XBEE Explorer USB

After a frustrating weekend trying to get the Digi XBee Pro S3B radios to work correctly on this board, I gave in and contacted Digi tech support -- which is great. They pointed out to me that a well known issue is that the SparkFun boards do not correctly support XBee Pro S3B because of an issue with the LED on line 6 (for the RSSI -- Relative Signal Strength Indication). The problem is documented on the Digi website at http://www.digi.com/support/kbase/kbaseresultdetl?id=3325 (if that URL doesn't show up, do a web search for "Cannot communicate to an XBee XSC (S3B) when using third-party interface boards" -- support issue #3325).The symptom of this issue: plugging in the Explorer USB board (with the XBee radio connceted) into a computer running Digi's XCTU results in count-up in HEX format on the console,The fix turns out to simple: cut the jumper on the back of the board labeled "RSSI" -- the jumper is traced (not wires), and looks like a little "H". Sparkfun tech support was able to provide this solution. After cutting this trace, the Digi XCTU console stopped showing the random count up data.I also have a Sparkfun Explorer Regulated board. The solution here is a little less elegant: desolder, cut, or break off the LED for RSSI (between DOUT LED and PWR LED).I haven't had a chance to actually use the boards now after this fix, but wanted to share the outcome of my techsupport calls.

Works pretty well. However the saddle came off after taking it out the xbee modele a couple of time. I would work well if you do not have take out the xbee module.

Needed a way to interface an XBee to the PC so that I could configure the XBee for a project I was working on. This board works great at a reasonable price. Very easy to use.

works great had to remove a trace to program the radios

It;s really good product. I consider it's a little fragile, but well in electronics, that's something normal. I recommend it.

good

Let's you connect an XBee module to your computer. Useful if you need to program some modules or want your computer to be able to interact with other XBee modules via a serial port.

One worked perfect right out of the box, the second one was partially doa and had to be rma'd, which is a shame considering the price