CC3000 vs XBee Wi-Fi

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arnom
 
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CC3000 vs XBee Wi-Fi

Post by arnom »

For my thesis project I will probably have to use Wi-Fi.
Currently I'm looking into the differences between the CC3000 breakout from Adafruit and the XBee Wi-Fi module.
I made a quick comparison:

Code: Select all

+-----------------------+----------------+------------------------+
|       Property        |     CC3000     |       XBee Wi-Fi       |
+-----------------------+----------------+------------------------+
| Serial Data Interface | SPI            | SPI, UART              |
| Frequency Band        | 2.4GHz         | 2.4Ghz                 |
| WLAN Standard         | 802.11b/g      | 802.11b/g/n            |
| WLAN Channels         | ?              | 13                     |
| WLAN Security         | WPA, WPA2, WEP | WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK, WEP |
| ADC Inputs            | ?              | 4x 12-bit              |
| Digital I/O           | ?              | 10x                    |
| IPv4 TCP/IP Stack     | Yes            | ? (Yes)                |
| DHCP Support          | Yes            | Yes                    |
| DNS client            | Yes            | Yes                    |
+-----------------------+----------------+------------------------+
Does anyone actually own both these units?
If so, which one do you prefer and why?
I'm going to use one of these modules to create an indoor positioning system.
My hardware unit needs to perform a scan (BSSIDs with RSSI or something similar) and send this information to a webservice.

Your feedback is very much appreciated!

Kind regards,
Arno

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: CC3000 vs XBee Wi-Fi

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

I don't have an XBee module handy for comparison testing, but I can fill in a few slots in your table:

- The CC3000 supports all 13 wifi channels. Only the first 11 are legal in the US though, with channels 12 and 13 being legal for low-power/low-gain applications. If you plan to use a regular wifi router, assume you'll only have access to channels 1-11 in the US.

- The CC3000 breakout doesn't have any ADC or digital inputs. It's purely a communication device.

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arnom
 
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Re: CC3000 vs XBee Wi-Fi

Post by arnom »

Thanks! I did some more research on the XBee module, but unfortunately I did not find any examples regarding web requests.
I'm hoping someone else has (positive) experiences with that.

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tdicola
 
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Re: CC3000 vs XBee Wi-Fi

Post by tdicola »

I'm not sure the CC3000 exposes the RSSI and signal strength info unfortunately. You might want to take a look at TI's info just to be sure, but IIRC there's only socket & network connection stuff exposed, no signal strength info. http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CC3000

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arnom
 
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Re: CC3000 vs XBee Wi-Fi

Post by arnom »

tdicola wrote:I'm not sure the CC3000 exposes the RSSI and signal strength info unfortunately.
Are you sure about that?
https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CC ... 000.h#L141
The only thing I'm missing there is the BSSID though.
I'll check the TI documentation to make sure it fits my demands.

The biggest downside about the Xbee module seems to be documentation.
Nowhere can I find a working example of doing an HTTP request.

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arnom
 
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Re: CC3000 vs XBee Wi-Fi

Post by arnom »

I've browsed the TI site quickly and found that their documentation does mention that the RSSI and BSSID are available when scanning for access points.
Look at the comment in the Return section of the wlan_ioctl_get_scan_results method.

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