Connecting an Xbee 24ZB to Smartthings Hub

I recently got into smart things. The hub isn't approved in New Zealand as the Zwave frequency doesn't match the stupid choice of New Zealand's spectrum. I decided I wouldn't buy any Zwave gear and stick to Zigbee that uses 2.4 Gig.

I want to make a few of my own "Things" so I decided to buy the Smartthings Maker board. WhenI went to buy some, there were none available to buy so since I had a couple of Xbees on my desk I figured I'd use them instead.

The ones I have are NOT Pro models.

I'd read a lot of conflicting "advice" as to whether this was possible. I couldn't see why it wouldn't be so I decided to go and find out.

So where to start.

The first thing is to get the Xbee setup to talk to the Hub.

There are a lot of settings that need to be set correctly so I did a bit of experimentation. In fact it didn't take long to get the Xbee connected but it was without using encryption which wasn't desirable so I needed a little help.

I found a blog of someone connecting a Propeller board via Zigbee Pro so I used his security settings for my Non-PRO Xbee

OK so now what?

Now you need to go into Smartthings app and click on add device/ add new device. This allows network discovery.

After a few moments you should get another Modem Status message. This time it should say Device joined Network.

Its important to note at this stage that SmartThings won't report that a device attached.

What has happened is that the Xbee has joined the network and has received PAN ID's and a local 16 bit address. 

In order for the App to see a device it needs to see an endpoint. That part is up to us so lets get on with it.

In order for us to send the required messages to the hub we need to find out our addresses. We do this by having a look back at the configuration page.

Find the MY setting and tap the refresh button to get the current setting.

this is now the 16 bit address. Write it down.

The SH and SL settings also need to be written down. Together they form the 64 bit address. If either of those two fields have less than four bytes of data, they need leading zeros.

In this example the 16 bit address is EF D2

and the 64 bit address is 00 13 A2 00 40 BF 94 F8

We will need these. 

Go back to the Console

Now what we need to do is announce to the Hub that we are here. This will then send the hub into its discovery mode to try to find out who and what is doing the talking.

From here on we will be using the explicit addressing mode to send out Zigbee frames. Its not so user friendly but its what we've got.

So lets build new command. Click on the + in the Send Frames area.

Type in a meaningful name in the frame name box, like 'Device Announce'

and select ' Create Frame using frame generator tool'

Save the frame and send it.

You should get a transmit status message back saying success and it should be followed by an Explicit receive indicator from the Hub.

In response to the Device announce, the SmartThings hub will begin its fingerprinting by returning an Active Endpoints request to see what endpoints are on the announcing device.

Looking at the message above we can see the cluster ID of 00 05, which is an Active endpoints request. If we look at the received data in the frame in this example, we can see 0C which is a frame ID (we need to reply with this) and our 16 bit address in little endian again. All good stuff.

So now we need to reply buy sending an Active Endpoints Response message.

for this test we will only advise one endpoint but you can add plenty if you wish.

Make a new frame to send of the Explicit Addressing type.

Again you will get a transmit status message and a new Request back from the hub.

(Please note, In the picture I had a transmit issue that I was too lazy to fix so I had to send the message a few times. Don't let it fool ya.)

This time time we get back a Cluster ID of 00 04. This is a Simple Descriptor Request. This is our hub saying "OK I see that there is an endpoint 08, what does it do?"

We reply with a Simple Descriptor Response.. you guessed it.. set the most significant bit and get cluster ID of 80 04. 

And don't forget to note the new frame ID. 0D in this case.

Time for a new frame to send.

Send it off.

You should get a Transmit Status back with a success notice.

Now if you look at the app you should note that you now have another 'Thing' connected to the hub.

Since we didn't have a device driver ready, it won't know what it is but it's connected.

NOTE:

When I wrote this I was on a V1 hub and this was all that was required. The V2 Hub now delves further for a better fingerprint. The hub will, at this point use the announced profile (Home Automation) clusters to extract more information.

I will continue this on the following pages..

Now is a good time to build a device type. In fact it would have been handy doing this first but anyway...

This device driver is VERY crude. It has some parts that need fixing even but for now it will do.

Once that is entered and published its ready for us to use.

The 'Thing' connected on the app needs to be deleted so do that.

Then start all over again.. you did save the frame list didn't you?

All that needs changing is to match the Frame ID and its a fairly simple matter to go through it all again. It should find the Xbee device driver from the fingerprint.

So now all we need to do is test it.

Go to the device on the app and turn it on.

You should receive another Explicit RX indicator for each time you turn it on or off.

Lets take a look.

So the pertinent bits...

Cluster ID 00 06 in Profile 01 04 is a Home Automation On/Off command

Looking at the Data.

01: This is the Control frame. Its saying from Client to Server. Remember the Server is the thing that does stuff.

00: This is a frame ID.. It will count up as usual.

01: This is the sub command.. It means Turn me On. If it was 00 it means Turn me off and 02 = Toggle me.

So there it is. It can be done and it isn't too difficult.

The rest is up to you.

Further information.. XBee to SmartThings Continued..