Comments on: Digi Connect ME Discovery

By: John

John — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:19:54 +0000

Thanks for the update Quintin! I no longer have any Digi devices to manage so I’m afraid this is as far as I got.

I wish you the best of luck in reverse engineering the rest of the protocol and look forward to seeing an Open Source library!

By: Quintin Beukes

Quintin Beukes — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:22:08 +0000

Hey John,

I am also busy analyzing the digi protocol. I was actually busy with the configuration packets (to change the IP settings or reboot the device using the discovery tool) when I came across your web site. These packets all end with a peculiar 5 byte sequence which equals 0×04 and “dbps” (also the default password), which made me research the “dbps”.

I have also not figured out what packet 0×07 is, but I have some of the other packets you were not sure about (like 0x0e, 0×13 and so on). Have a look at the URL I posted as my web site. There is a post on 17 Nov 2009 of what I have found so far. Since the post I have also found some more so by this weekend I should have a complete breakdown of their protocol.

I am almost done with a complete cross platform open source (Apache license) implementation of the Digi Discovery tool. It should be able to do everything Digi does and will once and for all open up their protocol so everyone can manage their Digi devices how they please.

Just figured you might appreciate the extra information. If you’ve since figured out what 0×07 field is for, please let me know. I can’t find anything to pair it up with. Nor their peculiar sending of their default password.

By: John

John — Sat, 09 May 2009 05:28:50 +0000

@Jonathan: To the best of my knowledge you cannot change the ADDP port, it wouldn’t make sense for them to let you as it would break all of their discovery tools. You should be able to adapt the python script to work on Windows, I suspect that the part that is not working for you is the netifaces module. If you know what network interface the Digi Device is on then you can just specify that one instead of broadcasting over all interfaces like I do.

@Pekka: I would recommend that you use mDNS aka Bonjour aka Zeroconf. I use it for other networked devices and it works great. There are a few “tiny” implementations for use on embedded devices but their names escape me atm.

By: Jonathan Bush

Jonathan Bush — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 12:49:39 +0000

Hi John, you dont know me, but my name is Jonathan Bush and Im in my final year of BSc Computer Network Technology at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK.

I’m currently working on my dissertation which uses a Digi Connect Wi-Me to send a serial port over TCP/IP. I just wanted to say thank you for this code, it has helped me no end. Rest assured you will be acknowledged for your contribution!

Unfortunatly I couldnt get it to work under Windows but works perfectly in Linux.

I dont suppose you know anyway to change the ports the device uses as the network I need to use is heavily secured and any “exotic ports” are blocked.

Thanks for the code and any help you can suggest.

By: Pekka Lehtikoski

Pekka Lehtikoski — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:47:00 +0000

Hi John,
Hooking into DIGI’s ADDP may present leagal complications, if used with other manufacturer’s device but DIGI. For now ADDP works ok for me, but it has serious limitations: Besides of Windows Visual Studio, I would like to use ADDP with 64 bit compilers and also other operating systems like linux and Windows CE. Also being limited to DIGI products, is minus. One year we are likely to use something else. It would be nice to find or write open source discovery library, with functionality somewhat similar to ADDP. Should be in plain C for maximum portability and license like MIT or BSD to allow commercial use. What you think?

Best regards,
Pekka Lehtikoski