Help with sparkfun explorer dongle and XBee PRO 900 communication.

Question

Hi all,

I have 2 XBee PRO 900's (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9099) and 2 Sparkfun USB dongles (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11697). My goal is to periodically send a small text file with simple ASCII data over RF. However, I would like to do this directly from one computer to another (no microcontrollers involved).

I've tried researching similar solutions and found that it might be possible using xmodem to communicate to the XBee over USB (COM port).

I have the FTDI drivers and XTCU software installed. I was able to successfully send and receive test ASCII using the XTCU software so I'm sure it's possible somehow.

Ideally, I would like a C or C++ solution to this problem.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

Yeah its possible and very convenient. You don't need XModem for this. XModem is useful when you are planning to send some pdf or any other format file.

In your C program, just create a serial socket connection on port on which module is connected. Then simply push/write data on one side and pull/receive it on other end. I have written a python script for this, you can use it for reference:

import serial
import sys

ser = serial.Serial('COM7', 9600, timeout=2)
print "Connected to COM17"

ser.write("Tx data here")
ser.close()

print "EOP"

Answer 2

Asgm is right on. It is as simple as opening a socket and sending/receiving data.