Xbee Adapter pin-out vs Xbee Series 1

[hou]

Hello.

I have purchased 2 used Series 1 Pro Xbees to try out basic wireless data send/receive (temp/humidity sensor logging, maybe camera images), but I have never used Xbees. The Xbee Adapter Kit v1.1 (Product ID # 126) looks cost-effective, but why does it have 10 pins when an Xbee has 20 pins? By purchasing this adapter am I losing some I/0 capability? I've quickly searched this Xbee forum and didn't see mention of pin count difference that I bring up.

I don't know my use cases yet, but I didn't want to buy an adapter that short-changed my future connectivity options (PC, Raspberry Pi, or Arduino connections likely). I have an FDTI Friend TTL-to-USB cable, so this should work well with the v1.1 Adapter kit for at least pushing new Xbee firmware.

What advantage does the Parallax USB Xbee Adapter (twice the price, Product ID # 247) offer over the Xbee Adapter Kit v1.1? Direct PC USB connectivity, or full 20 pin Xbee I/O connections? Would a recommended generic starter config be that I purchase one of each adapter, or both of the same type, for my 2 Xbees?

Thanks in advance for any comments on Product # 126 vs. # 247 selection and their intended use cases while I continue to study Xbee forum posts and tutorials.

[adafruit_support_bill]

The adapter has 2 10-pin female headers (20 pins total) that mate perfectly with all pins of the XBee module:

[Aluman000]

The short answer seems to be '...Kinda' You will lose some functionality of the xbee itself.
However, below is what you lose(I think).
All of which seems to be things that an UNO or Mega can handle.
#126 seems to provide the connections to use the xbee as a wireless serial connection,
figuring you will use your Arduino product to do this work (and provide flow control, etc).

There's probably a few others as well, for instance, they hack their own product here: http://www.ladyada.net/make/xbee/arduino.html
To set up allow you to reset your arduino wirelessly...

From the Xbee Manual:
Pin functions and their associated pin numbers and commands
AD = Analog‐to‐Digital Converter, DIO = Digital Input/Output
Pin functions not applicable to this section are denoted within (parenthesis).
Pin Function Pin# AT Command
AD0 / DIO0 20 D0
AD1 / DIO1 19 D1
AD2 / DIO2 18 D2
AD3 / DIO3 / (COORD_SEL) 17 D3
AD4 / DIO4 11 D4
AD5 / DIO5 / (ASSOCIATE) 15 D5
DIO6 / (RTS) 16 D6
DIO7 / (CTS) 12 D7
DI8 / (DTR) / (Sleep_RQ) 9 D8

[adafruit_support_bill]

The short answer seems to be '...Kinda' You will lose some functionality of the xbee itself.

All of the XBee pins are accessible via the breakout holes next to the headers.