How to Switch Protocols with Digi XBee® 3 Modules

Anuja Upale in Blogs on May 04, 2022

About Anuja Upale

Anuja Upale is an Engineer with a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Electronics & Telecommunications from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, and a Master’s in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Maryland. With eight years of hands-on experience in the tech and electronics industries, Anuja serves as an excellent technical consulting resource for design engineers. Specializing in wireless technologies, including Cellular, Bluetooth Low Energy, Wi-Fi, LoRa®,and GPS–Anuja develops insightful reference designs, application notes, white papers, and product kits to support the advancement of innovative technologies.

XBee® 3 modules are the latest generation of Digi International’s wireless XBee® modules. The XBee 3 product line drives rapid development with reduced time to market. Additionally, Digi XBee 3 modules provide backwards compatibility with older products and future-proofing by supporting multiple wireless protocols. Digi modules support Zigbee, 802.15.4, DigiMesh protocols.

Pre-requisites for switching protocols on XBee3 modules:

Download Digi’s XCTU configuration platform for XBee/RF solutions
Possess Xbee3 module hardware
Possess a development board or custom board with access to serial connections. To support serial firmware updates and recovery, you must connect power, ground, flow control and data connections (VCC, GND, DOUT, DIN, RTS, and DTR).

How to switch Protocols with Digi Xbee 3 modules:

1. Connect the module to a PC and check the Device Manager if device is recognized

2. Open XCTU and ensure the module is added to the list:

If you know the serial configuration of your radio module, you can add it to the list manually.

3. Click ‘Update’ tab to switch protocol:

4. Check the current configuration of the module:

The ‘Update Firmware’ screen displays the current configuration of the module. The example module provided belongs to XB3-24 product family. It has Digi XBee 3 Zigbee 3.0 protocol and 100B firmware version. It also shows the latest firmware available for the selected protocol.