azfar-adib
Joined: 02 Oct 2009
Posts: 2
Location: http://www.facebook.com/azfar-adib
|
 05 Nov 2009 7:11 Starting work with Zigbee |
|
|
|
|
Hi. I am planning to start some work with Zigbee protocol.This is going to be a beginner's work,beacause no kind of exploration of Zigbee has been yet made in the Research Insitute where I am working,probably not even in our country.Our initital goal is to getting familiar with the protocol,the device,and our ultimate target is to use Zigbee in some applications already planned & implemented by our institute like:wireless power measurement,distress signalling etc.
Currently I am trying to choose an appropriate Zigbee platform for this task.As I have seen:
1. Many companies like:Atmel.Meshnetics,ST Mircoelectronics make Zigbee modules with integrated microcontroller unit+transreceiver modules.These modules will be preferrable for our task,but a problem is the price of these.As I have seen,the unit price of Atmel's ATZB-ATZB-A24-UFL module is 49.2$,same is the price for ST Mircroelectronics's SPZB260 module.Since our ultimate product will be a consumer device so itz not possible to allocate a high price for a single module.
2.Some companies like:Microchip,Flexipanel make modules that include only transceivers without any processing unit.Unit price of Microchip's MRF24J40MA module is 9.95$.Thatz within the acceptable range. They have preferred to use PIC microcontrollers with that.An additional task in this case will be to build the interface between the rf module and the microcontroller.Is this going to be a cumbersome task?Or is this one the preferrable option?
3. It will be very good for us if we start using Zigbee development kits.I have seen that some of these kits -XBee® & XBee-PRO® DigiMesh™ 2.4 RF Modules by Digi (price 269$),and Texax Instrumetn's CC2431 Development kit .We can start working with these kits,but we need to be sure that the platform that we are using is a stable one(something that will not become obsolete after a year),and the end device that will be produced through these will be a low cost,efficient device.
Thanks for reading this long post.I shall be very delighted if anyone provides any kind of suggestion regarding this topic.
A.Adib
Dhaka,Bangladesh
|
|
