Doorbell project: Communication testing

I had to test that the radios worked, which is was done by plugging them both into separate computers, and running X-CTU on both. I also updated the modem versions on both xbees.

Typing commands into the serial terminal on the computer with the communicator xbee resulted in a the same message coming up in the serial terminal window of the second xbee. I noticed that only the communicator xbee can 'talk': the other xbee just can only  'listen'. In the book it says that it doesnt matter which xbee acts as the 'doorbell' but from this example it seems it does. I will ensure that the communicator xbee acts as the 'button' and the router xbee acts as the 'bell'.

Below: two laptops together with the two xbees attached (one via adapter and one via the adapter hack).

Screenshot: receiver computer terminal window. Note that the CTS icon isnt lit up. 

Screenshot: Sender terminal window. Note that the CTS icon is lit up and the text is blue, not red.

Now that this is working it means that my xbees are properly configured. All I have to do now is finish off the rest of the project. I think a part of the problem may have been that i had them both plugged into the same computer: it seems to confuse things.