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Quick question: I'm setting up a mesh network with Digi's Xbees series 2, one coordinator and as many as 8 end-devices and as the title implies.

I was wondering if the end-devices could receive data from the coordinator, making for a 2-way communication as I know they can send data to it. These are used in an Arduino-based robot location triangulation project.

Anton Menshov
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RenanGM
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    Note that if you have sleeping end devices, there will be a limit to how many frames of data the parent node will queue for each device while it's sleeping. Unless you absolutely need to be an end device (for example, due to a limited power budget) you're better off configuring the radios as routers. – tomlogic Mar 21 '14 at 18:19
  • @tomlogic I thought routers served as data relays only, but the end devices don't have to necessarily be end devices. I'll try yours and hemerly's configurations when I can and then update the question. – RenanGM Mar 23 '14 at 09:59
  • There are three ZigBee node types: coordinator (1 per network), end devices (which can sleep, and can only talk to a parent node), and routers. All node types can send and receive data, but only the coordinator and routers make up the mesh network that relays data between nodes. Use "node" to refer to a radio on the network, and "coordinator", "router", or "end device" to specify the node type. – tomlogic Mar 25 '14 at 14:37

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Yes, you can do it using API mode if you know the mac address of the device you want to talk to.

Try it here: Digi API Frame Maker. The Frame you need to use is Transmit Request (type 0x10).

You can do it in Transparent Mode too, but in this case you need to enter command mode and set the device address before sending data each time you need to talk to a different module (using ATDLand ATDH commands).

Heeryu
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