very close minimum distance.

Since tx, rx both working on this board, I think antenna switch should not be problem.

Your comments ,please ...

Thank u,

..Sharmila