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CEC Semester Seventeen 2020

XBee Radio Modules

Fred Eady -
Owner, EDTP Electronics Inc. and Principal Engineer, Ongoing Systems LLC.
January 27,
2020
XBee Tool Box
The lecture series will begin with an examination of the available XBee development tools. Development tools provided by Digi will be utilized to configure and exercise various XBee radio modules. Development tools that are useful in XBee development but not offered as 'official” Digi development tools will also be introduced.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
Silicon Labs EFM8BB1 Busy Bee Low Cost Kit First Look Video
Welcome to the Wireless Menagerie: RF Bands and Protocol Choices for Embedded Developers, Part 1 - Article
Silicon Labs Wireless Gecko Series 2 First Look Video
Wireless XBee3 Micropython Platform and TE Connectivity's Weather Shield - Blog
Download Archive: MP4
January 28,
2020
Coding XBee Module Applications Using MicroPython
MicroPython is a popular scaled-down version of Python that is designed to run on microcontrollers. ToDay's lecture will consist of MicroPython code segments performing various tasks on and around various XBee modules. This lecture will also look at how to use MicroPython running on an ARM microcontroller to interface to an XBee module.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
Silicon Labs EFM8BB1 Busy Bee Low Cost Kit First Look Video
Welcome to the Wireless Menagerie: RF Bands and Protocol Choices for Embedded Developers, Part 1 - Article
Silicon Labs Wireless Gecko Series 2 First Look Video
Wireless XBee3 Micropython Platform and TE Connectivity's Weather Shield - Blog
Download Archive: MP4
January 29,
2020
Building a Battery-Optimized High Power XBee Node
ToDay's discussion centers around the design and construction of a high-power long-range 900MHz XBee-based sensor node. The co-star of the project is a very low power ARM microcontroller. Firmware details will be exposed along with the hardware design details.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
Silicon Labs EFM8BB1 Busy Bee Low Cost Kit First Look Video
Welcome to the Wireless Menagerie: RF Bands and Protocol Choices for Embedded Developers, Part 1 - Article
Silicon Labs Wireless Gecko Series 2 First Look Video
Wireless XBee3 Micropython Platform and TE Connectivity's Weather Shield - Blog
Download Archive: MP4
January 30,
2020
DigiMesh Primer
The object of toDay's lecture is to introduce you to an easy to use mesh network implementation. DigiMesh is a proprietary wireless mesh networking topology developed by Digi's RF engineering experts which allows for time synchronized sleeping nodes and low-power operation. Unlike ZigBee, DigiMesh network devices are the same and are capable of routing, sleeping for power optimization, and communicating via a mesh network.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
Silicon Labs EFM8BB1 Busy Bee Low Cost Kit First Look Video
Welcome to the Wireless Menagerie: RF Bands and Protocol Choices for Embedded Developers, Part 1 - Article
Silicon Labs Wireless Gecko Series 2 First Look Video
Wireless XBee3 Micropython Platform and TE Connectivity's Weather Shield - Blog
Download Archive: MP4
January 31,
2020
Digi XBee Wi-Fi On Your Phone
The final lecture in this series will consist of an application based on a XBee Wi-Fi module. If you have followed my chain of lectures, you know that I like to do things with cell phones. So, we're going to assemble an application that involves interfacing an XBee Wi-Fi module with your phone.
Course Resources
Special Educational Materials
Silicon Labs EFM8BB1 Busy Bee Low Cost Kit First Look Video
Welcome to the Wireless Menagerie: RF Bands and Protocol Choices for Embedded Developers, Part 1 - Article
Silicon Labs Wireless Gecko Series 2 First Look Video
Wireless XBee3 Micropython Platform and TE Connectivity's Weather Shield - Blog
Download Archive: MP4
Instructor
Fred Eady
Owner, EDTP Electronics Inc. and Principal Engineer, Ongoing Systems LLC.

Fred Eady is the owner of EDTP Electronics Inc. and is the principal engineer at the Georgia branch of Ongoing Systems LLC. EDTP Electronics was established in 1988. In the meantime, Fred has written thousands of magazine articles. He has written for all of the major electronic magazines, including Radio Electronics, Electronics Now, Nuts and Volts, Servo, MicroComputer Journal, and Circuit Cellar. Fred has even done a few short feature articles for Design News. To date, he has authored four books and contributed to a fifth. He currently works as a PIC microcontroller consultant and is a Microchip Authorized Design Partner. Fred’s expertise also extends into the ARM community where he is a hardware and firmware design consultant. His customers include aerospace companies, machine shops, specialty startup companies, medical machine manufacturers, coin-operated device businesses, and various other research and development companies. He has a very close working relationship with Microchip Technology, the manufacturer of PIC microcontrollers, and has taught multiple Ethernet and WiFi classes at Microchip's annual Masters Conference.