Package makes it easy to start a Zigbee network

The Starter Kit from Kanda.com allows engineers to easily create a Zigbee network for home or industrial use.

A new Zigbee starter kit from Kanda.com is a complete hardware and software package that makes it easy to get started with Zigbee networks.

Zigbee is suitable for home automation or industrial control applications.

The starter kit from Kanda.com allows engineers to easily create a Zigbee network for home or industrial use.

Zigbee is just one of the available wireless protocols, which now include Bluetooth, WiFi, WiMax and WiMedia.

All have their advantages and disadvantages that make them suitable for different applications.

Bluetooth, for example, is ideal for creating ad-hoc networks with mobile phones, while WiMedia is aimed at transferring large amounts of information over short distances.

Zigbee on the other hand is designed for static networks with lots of devices and low data rates.

Zigbee offers low-cost modules and sensors, long battery life and large sensor networks.

It also has high security (128bit AES) to prevent wireless tampering and eavesdropping, high reliability to ensure that data packets are received, and a reasonable range for networking sensors and actuators together (typically 10m plus).

These features make Zigbee suitable for use in industrial control and monitoring, home automation and energy management and similar applications.

Other benefits include peer to peer communication using mesh networking.

This means that new modes can be easily added to extend the network, act as repeaters or to provide an alternative path for redundancy.

The Kanda.com starter kit includes a motherboard, Zigbee module, antenna and lead, USB cable and software.

The board has a USB connector for connection to a PC and an external interface for connection to a microcontroller serial port.

Code is included for PC communications and for an AVR microcontroller in C.

The Zigbee starter kit is a cost-effective way of creating a Zigbee network that can be easily expanded to include a range of off the shelf Zigbee sensors.

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