Restoring Your Broken XBee

Just a while ago, I had a problem of bricking my xbees.  I was using moltosenso IRON and I accidentally loaded the wrong firmware on it.  For this tutorial, I will use series 2 XBees (not proven to work yet on series 1) and restore them to their original state.  Most all problems with not showing up on the com port, not being able to communicate once you have loaded some random firmware are all causes of bricking your XBee.  I have watched some videos on this, and I had to search around for the best possible outcome.  This probably will restore your broken XBees, and be the easiest tutorial.

Feel free to leave any questions in the comments section.

Note: This will work with XBee-Pros.

Step 1: Parts

All you need is an

XBee Explorer (or other xbee FTDI board)
1 Jumper wire
Bricked XBee S2
A PC running the newest version of X-CTU

Comments

[Ralphxyz]

Fantastic, actually I have not bricked a XBee (yet) as I am just getting started
but this was a very informative instructable, Thank You!!

Ralph

[Build_it_Bob]

Qtechknow,
Very nice work ! I am 48 years old and I haven't worked with xbee yet...guess I better get started. I started with electronics when I was about your age , and to this day I still find it so fascinating.
Arduino , Xbee , PIC chips , internet and Instructibles have all made for awesome electronics learning. I look forward to your next Instructible ...curious to know what you made with your Xbee's !
Thanks again for your contribution!
Build_it_Bob

[Qtechknow]

Thanks very much for the reply. I hope to do more awesome XBee projects in the future (probably one this month). Thanks for subscribing too.

[HeyElleCP]

Wow, amazing! Let us know when you do some other XBee work. We created an XBee project gallery, and we'd love to feature one of your XBee projects.
www.xbeewireless.tumblr.com

Keep up the great work!

Liz

[Qtechknow]

Thanks for the comment. I am working on an Xbee project with the help of Building Wireless Sensor Networks. I will have a functional project by the end of this month and at Bay Area Maker Faire.

[jsohail1]

same errors are being displayed by my xbee but this method jst didnt work . the error msg in the last step didnot go away when i shorted RST and GND . any suggestion ?

[Qtechknow]

Hmm... Try XB-24ZB for the modem and Zigbee Coordinator API for the device, and then if that works, try again with the same modem, but with the device that you want your XBee to have the firmware of. When I originally made the Instructable, I figured out that sometimes you need to burn the firmware of a different modem for different XBees to function correctly. Thanks!

[jhon_isaak]

hola que tal buen tutorial teno un xbee S2xb24-ZTWIT y realice los pasos que mostraste en tu tutorial pero no me funciono!!!! Ojala y me puedas guiar de que debo hacer ahora por que no puedo avanzar en mi proyecto gracias

[Qtechknow]

Me alegro que funcionó! Si está atrapado en una parte de su proyecto, le recomiendo mirar el libro Construyendo Redes de Sensores Inalámbricos por Rob Faludi.

[tomlogic]

Nice Instructable, Qtechknow. Check out the free program Greenshot for taking screen shots. Has a nice feature of being able to easily grab any window, and has a quick editor for cropping before saving to disk.

Should make it easier to write future Instructables.

-Tom

[himanshu494]

wireless charging