Make a note: how an XBee replies to 'IS' command

This may save you a couple of days of debugging. Read on and make a note so when you don't understand why 'IS' command doesn't return packet you expect, you remember this post.

OK, when you configure an XBee to send samples periodically, it will send you 0x92 API frame once in a while. So you would expect to get the same frame in either sampling mode - 'periodic', 'on change', and 'querie'. But the thing is that in 'querie' case a remote XBee replies not with 0x92, but with 0x97 with sample data used as a parameter.

This is not stated anywhere in manual, I had to read it many times and finally debug step by step with python and Excel (yes, I use that great programming tool for modelling and visualisation).

I think +XBee Digi guys shell revisit their manuals and explicitly explain this.

Again, I am using python-xbee and I filed a bug. Here's my workaround about this (not a great one, I'm sure, but it works). You should find base.py in python-xbee lib and change the following:

def _split_response(self, data):
....
...
 # If the data field has no length specified, store any
            #  leftover bytes and quit
            else:
                field_data = data[index:]
                
                # Were there any remaining bytes?
                if field_data:
                    # If so, store them
                    info[field['name']] = field_data
                    try:
                        if info['command'] == 'IS':
                            packet['parse_as_io_samples'] = 'parameter'
                    except:
                        pass
                    index += len(field_data)
                break