XBee S2C and XBee S1 Pro communication - arduino

Question

I have an XBee S1 Pro, which is configured as a coordinator. and an XBee S2C, which is configured as an end-node. Both are loaded with the 802.15.4 firmware. By using XCTU, I sent and received the data in Transparent mode.
I have now configured the end-node to API-1 mode and connected it to an Arduino Nano. I want to read the payload. Here is my Arduino code:
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
Serial.println("Setup done...");
while (!Serial) {;}
}
void loop() {
if (Serial.available()) {
for (int i = 0; i < 8;i++) {
byte discard = Serial.read();
}
Serial.write(Serial.read());
Serial.print(",");
}
When I send 'hello' from the coordinator I get:
Setup done...
FFFFFFFF
,FFFFFFFF
,FFFFFFFF
,FFFFFFFF
,FFFFFFFF
,FFFFFFFF
,FFFFFFFF
,FFFFFFFF
,FFFFFFFF
,
Is there an easier way to do this like using the Arduino XBee library?
Could someone kindly help me?

Answer 1

Have you confirmed that the two XBee modules are joined to the same network? My understanding was that S1 was just 802.15.4, and S2 was ZigBee. You should probably start your project with identical networking hardware to eliminate that as a source of problems.
I'd recommend following a tutorial and using that code to establish a working starting point for any code you want to write.
Edit: adding some code
First off, you need to have two serial ports. One for your console where you can see the output of Serial.print() and the other for communicating with the XBee module.
Second, start with this loop:
void loop() {
// echo bytes received on XBee module to serial console
if (XBee.available()) {
Serial.write(XBee.read());
Serial.print(",");
}
// echo bytes received on serial console to XBee module
if (Serial.available()) {
XBee.write(Serial.read());
}
}
This way you're dumping every byte you receive, and only calling XBee.read() when there's data available to read.
You might want to keep your XBee module at 9600 baud, but increase your stdio interface (Serial) to 115200 since you're printing more than one character per byte received from the XBee module.