The XBee Development Kit is a low-cost alternative to the official XBee Evaluation Board (XB24-DKS and XBP24-DKS) from Digi for use with Digi's X-CTU software.

The XBee Development Kit provides the same features as the official Evaluation Board, except in rare situations where, e.g., an external antenna must be mounted on the kit. In these situations the official Evaluation Board is required. However, unlike the official Evaluation Board, the XBee Development Kit supports all three XBee form factors: the XBee, the XBee Pro, and the XBee SMT.

The XBee Development Kit features the same connectors, buttons, and LED indicators as the official evaluation board, with a few minor differences (see the notes after the list):

• Four input buttons marked 0, 1, 2, and 3.
• A reset button.
• A mini USB connector for connection to a PC or for powering the kit (1).
• No separate power supply input (2).
• Bar-graph received power (RSSI) indicator (3).
• Both SMT form factor and through-hole form factor supported (4).
• BDM programmer connector.
• Header with 0.1” pin spacing corresponding to the differently spaced XBee pins for easy test wire connections.
• No external antenna pad (5).
• JTAG connector.
• USNAP connector and 3.3V jumper.
• Serial communications loopback jumper.
• Power-on indicator.
• Association indicator.
• Serial receive data indicator.
• Serial transmit data indicator.
• RF transmit data indicator.
• PWM1 pin output indicator.
• DIO12 pin output indicator.

(1) The mini USB connector differs from the official Evaluation Board, which uses the full size USB Type B connector. (2) The XBee Development Kit is powered solely via the USB port. However, as a USB data connection is not required, the kit may be powered via the USB port via a USB charger, without an active data connection. (3) The official Evaluation Board sports a smaller indicator with three LEDs instead. (4) The official Evaluation Board features only one form factor. The XBee Development Kit allows you to insert an XBee, an XBee Pro, or an XBee SMT device. (5) The official Evaluation Board provides a pad for soldering an external antenna connector. This pad has been omitted from the XBee Development Kit.

The XBee Development Kit requires the X-CTU software from Digi which runs on Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Any recent version of these operating systems allows the XBee Development Kit to be used without having to install drivers; however, Windows 7, 8, or 10 may ask you to let them search for drivers online. Windows 2000 or Windows XP require that you download drivers from FTDI's website.

Documentation, including schematics, is supplied together with the kit. I'm selling the kit because I wanted to make a few for myself, and it turns out I didn't need them all.