Great deal on Xbee Series 1 (I think) U.S. Only

[kychristmas]

...I have already bought 3 Ren-Wv6 but I have seing on Mr. Dirknerkle's new web site this gizmo for my SS16 & SS24, this I think will be better & cheaper than building the Ren-Wv6 http://www.diychristmas.org/store/product.php?id_product=12

Marcos,
I may be an old grouchy bastard, but your posts are very hard to read. For me, the Bold and the use of the bright contrasting just doesn't work. Please take it as advice and not criticism. Like me, there may be others who aren't reading your posts, but may be able to help.

[CaptKirk]

Kelly, sometimes, yes you are, but then so are most of the rest of us which is why we fit in so well....


Marcos, unless you are placing your receiving devices a mile away at the range the Pro modules claim, I wonder if you need to spend that extra for the receivers to be pros. Mr. Nerkel is the expert and if you want to "be sure" then get the Pros- for me, I am going to mix Pros and the less expensive units.

I believe you can get the real deal from Mouser for only $4 more.

The Ebay ones are new (according to the post) and they list the Mouser P/N as the item- is there doubt these are the "real deal"? Why give Mouser the extra $4 when that could buy another set of lights or part of a controller?? Just curious.

[dirknerkle]

The Ebay ones are new (according to the post) and they list the Mouser P/N as the item- is there doubt these are the "real deal"? Why give Mouser the extra $4 when that could buy another set of lights or part of a controller?? Just curious.

Mouser buys it products direct from the manufacturers. No telling where 2nd party/eBay products may have come from or whether they actually are new. Digi bought Maxstream more than 2 years ago and all XBees now say "Digi" on the top. When one says "Maxstream" it's at least 2 years old. It may be "new" in the sense of unused, but it's not "new" in terms of the product itself. An XBee is a conglomerate of a lot of things under its hood and one of them is the PLU. The current firmware that you need to use is 10E6 or later; it's possible that earlier Maxstream units may not reflash with 10E6. Another telltale sign is the little white flex antenna: it hasn't been used since Maxstream made the first models.

That's what I meant about "the real deal."

[CaptKirk]

Got it- I was not aware of a change like that. In your opinion, how likely is it that these will not work for our purposes? Has anyone been successful using the "newer" and "older" models of this module?? I guess this deal needs an asterisk...

[dirknerkle]

Ygiagam.

[LabRat]

Ygiagam.

Gesundheit.

[CaptKirk]

Price dropped to $11.12 + $2.45 ship in us AFTER I bought... grrr...

[raplass]

so how well will these work on a large front yard....1 acre wide about 100 ft to my display...i am using Several SS series controllers.

Somewhere in the Ren-W wiki its mentioned that the range of an XBee Pro is about 200 feet. I've experimentally confirmed this value with a transmitter / receiver set of Pros because I wanted to be sure my Ren-W transmitter could reach an interested neighbor's yard.

Dirk's post #13 in this thread brings up an important point. The higher the price of a given electronic component, the more likely it is that there are under-performing or even nonfunctional counterfeits out there. It is safer to go to reputable vendors who purchase directly from the OEMs / suppliers.

[Zeph]

The seller claims to be a board assembly house which occassionally sells off overstock; look at what else they offer. They do seem to be such a company and they claim to have taken care of their stock (temp, static, etc). It's plausible that these are overstock from an older project which they are clearing out. The caveats about older revisions would still apply of course, even so.

[ErnieHorning]

It's plausible that these are overstock from an older project which they are clearing out.

I remember replacing the clock chips in 80286 PC's with the DS-1386. It was a quick way to fix the motherboard when the battery died for the configuration RAM. Unfortunately, according the date code, the 10 year Lithium battery for these died 6 years ago. Someones going to be dissapointed they paid $27 for one.