Integrating to other zigbee networks

Here is a question about integrating Temco zigbee products into other zigbee networks.

Hi,

We have bought ZIM-3I device and we are working on integrating it with our ZigBee network so can you please share below details to us?

  1. List of supported Clusters and Attributes by ZIM-3I device
  2. It’s network joining and leaving process to any ZigBee network

We will need some links and technical infi on your ZigBee environment, please.

Update: Our developer here provided some info which may be helpful:

#define RSSI_REQ_CLUSTERID 4
#define RSSI_RSP_CLUSTERID 5
#define ASK_BOAT_MONITOR 6
#define RSP_ BOAT_MONITOR 7

Our devices can join and leave other zigbee environments, but the transmit protocol and clusters are our own protocol. We basically put Modbus protocol into zigbee packets. If you send us some info on your environment we’ll see what we can do to help out.

Maurice Duteau

Hi Maurice,

Thanks for your response. Before I share you more details about my setup where we are going to use ZIM-3I device I have a stupid question to ask. Please help us to answer.

Question #1: Which type of sensor we can connect with “ZIM-3I”? Can we connect our own sensor or the predefined sensor available from your company can only be connected?

Question #2: Can you share connection diagram as a example for one of the sensor connected with “ZIM-3I”?

You can connect pretty much any sensor to the module, they have three ‘universal’ inputs configurable for 10k thermistors (Types 2 and 3), dry contacts and transducers. There is an on board weak 10k pullup resistor for excitation of the thermistors and dry contacts. When using with transducers this weak pullup will skew the voltage ever so slightly by 0.1V or so depending on the particular transducer so you will want to experiment with that if you need super accurate readings.

As the product pages show, the wiring for the sensors is very straightforward, one side of the thermister (showing at Tab1) will get tied to input signal at terminal 3 (tab2) and the other side gets connected to ground at Tab3.
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Hi Maurice,

I appreciate your continuous support.

We have one ZigBee gateway which is connected with 15 ZigBee sensors. This network is communicating using ZigBee
Home Automation 1.2 profile. Now, We want to add ZIM-3I to our existing Zigbee network. ZIM-3I will be connected with analog
sensors. We need your help to resolve the following queries.

  1. What are the steps of joining and leave the network?
    (We believe that on power up, if it is not joined then it will automatically go to joining mode but what if it was joined with some coordinator and we want to join with the new one.

  2. What is the request command we need to send from the ZigBee coordinator to ZIM-3I device to get data from a particular analog sensor?
    (As per the last conversation, we learn that you are using a custom cluster, so without that information, we can’t communicate with ZIM-3I)

  3. How can we decode ZIM-3I device response on the coordinator side to extract particular information from the response?

Hi Maurice,

Awaiting for your response.

1. What are the steps of joining and leave the network?
Set coordinator’s channel to 13, ZIM-3I will join in an existing coordinator .

2. What is the request command we need to send from the ZigBee coordinator to ZIM-3I device to get data from a particular analog sensor?
ZIM-3I sends timed packets to coordinator after it joins the network.
It uses cluster ID 7 and an 8 byte data packet with the structure shown below.

3. How can we decode ZIM-3I device response on the coordinator side to extract particular information from the response?
Here is the data structure:
The ZIM-31 has an internal input which monitors the power supply voltage, this value is stored in Bytes 0 and 1. The next byte is a binary input status of input #3. The next 4 bytes are analog inputs 1 and 2.

Note: The ZIM-31 will try to get other IDs of other device in same network with cluster ID 4, and uses a heartbeat mechanism to make sure its coordinator node is alive with cluster ID 3. If the coordinator sees a “0” from ZIM-3I you reply with a “1” otherwise the ZIM-3I will leave this network and try to rejoin.

Hi Lijun,

Thank you for your response.

Regarding answer #1, Should it join any ZigBee co-ordinator which is available on Channel 13 or it require temcocontrols co-ordinator only?

Not only Temcocontrols’ coordinators, it can join in any network on channel 13.

Hi Linun,

Thanks for the response.

Can you please help with below quick questions,

  1. How can we leave already joined ZigBee network on ZIM-3I?
  2. How to perform factory reset of ZIM-3I device?

I am unable to find detailed documents for some basic ZigBee operation(NW Join, Leave etc.) so if you have that then do share it with us so we do not ask you every time.

Awaiting for your response.

Just turn off coordinator for 2 minutes, ZIM-3I will leave its network which it joined and reset.
We only have this documentation for now, will modify later

Hi Lijun,

Thank you for your continuous support.

We have set ZigBee channel 13 in coordinator and started the network with joining window and observed that ZIM-3I device is joining with device announce message with MAC Capabilities 0x00.

When we try to get simple descriptor from ZIM-3I with endpoint 1,2 and 10 then we are unable to get any response. We have learned from our previous conversations that, ZIM-3I uses a heartbeat mechanism to make sure its coordinator node is alive with cluster ID 3. If the coordinator sees a “0” from ZIM-3I you reply with a “1” otherwise the ZIM-3I will leave this network and try to rejoin.

So there are chances that the above scenario is happening in our case as a heartbeat mechanism might not be developed in our application. We have also monitored packets using sniffer but unable to find any data packet similar to heartbeat mechanism.
Attaching a file with a sniffed packet of Device announcement and data request MAC command(This might be heartbeat mechanism packet, Is it correct?) received continuously after device announcement.

Please help us with the resolution to connect ZIM-3I in our network.
Sniffer_packets.txt (4.7 KB)

Hi Lijun,

Awaiting for your input on above question.

My mistake, ZIM-3I does not contain heartbeat mechanism, it’s an EndDevice Zigbee type which just needs a standard ACK. It if doesn’t receive an ACK after sending a message it will attempt to rejoin the network.

Hi Lijun,

Thanks for the clarification.

It looks like now ZIM-3I node is able to join our ZigBee network(By updating our ZigBee network with the required profile and cluster support) and we are able to receive ZigBee Data Indication packet at every ~800ms with below data all the time,
Data Packet: 42 02 01 51 70 FE A4 FF

Please find our setup details as below,
ZIM-3I supply voltage: 12V DC
Analog Input 1: LM35 temperature sensor with 5V supply to the sensor
Analog Input 2: Not Connected

Please find some questions on this as below,

  1. Above mentioned packet format is correct? Are we receiving it with a correct time interval of around ~800ms?
  2. How can we apply a switch input to #1 input? What is the input voltage level for switch On/Off?
  3. How can we retrieve input voltage level (From Byte-1 and Byte-2), Analong input-1(From Byte-4 and Byte-5) and Analog input-2(From Byte-6 and Byte-7) from the data indication reporting packet?

Hi Lijun,

Waiting for your response.

Hi @maurice and @Lijun

This is just a gentle reminder.

We are targetting big network using your ZIM-3I module with our ZigBee existing network so your input will resolve our hurdle on this or else we need to identify another required hardware for our purpose.

Please do the needful as soon as possible.

Just let me know how we can help, I believe you have been in contact with Lijun a fair bit already by email. We will get this project settled down pronto.

image001.jpg

@maurice

I am waiting for the answer to my queries posted two days back on this forum. If we are not able to successfully integrate ZIM-3I with our ZigBee gateway within the next two days then we have to go with other options.