XBEE CAPE MANUAL

Beagle Bone Black XBee Prototyping Cape

CBB-XBEE
Revision 1.0
June 3, 2014

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XBEE CAPE MANUAL

Description
The XBee cape makes it easy to use an XBee or other compatible radio with your BeagleBone or BeagleBone Black
projects. It provides an XBee footprint, general prototyping area, and footprints for 2x LEDs and 2x tactile switches.

Features

Female headers for XBee or other compatible radio

Dedicated 3.3V linear regulator to provide plenty of current for radio as well as user circuitry
Footprints for LEDs connected to XBee Associate and RSSI signals
Footprints for 2 vertical or right-angle tactile switches
Access to all P8 and P9 header connection points
169 0.1 spaced holes for general prototyping
Easy access to 3.3V and 5V power rails
Dimensions: 55 x 87 x 13mm (above P8,P9)
RoHS compliant

Architecture
Signal name
UART2_TXD
UART2_RXD

Header Pin
P9_21
P9_22

Pin Mode
UART2 TX
UART2 RX

Comments
Serial data out to radio
Serial data in from radio

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XBEE CAPE MANUAL

BeagleBone Black Pin Allocation

Requirements for use (not included):

BeagleBone Black with suitable distribution loaded
5V DC Power Supply for BeagleBone Black, 2A recommended

Getting Started
1. Solder the supplied 2x23 headers to the outer footprints labeled P8 and P9. The easiest way to make sure
theyre lined up correctly is to plug the headers into a powered off BeagleBone, place the cape on the
headers, then solder it in place
2. Solder the supplied 2mm female headers in the XBee footprint
3. Install the cape and insert your radio module while the BeagleBone is powered off
4. Power up your BeagleBone and youre ready to go!

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XBEE CAPE MANUAL

Key Component Locations

Radio - XBee Compatible Footprint

The pins that are connected are (labeled by XBee pin names):
J1

Name

Pin 1
Pin 2
Pin 3
Pin 5
Pin 6
Pin 7
Pin 10
Pin 12
Pin 15
Pin 16

VDD
Serial out
Serial in
RESET
RSSI
DIO11
GND
CTS
Assoc.
RTS

Description
Radio supply, connected to output of the 3.3V regulator
Connected to UART2 RX by default
Connected to UART2 TX by default
Active low radio reset, connected to RST via
XBee signal strength, may be connected through R4 to LED2
Connected to P7 via, DIO11 on XBee
Connected to BeagleBone GND
Connected to P12 via, CTS or DIO7 on XBee
XBee associate indicator, may be connected through R3 to LED1
Connected to P16 via, RTS or DIO6 on XBee

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XBEE CAPE MANUAL

LED1, R3 - XBee Associate Signal or User LED
If R3 and LED1 are both populated, the LED will indicate a connected XBees network association status.
If R3 is not populated, then LED1 may be used as a general purpose LED, in which case you can connect to the anode
by running a wire to the via in the R3 footprint that is closer to the LEDs.
LED2, R4 - XBee RSSI or User LED
If R4 and LED2 are both populated, the brightness of the LED will indicate a connected XBees received signal
strength.
If R4 is not populated, then LED2 may be used as a general purpose LED, in which case you can connect to the anode
by running a wire to the via in the R4 footprint that is closer to the LEDs.
TX, R1 - Radio Serial Output
By default the radios serial output is connected to UART2s RX input. You may optionally connect the radio serial
output to another UART by removing R1 then wiring from the TX via to the desired UARTs RX pin on the P8 or P9
header.
RX, R2 - Radio Serial Input
By default the radios serial input is connected to UART2s TX output. You may optionally connect the radio serial
input to another UART by removing R2 then wiring from the RX via to the desired UARTs TX pin on the P8 or P9
header.
GND, 3.3V, 5V - Power Supply Connections
These pins can be used to power your prototyped circuit. GND is connected directly to the BeagleBones GND, 5V is
connected directly to the 5V supply voltage from the BeagleBones DC barrel jack, and 3.3V is connected to the
ouptut of the capes TLV1117 linear regulator. You can draw up to 500mA from the 3.3V connections.
S1, S2, R5, R6 - Optional Tact Switches
The S1 and S2 footprints may be used to hold either vertical or right-angle tact switches. The two sides of the
switches can be accessed from the nearby vias as labeled on the silkscreen. R5 and R6 may optionally be used as
pull-up or pull-down resistors for the switches, and are routed as shown on the silkscreen.

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XBEE CAPE MANUAL

Programming
To communicate with the connected XBee or other compatible radio youll need to first enable UART2. To do this you
can use the
BB-UART2-00A0.dtbo
Device Tree overlay thats already included with your Kernel. Use the capemgr
driver to enable the overlay:
root@beaglebone:~#echoBBUART2>/sys/devices/bone_capemgr.*/slots

You can confirm that the overlay loaded successfully by reading the contents of the slots file:
root@beaglebone:~#cat/sys/devices/bone_capemgr.*/slots
0:54:PF
1:55:PF
2:56:PF
3:57:PF
4:ff:POLBoneLTeMMC2G,00A0,TexasInstrument,BBBONEEMMC2G
5:ff:POLBoneBlackHDMI,00A0,TexasInstrument,BBBONELTHDMI
7:ff:POLOverrideBoardName,00A0,OverrideManuf,BBUART2

In this case the BB-UART2 overlay was loaded in slot #7.

You will now have the
/dev/ttyO2
serial port file for UART2 which you can use this to communicate with the XBee.
For example, using the python-xbee Python library (
https://code.google.com/p/python-xbee/
) would look like:

fromxbeeimportXBee
importserial

ser=serial.Serial('/dev/ttyO2',9600)#UseUART2serialport

xbee=XBee(ser)

#Continuouslyreadandprintpackets
whileTrue:
try:
response=xbee.wait_read_frame()
printresponse
exceptKeyboardInterrupt:
break

ser.close()

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XBEE CAPE MANUAL

Open Source Hardware
This product is Open Source Hardware. Design materials, schematics and source code is available on GitHub at
Design materials are NOT SUPPORTED and DO NOT constitute a reference design. THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE
DESIGN MATERIALS, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN
WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE DESIGN MATERIALS AS IS WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED
WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY
AND PERFORMANCE OF THE DESIGN MATERIALS IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE DESIGN MATERIALS PROVE DEFECTIVE,
YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.
We mean it, these design materials may be totally unsuitable for any purposes.

License
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of
this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second
Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
All derivative works are to be attributed to Logic Supply, Inc.
The BeagleBone, BeagleBone Black and Beagleboard remains the property of beaglebone.org. All references to
BeagleBone, BeagleBone Black, Beagleboard are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License. All references to CircuitCo remain the property of CircuitCo and are not affiliated to Logic Supply, Inc. in any
way.

Change History
06/03/2014

Version 1.0

Initial Release

More Information
For more information, see
www.logicsupply.com

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