Digi XBee Mobile
Application
User Guide
Revision history—90002323
Revision Date Description
A November 2018 Initial release.
B March 2019 1.1.0 release.
C August 2019 1.2.0 release.
Trademarks and copyright
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property of their respective owners.
© 2021 Digi International Inc. All rights reserved.
Disclaimers
Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a
commitment on the part of Digi International. Digi provides this document “as is,” without warranty of
any kind, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of fitness or
merchantability for a particular purpose. Digi may make improvements and/or changes in this manual
or in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this manual at any time.
Warranty
To view product warranty information, go to the following website:
www.digi.com/howtobuy/terms
Customer support
Gather support information: Before contacting Digi technical support for help, gather the following
information:
Product name and model
Product serial number (s)
Firmware version
Operating system/browser (if applicable)
Logs (from time of reported issue)
Trace (if possible)
Description of issue
Steps to reproduce
Contact Digi technical support: Digi offers multiple technical support plans and service packages.
Contact us at +1 952.912.3444 or visit us at www.digi.com/support.
Feedback
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Digi XBee Mobile User Guide
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Include the document title and part number (Digi XBee Mobile User Guide, 90002323 B) in the subject
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Contents
Digi XBee Mobile User Guide
Download and install Digi XBee Mobile
Requirements 7
Operating systems 7
System requirements 7
Supported devices 7
Install Digi XBee Mobile 7
Connect to an XBee device
Discover nearby devices 9
Establish the first connection 9
Actions menu 10
Configure the XBee device
Device Information panel 12
Device Configuration panel 12
Actions menu 12
Settings page 13
Refresh a setting 14
Actions menu 15
Communicate with other XBee interfaces
Relay Console 16
Frames log 17
Send frames 18
Configure the Digi XBee Mobile application
Update radio firmware definitions
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Digi XBee Mobile User Guide
Digi XBee Mobile is an iOS and Android compatible app that allows you to connect and configure Digi
XBee3 devices with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support.
Use Digi XBee Mobile to:
n Look for and connect to nearby XBee3 BLE devices.
n Get basic information from the device and the firmware version it is running.
n List all the configuration categories and settings of the firmware running in the XBee3 device.
n Read and change the value of any firmware setting.
n Send and receive data between the XBee local interfaces (serial port, MicroPython and
Bluetooth Low Energy).
n Perform a remote reset of the device.
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Download and install Digi XBee Mobile
This section provides instructions for downloading and installing the Digi XBee Mobile app.
Requirements 7
Install Digi XBee Mobile 7
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Download and install Digi XBee Mobile Requirements
Requirements
The requirements to run the Digi XBee Mobile application are:
Operating systems
Digi XBee Mobile is compatible with the following operating systems and versions:
n Android: 5.0 or higher
n iOS: 11 or higher
System requirements
Digi XBee Mobile is compatible with any smartphone that supports Bluetooth Low Energy.
Supported devices
n XBee3 Zigbee 3.0
n XBee3 DigiMesh
n XBee3 802.15.4
n XBee3 LTE Cat 1 AT&T
n XBee3 LTE-M/NB-IoT
Note Digi XBee Mobile supports all of the above devices in all their available hardware variants,
including surface-mount technology (SMT), through-hole technology (THT) and micro-mount
technology (MMT).
Install Digi XBee Mobile
Download the Digi XBee Mobile app from the iOSApp Store or Google Play.
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Connect to an XBee device
Before connecting to an XBee device, you must configure its Bluetooth authentication with XCTU. If
you have not done it yet, see Enable and configure Bluetooth in the XCTU User Guide to do so.
Discover nearby devices 9
Establish the first connection 9
Actions menu 10
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Connect to an XBee device Discover nearby devices
Discover nearby devices
When you open the Digi XBee Mobile app, it automatically displays the Devices list page and starts
looking for nearby XBee BLE devices.
Note If the Bluetooth interface is turned off on your device, the app asks you to turn it on.
The device list shows the following information per device (taking the third device of the image above
as a reference):
n Name: XBee3 Cellular Cat 1 AT
n MAC address: Cached data read from the device after the first connection. This data is only
displayed after the first connection (see devices 1 and 3 in the image above). Newly discovered
devices to which a connection has never been made do not display this value (see devices 2 and
4 in the image above).
n Signal quality
Establish the first connection
When your XBee device appears on the list, tap on it to open the connection. The application asks you
to enter its Bluetooth password.
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Connect to an XBee device Actions menu
Type the password you configured with XCTU and tap OK to establish a connection with the device.
Note You can toggle the Remember password switch on so you are not prompted with the Bluetooth
password dialog for future connections.
Actions menu
This menu, located on the top right corner of the application, allows you to perform several actions
over the application and Devices List page.
n Application preferences. Opens the Application preferences page to configure several Digi
XBee Mobile settings.
n Clear stored passwords. Removes the passwords saved for the connection process of each
device.
n Check for firmware updates. Checks and downloads new radio firmware definitions.
n Documentation. Opens the documentation URL of the application in the device's default web
browser.
n Provide feedback. Opens the feedback form to provide feedback about the application.
n About. Opens the application's About page.
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Configure the XBee device
Once a connection is established with your XBee device through BLE, the app displays general
information about the device and allows you to access the different firmware categories.
Device Information panel 12
Device Configuration panel 12
Actions menu 12
Settings page 13
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Configure the XBee device Device Information panel
Device Information panel
The Device Information panel displays general information about the XBee device:
n Protocol image
n Node identifier (name)
n MAC address
n Firmware version
Device Configuration panel
The Device Configuration panel displays a list with the different firmware configuration categories.
Tap on one of them to access the settings page of that category. See Settings page.
Actions menu
This menu, located on the top right corner of the application, allows you to perform several actions
over the XBee device.
n Relay Console. Opens the Relay Console page to communicate with other XBee interfaces.
n Application preferences. Opens the Application preferences page to configure several Digi
XBee Mobile settings.
n Reset device. Resets the XBee device and restores the Bluetooth connection with it.
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Configure the XBee device Settings page
n Disconnect. Closes the connection with the XBee device.
n Documentation. Opens the documentation URL of the application in the device's default web
browser.
n Provide feedback. Opens the feedback form to provide feedback about the application.
n About. Opens the application's About page.
Settings page
Once you have tapped on a configuration category, the application displays the Settings page which
contains the list of settings associated to the selected category. After it displays, you can view and
edit the value of each setting.
The following table describes the different controls of each setting:
Field Image Description
AT
parameter
Setting
name
Value Contains the text box or
Digi XBee Mobile User Guide
Displays the associated
AT parameter of the
setting.
Displays the name of the
setting.
combo box where the
setting value must be
typed or configured.
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Configure the XBee device Settings page
Field Image Description
Details pane Appears when you tap on
the Setting List item.
It displays the setting
description, range,
default value, and buttons
to refresh and write the
value of the setting.
Note Some settings, such
as the read-only settings,
do not have a write
button.
If the category contains any subcategories they are displayed in the Setting List with an item
indicating their name, followed by all their settings.
Digi XBee Mobile delineates the status of each setting with the background color of the AT parameter
rectangle. These are the possible statuses of a setting:
The value of the setting has changed but it has not been written in the radio module yet.
The value of the setting is written in the radio module but is different from the default
value.
The value of the setting is written in the radio module and matches the default value.
The value of the setting is not valid.
Refresh a setting
To refresh the value of a setting:
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Configure the XBee device Settings page
1. Tap the setting you want to refresh. The Details pane displays.
2. Tap the Refresh button of the Details pane.
You can also read all the settings from the category by using the Read all category settings menu
item from the top right actions menu, or by pulling to refresh from the top of the list.
Note Digi XBee Mobile validates the value of the setting before you write it. If the value to be written
is not valid, the setting background color changes to red and the summary of the details pane displays
the cause of the problem.
Actions menu
This menu, located on the top right corner of the application, allows you to perform several actions
over the application and settings of the page.
n Read all category settings. Reads all the settings located in the category and subcategories.
n Write all category settings. Writes all the settings located in the category and subcategories
that have been modified.
n Load default category settings. Loads the default values of all the settings located in the
category and subcategories.
n Reset device. Resets the XBee device and restores the Bluetooth connection with it.
n Disconnect. Closes the connection with the XBee device.
n Documentation. Opens the documentation URL of the application in the device's default web
browser.
n Provide feedback. Opens the feedback form to provide feedback about the application.
n About. Opens the application's About page.
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Communicate with other XBee interfaces
XBee3 devices have the ability to send and receive data between their different local interfaces: serial
port, MicroPython and Bluetooth Low Energy. This is useful if you want to communicate over
Bluetooth with a device connected to your XBee (PC, micro-controller...) or with any MicroPython
application running on it. This communication is performed through User Data Relay (0x2D) and User
Data Relay Output (0xAD) frames.
Relay Console
The Relay Console allows you to communicate with other local interfaces of the XBee device you are
connected to. To open the console, tap Options and then Relay Console.
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Communicate with other XBee interfaces Relay Console
The console has two sections, Frames log and Send frames.
Frames log
The Frames log is the User Data Relay frames traffic monitor. It shows both the sent and received
messages, represented with a blue or red arrow, respectively, the source or destination interface, a
unique identifier and the data.
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Communicate with other XBee interfaces Relay Console
Button Name Description
View
details
Opens a popup with the details of the sent/received frames.
TheView in ASCII switch allows you to change the format of the data,
between ASCII and hexadecimal.
Clear
log
Clears the list of sent and received frames.
Send frames
The Send frames section lists the User Data Relay frames you have created and allows you to add,
remove or edit the existing ones. They are represented with the destination interface, the frame
name and the data.
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Communicate with other XBee interfaces Relay Console
Button Name Description
Add
frame
Opens a popup to create and add a new frame. You have to specify the frame
name, destination interface and data to send.
TheView in ASCII switch allows you to change the format of the data,
between ASCII and hexadecimal.
Remove
frame
Edit
frame
Once you have created and added a frame, select it and tap Send selected frame to send it.
Removes the selected frame.
Opens a popup to edit the selected frame.
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Configure the Digi XBee Mobile application
You can configure the Digi XBee Mobile application accessing its Application preferences page. To do
so:
1. Open the Actions menu in any page of the application.
2. Select the Application preferences page option.
The Application preferences page displays containing all the available settings of the application.
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Configure the Digi XBee Mobile application
Settings are organized in categories:
n Firmware update preferences. Lists the firmware update preferences of the application.
l Download new firmware definitions at startup. Enable this setting to automatically look
for and download new firmware definitions every time the application is open.
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Configure the Digi XBee Mobile application
l Add additional FTP server to download firmware from. The Digi XBee Mobile app looks
for XBee firmware in Digi's official firmware server and downloads new versions as needed.
This setting allows you to configure an additional FTP server path to download firmware
from. If the same firmware version exists on both servers, non-official firmware will be
discarded.
To use this feature, enable the setting and fill in the input text with the path to the folder of
the FTP server that contains the firmware configuration files in XML format.
For example, if you have an FTP server that contains a non-official firmware configuration
(XML) file in /firmwares_to_test and your server name is ftp.test.com, introduce the
following text into the field: ftp://ftp.test.com/firmwares_to_test/. The application will
download all the firmware configuration files contained there.
Note The additional FTP server must allow for anonymous access. This means that the
user must be anonymous and the password must be empty.
n Scan preferences. Contains settings related to the Bluetooth discovery process.
l Filter found devices by name. All the XBee devices contain the word XBee in their
advertisement name. By default, Digi XBee Mobile uses this scan option to display just the
Bluetooth devices that contain the word XBee in their name. You can toggle this switch off
to list all the Bluetooth devices in range or change the word to filter by other device names.
Tap Save after performing any modification in the settings to save the new values.
Note You can load the default values of the setting by opening the Actions menu of the Application
preferences page and selecting the Load default preferences option.
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Update radio firmware definitions
Digi periodically releases new versions of the different radio firmwares to fix issues, improve
functionality, or add new features. These firmware files might not be included with the Digi XBee
Mobile app and may need to be added to the app's radio firmware library. For this reason, Digi XBee
Mobile app has a built-in system to automatically download new, official BLE-capable XBee firmware.
This process can be configured to run automatically, but you can also execute it manually at any time.
For more information about configuring automatic firmware updates, see Configure the Digi XBee
Mobile application. If you have enabled the automatic updates, you may be notified about firmware
updates when you open the Digi XBee Mobile app.
To manually check for firmware updates, tap Options > Check for firmware updates from the
Device List page.
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