Problem receiving Zigbee information in USB MC1322X Dongle with default "sniffer" firmware

[ZigbeeDeveloper]

Hi,

Some days ago I received a MC1322x USB Dongle which is supposed to act as "sniffer" with the default configuration. I have installed the FTDI Drivers in Windows XP and I am using a serial monitor software tool to monitor the Zigbee package received through air via USB Dongle  to serial port. In my scenario I am sending from other devices JOIN_REQUESTs but I do not see neither any message received in USB Zigbee dongle nor Green Led blinking.

My question is:

Do I need to install any special software to use USB Dongle like a simple sniffer?

Do I need to configure any special baud rate or configuration in USB Drivers?

Thank you in advance

[AlanCollins]

Hello David.

        The USB Dongle what it does is to report the data as raw data through the COM port. To initialize such behavior, and parser the raw data and see it as MAC, NWK, APS, ZDO, AF data and commands, you need to use a software protocol analyzer. Here is a list of software that I recommend:

• Test tool 12 protocol analyzer. This is a FSL development. It supports MAC and RF4CE filtering. 
• Ubiqua license costs 1k usd, and it is one of the best software analyzers in the market. We usually recommend this SW since it is very friendly and powerful to debug network activity. You get 30-day free trial license when download.
• WireShark is an open software. I recommend this to customers as a cost effective solution. My personal opinion is this sw is not as friendly easy to read the data as ubiqua sw.
• Perytons – This is also a popular sw analyzer, but I do not have internal licenses, so supporting this sw is difficult. If we have to supported we’ll find a way to do it, but I usually avoid recommending this Sw.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Alan Collins

[Loris83]

Wich software are you using on the Windows PC?

[ZigbeeDeveloper]

I was using Free Serial Port Monitor   but I did not achieve any message received at all. http://www.serial-port-monitor.com/

Thank you

[Loris83]

I am using Wireshark and the following utility:

 http://sourceforge.net/projects/wiresharkzigbee/

With this software I can use MC1322x USB dongle, without updating/changing the USB-dongle firmware.

Hope this helps!

[ZigbeeDeveloper]

Hi,

I tried to use WireShark with Zigbee Utility but when I tried to follow the steps I was not able to achieve pipe\name as explained in the User Guide, so I thought it was because the firmware by default, now I have change and I have loaded a COordinator node, have you loaded the USB Dongle as Sniffer by using the Test Tool Firmware Loader?

Thank you very much for your help!

[Loris83]

Hi,

I didn't update the firmware of the USB dongle, I used the default firmware to let USB dongle act as a sniffer.

I've never needed to download a new firmware to the USB dongle using Test Tool, 

I'm sorry

[Somo]

I used Wireshark too, following  http://ftp.heanet.ie/disk1/sourceforge/w/project/wi/wiresharkzigbee/alpha/doc/Marama.Wireshark_Utili...

My step:

1. Download  wireshark-win32-1.6.1.exe  at url: http://www.wireshark.org/

2. Install   wireshark-win32-1.6.1.exe 

3. Download WS_ZigbeeSnifferPipeWrapper_v0.2.zip at  http://sourceforge.net/projects/wiresharkzigbee/

4. Unzip WS_ZigbeeSnifferPipeWrapper_v0.2.zip 

When you use MC1322x Dongle:

1. Install  MC1322x Dongle

2. Open Dos Windows (run "cmd" )

3. Goto Directory you unzip " WS_ZigbeeSnifferPipeWrapper_v0.2.zip "

4. Type "WS_ZigbeeSnifferPipeWrapper.exe --port=COM8 --channel=15"  Then Enter.

     (Sniffer channel 15 and  USB dongle's Com Port is 8)

5. You will receive

    "Configuring sniffer on port  'COM8' to listen on channel 15

     Configure Wireshark to listen to the name pipe '\\.\pipe\wireshark "

6. Leave them until you want to stop sniffer or change Channel.

7. Open Wireshark

8. Goto Capture-> Options

9. Type or paste "' \\.\pipe\wireshark "   in the box near "Interface  ->Local"

10. Start Capture.

[AlanCollins]

My two cents...

For step 4: COM 8 does not work for everyone. You need to verify which COM port was allocated for the USB-Dongle HW. You can check this on the device manager (windows).

You can also refer to the following document (Marama.Wireshark_Utility.QS): http://sourceforge.net/projects/wiresharkzigbee/files/alpha/doc/Marama.Wireshark_Utility.QS.001.0.01...

[Olegkou]

When I start typing \\.pipe\wireshark and replacing Realtek 10/100/100 Ethernet NIC the whole application Wireshark crash.

It is Wreshark: Capture Options for Local interface.