NEBP Engineering Technical Bulletin 1: Vents
February 16, 2024 Version 1
Prepared by Randy Larimer and Kris Allick
RE: Corrective Action when OCCAMS, VENT and CUTDOWN XBEE3’s are not appearing to be on the same network setting and not functioning; Reprogramming the XBEE3’s PANID setting on OCCAMS, VENT and CUTDOWN
History
Some of you have received replacement OCCAMS, VENTS and CUTDOWNS that were programmed to the XBEE3 PANID that you provided (example FE3, F59, etc) These PANIDs must match between the three XBEE3’s. When testing we set the PANID to F1 and cycled through the units verifying that they work. The XBEE3s hold on to the MAC address that the original PANID was tied to thereby causing the XBEE3 to not associate with a new PANID network and not work correctly.
Symptoms
Your cutdown is not triggering when commanded while observing the nichrome wire (it should pulse orange/red for 10 seconds (700msec on and 300msec off)) You may have to replace your 30 gauge nichrome wire as it does wear out. You should also be using a NEW Energizer Ultimate Lithium battery for testing as they are the only batteries that will provide the needed instantaneous current required by cutdown.
You vent servo is not moving when commanded.
Your vent board is not providing any feedback LEDs on the Iso-Switch board when testing the position of the vent with a magnet. (The magnetic sensor has been added to all vent boards and is attached to the blue wire near the PTN4050CAH DC to DC converter.
Corrective Action
Download XCTU from the Digi.com website
Digi.com
Products
Software and Tools
XCTU
Visit Support to Download XCTU
Download and Install XCTU v. 6.5.13 Windows x86:x64
Note: The version shown in the videos was 6.5.10
You will need the XBEE Explorer programming board that was shipped to you in one of the early shipments https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11812
You will need the programming cable sent to you in the Iso-Switch Board Shipment
Carefully plug in the labelled cables correctly to the XBEE Explorer programming board
After Reprogramming the XBEE3 PANID’s on each of the boards, power up all the boards and retest with the Iso-Switch board to validate that each board is functioning correctly. Keep track of your PANID changes with stickers on each XBEE3.
2/16/24