Looking at the settings in XCTU, I see the value for NH (Network Hops) is set to 7.
For one of our deployments we may need to have more hops to reach the modem and I was thinking of setting the value to hex value A to increase that max number of hops value.
From my understanding both the modem, repeaters, and the nodes themselves have to have the same NH value for the max number of hops value to work correctly. If that is correct, does Alpha Station or the library for Node-Red provide a way to set the NH value or would I need to remove each xbee module from the nodes and plug it in a USB board to set the value in XCTU?
Hi @duelingcats Could you elaborate a bit more about your application and industrial environment?
For your reference,The DigiMesh protocol we utilize is only rated for up to 8 hops. So you can have up to 7 repeaters between the sensor and the Gateway/Modem.
Thanks,
Eduardo M.
My environment requires lower power levels (PL value set to 2) and hence lower range as well an environment that is difficult to get signal through. Those two things combined have made range an issue with our initial deployment and required a few repeaters. We are planning for the next larger deployment to have the same issues.
From what I was reading I thought the max number of hops was 32.
Looking at Digi’s Documentation here I see the same you are mentioning @duelingcats
https://docs.digi.com/resources/documentation/digidocs/90002173/#reference/r_cmd_nh.htm?TocPath=AT%2520commands%257CNetwork%2520commands%257C_____3
Take a look at NH under AT Commands/Network.
I’ll see if I can confirm this with Digi but previously the number of hops was limited to 8 as Eduardo mentioned.
@TravisE_NCD_Technica Yes I had ask Digi about the settings a few months ago in this thread Maximum hops for broadcast - XBee - DigiMesh - Digi Technical Support Forums but wanted to confirm that setting that value wouldn’t mess up anything on the embedded NCD software side of things.
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To my knowledge it would not mess anything up on our end. I would be curious to know your findings. Keep us posted.
@TravisE_NCD_Technica Would you be able to add the ability to configure the NH parameter in the node-red pallete or alpha station? Taking all these digi chips out by hand to put in a USB board is slow and can be a little fragile to take out. I am going to have hundreds of these sensor nodes.
You can actually do this wirelessly using X-CTU:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.digi.com/products/embedded-systems/digi-xbee/digi-xbee-tools/xctu&ved=2ahUKEwjPrNWjx72SAxWm7ckDHalyG6cQFnoECA0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw0gTMGS6uceFjfhODaJv36N
You will need a USB modem with a wireless module installed. Through X-CTU you can discover wireless units.
If these modules that need to be configured are installed in battery powered sensors which go to sleep then you need to keep them awake. The simplest way to do this is to put them into configuration mode(Press RST button, then press and hold CFG button, count to 8, then release CFG button). Once the unit is in Configuration mode it will stay awake until you press the RST button again so don’t forget to do that otherwise you could kill the battery.
After the Sensor is put into Configuration mode it changes its Network ID to 7BCD. It is important that you set the network ID of your USB modem module to 7BCD as well. Now you can scan for wireless units in X-CTU and it will see the sensors, you can click on them to change any setting you like in the module, write that setting, then press the RST button to put it back into normal run mode.
Let me know if you have any questions on this.
Thank you,
Travis Elliott