Getting Started
This guide describes how to connect to and configure the ESP32 XBee.
If you've just received your ESP32 XBee, plug it in to any powered XBee socket. An XBee board that allows you to communicate with the XBee, such as the XBee Explorer or SimpleRTK2B, is useful, but not necessary.
Using your phone or PC, connect to the ESP32's WiFi Hotspot which will be called ESP_XBee_XXXXXX where XXXXXX are some random numbers/letters unique to your device.
Open your browser and navigate to http://192.168.4.1/. You should see a page similar to:
Enable the WiFi section, press Scan to search for networks, choose your home WiFi network (or phone hotspot) and enter the password.
The ESP32 does not have very good WiFi reception, so make sure you are relatively close to the network you are connecting to, especially when indoors, to avoid problems.
Press the Submit button, and follow the instructions on screen. You may need to reconnect to the ESP32 XBee hotspot after it restarts.
The WiFi section will now show its connection status:
If it shows that it is connected, you may now switch your phone/PC back to your home network, and use the IP address shown in blue to access the ESP32 XBee.
If you are connected to the device using a serial terminal, the device will output information about its WiFi connection.
$PESP,WIFI,STA,CONNECTING,S10,P*71
$PESP,WIFI,STA,CONNECTED,S10*4C
$PESP,WIFI,STA,IP,192.168.43.100/24,192.168.43.1*5D
The new IP address will be the first address in the 3rd line as above, i.e. 192.168.43.100.
To prevent others from accessing your ESP32 XBee, you may want to adjust the settings of the WiFi hotspot section.
There are three ways to do this:
- Change from Open security to WPA/2-PSK and enter a password (recommended).
- Hide the SSID by toggling the Hidden setting. This will not prevent connections, but will hide the hotspot from WiFi scans on other devices.
- Disable the hotspot entirely by toggling the WiFi hotspot section. You will not be able to access the ESP32 XBee if there is a problem with it's connection to your home WiFi network, unless you perform a Full Reset.
If you would like to prevent others on your home network from modifying the ESP32 XBee configuration, you can also adjust the settings of the Admin section.
You can choose between only allowing devices connected to the hotspot, or a username/password.
These settings will have no effect on access to the data sockets or NTRIP caster, which will still be available to all devices on the network.
You can now proceed to configure the available protocols.
Do not enable all protocols at once. The ESP32 is not able to handle an unlimited amount of open sockets/connections, so only enable the protocols you are actually using.
The small color selector beside each section's toggle button will determine the color of the RGB LED on the ESP32 XBee for that feature, so that you can keep track of its status. Setting the color to black will disable the LED for that feature. Typically, a fading LED means the feature is working correctly/connected, while a blinking LED or no LED means the feature is awaiting a connection or could not connect to its target.
Your ESP32 XBee is now fully configured!
If you ever experience any problems and are unable to connect to the device, you can hold the BOOT button for 5 seconds and the ESP32 will be reset to its default configuration.
If this procedure does not work for any reason, another way to perform a full reset is to follow the Firmware Update procedure and including the wipe_config.bin file as described.