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

[budude]

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."

I got my two MaxStream modules today and downloaded XCTU. I already had a USB carrier (SparkFun) from my Helix days. XCTU found it OK and reported it as an XB24 with version 106 FW (matches underside of board as well which says XB24-AWI-001). I clicked on "Show Defaults" (after selecting XB24) and then saved with firmware upgrade and it appears to be working OK with the latest code version 10ED. Now - I should rephrase that - I don't know that it actually works as it's supposed to as I only have the one side running but it powers up and appears to keep settings so this may just work after all. Now I need to build up one of Dave's boards to find out if they really really work...

[CaptKirk]

Got mine also- I just need Dave's site to allow me to order- it thinks it can't deliver to Placerville. Huh, the people mailing bills and the post office certianly do not know that...

[Xenia]

Recieved my five today. They all responded to the X-CTU software and were upgradeable to the 10ED firmware. So hopefull all I need are two XBee Pros with rp-sma connectors from Mouser. One as the transmitter and the second unit for my roof and I will be set for 2012.

Oh.. the final cost with shipping was $11.66 per unit.

[Mudsculpter]

Based on the chatter so far I got five of these as well. I can finally populate my boards now. I wont have to creatively snake cat5 all over creation to get signal to a controller 30 feet away to avoid laying cable across the sidewalk.

[Lefserev]

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

Yeah, I noticed, but now there is a make offer button! Even more tempting.
I've noticed that some like to use the non pro models as receivers. Do they have a decent range/sensitivity? I only have a pair of Series 2 PROs

[CaptKirk]

In theory, the non-Pro version has a less sensative receiver, and the little wip antenna is NOT the most optimal. However, with a Series 1 Pro as the transmitter, and you other Pro at the furthest element, these lower cost ones will likely work well closer to the transmitter (YMMV).

[rjchu]

So, has anyone made an offer yet? And if so, how low did you go and was it accepted???

-joni-

[Skunberg]

So, has anyone made an offer yet? And if so, how low did you go and was it accepted???
-joni-

I offered $7.55 each for ten, they countered $9 each and I took it.

Brian

[rjchu]

Ok, I tried much lower than that to see what would happen and they came back with the same $9. After some back and forth just now (apparently their business hours match ours) they came down to $8.25 for 7 so I took it. Wonder if anyone will get them any lower and how many more they have?

Now to order more Rev6 boards from Dirk!

Oh, and if you haven't bought them yet, the XBee headers can be had for a good price here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/230731457475

Thanks,

-joni-

I offered $7.55 each for ten, they countered $9 each and I took it.

Brian

[CaptKirk]

Anyone want to "share the wealth" on Xbee connectors? I could really use 2 (but 6 would be ideal), just not 40. PM me if so. THX.