PK70 802.15.4/Zigbee Wireless Bridge Board

[geocentric]

If anyone's interested, I've created a PK70 personality board for use as a 802.15.4/Zigbee Ethernet bridge.

http://g-centric.com/gstore/gstore.html

[rnixon]

That looks very cool. I have been looking into home automation stuff for power meters, sprinklers, etc. and they all seem to be headed towards zigbee. What would I need from a s/w standpoint to use the zigbee feature?

[geocentric]

Just a note about ZigBee ...many feel the protocol is a bit too complex for many uses. ZigBee is geared toward the implementation of complex mesh networks, although for many implementations this complexity is not required. The 802.15.4 protocol is the foundation for ZigBee and is less complex. So, read up on both 802.15.4 and ZigBee before you decide.

The XBee/XBee Pro modules from Digi implement the 82.15.4 protocol which is the basis for ZigBee , but not full ZigBee . These modules implement a serial command interface with the ability to only be controlled by an external device. In this case it would be the PK70.

The Jennic modules come in two versions, 802.15.4 implementation, and ZigBee . Either type also may be used with Jennic's propriatary protocol. The main difference between the Jennic and Digi modules is that unlike the XBee module Jennic's module is completely programmable. The Jennic module is both a microcontroller and RF module implementation. So, if your more into embedded development Jennic's your pick for more control and flexability. Jennic provides a very good FREE SDK.

The Jennic board I provide comes with the 802.15.4 modules, but I can provide the ZigBee version module as well. So, to answer your question if you had to have ZigBee support I could provide you the Jennic board with a ZigBee module instead of the 802.15.4 which is not a problem. You would need to become familiar with the SDK, but IMO it's very easy to come up to speed, and they have a good user community. The SDK has an API and template that makes implementation very straight forward. And lots of examples.

[geocentric]

I misspoke regarding the Digi modules support of ZigBee. They actually do support full Zigbee with the newer module releases.

[Ran_Talbott]

When I first heard about Zigbee a while back, I did some googling, and came across several hits complaining about 802.11 systems causing problems with 2.4GHz Zigbee.

Has anyone using Zigbee encountered intereference from Wifi systems?

Ran

[geocentric]

Jennic has a very good app note on 802.11 and ZigBee network co-existence:

http://www.jennic.com/files/support_fil ... nd-1v0.pdf