Addressing inside of a ZigBee network

[neocronos]

Hello,

I'm working with a non beaconed ZigBee network. It has two end devices and a coordinator. The projects were made with MAC CodeBase 1.03. Another useful info:

- CodeWarrior 6.1
- BeeKit 1.7 with MAC CodeBase 1.03
- 3 Panasonic PAN802154HAR Modules (imagine 3 SARDs)
- RS232 to Hyperterminal kind of interface.

The network works fine but how can the coordinator send packages to a specific device? how can I address it? and how can I send a broadcast?. Right now the coordinator is sending packages to a random device, sometimes the 1st one recieves them, other times the 2nd one.

Thanks for the help.

Edit. The tittle.


Message Edited by neocronos on 2008-08-05 03:31 PM

[Mads]

neocronos,

Have you looked at the supplied demo applications MywirelessApp and MyStarNetworkDemo ?

They all contain examples on how to send packets and how to allocated 16 bit network addresses.

also the user's guides for these 2 applications contain description on what the software does.

Br,

Mads

[neocronos]

Hi Mads and thanks for answering.

Yes I have. I tried MyStartNetworkDemo back with the MAC 1.0.1 but I got some issues (perhaps due to hardware), so I continued with MyWirelessApp (I forgot to mention that at the first post, sorry).

They all do have the option to asign specific addresses or a random one to the end devices (at the project wizard) but once one exports the projects and runs them, there isn't an explicit way to use those addresses. For example, I have an hyperterminal kind of interface and in there it shows some information of the coordinator and it also shows when an end device is associated but from there, one can only send "characters" to an unknown address chosen by the coordinator btw the ones it has already associated inside (two in my case). I haven't seen a way to tell to the coordinator that I want it to send info to the 1st or to the 2nd device. It choose which one randomly.

I digged a bit into the projects code, tried some things but didn't work out. I also checked the documentation and didn't find: "Changing the destination address" kind of topic.

Not sure what would I be missing.

[Mads · Accepted solution]

Neocronos,

first of all you are using an old release. The latest MAC codebase is 1.0.3. you should go upgrade.

regarding allocating addresses, using a random scheme is not a good idea. implement some algorithm or counter so you never give the same node the same addresss.

Now the demo applications does NOT provide you an hyberterminal interface to send data to any device.

(it is a demo application with a specific purpose)

you will need to modify the code that sends the mcps-data.request to have the correct address in the destination address field.

you should also go download the 802.15.4 specifiation from www.ieee.org so you can learn what the different mac primitives actually does.

BR,

Mads

[neocronos]

Thanks again Mads,

I'm using the new one. First I said: "The projects were made with MAC CodeBase 1.03" and then I told a bit of background: "I tried MyStartNetworkDemo back with the MAC 1.0.1...". So, it is updated and there were great improvements (I most noted BeeKit wizard ones) and I thank Freescale for that.

Right now I'm using static adresses for test purposes and since it is a small network and basically a college project, I'm considering on leaving it that way. Tho, thanks for the advice, I'll keep it on mind.

What I meant was that I was, indeed, using an hyberterminal interface to recieve the information which the demos sent. They use UartUtil_Print with "interface" kind of commands like "\n \r". I actually had to comment them to communicate a ZigBee module with another micro.

I will analize what would be better in this case, if modifying the code inside the demos to recognize a character pattern for the addressing job or if sending what I have to send and repeting it if the device doesn't recieve it (I've got another micro linked to the ZigBee module and acts as brain. It can "answer" different things depending on what it recieves).

I thought it would be easier to be honest (using the demos) but is ok. I will get my hands on it

Thanks