I have experience working with XBEE. I used XBEE pro series 1 in my last project.
shortly, I used 3 XBEE and make each XBEE as a station, I set two XBEE as a router and 1 XBEE as a coordinator. I connect All of that using Arduino Mega, because arduino mega have 4 pin of Tx, Rx. and then I also use XBEE for my leader and my follower robot. My purpose on that project are to control follower robot movements from coordinator station. First I set follower and leader robot to brodcast signal and sensor data to each station, then coordinator station will calculate distance between follower and leader. after that coordinator send back control data to follower robot to maintain the formation against the leader robot.
The most important things when you use XBEE is the XCTU Software. It is used for configuring XBEE (address that XBEE will send the data), you can google it to get it. XBEE only uses Tx, Rx pin, and 3.3 DC voltage to operate, you can built your own shield or you can buy XBEE shield. and Then for Logging data to SD card, I suggest you to Data logging Shield, it will help you much, when logging data. I also use it when I made Tele-protection system using SMS gateway.
And the last if you want to set XBEE on you UAV, you have to make sure what type XBEE you will choose. Because it type of XBEE will determine your communication range.
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