diff --git a/internal/xbee/api_frame.go b/internal/xbee/api_frame.go
index 6b49e32..b317d3e 100644
--- a/internal/xbee/api_frame.go
+++ b/internal/xbee/api_frame.go
@@ -2,16 +2,16 @@
 
 // It encodes and decodes
 // API frames from io.Writer and io.Reader by providing a WriteFrame function and
-// a scanner.split function. It also includes
+// a scanner.split function. It also includes internal packets for using the API.
+// For end-users, it provides a simple net.Conn-like interface that can write
+// and read arbitrary bytes (to be used by a higher level protocol)
 package xbee
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"encoding/binary"
 	"errors"
-	"fmt"
 	"io"
-	"sync"
 )
 
 // the frames have an outer shell - we will make a function that takes
@@ -27,11 +27,10 @@ type Frameable interface {
 	Bytes() ([]byte, error)
 }
 
-// we also need a way of tracking frame IDs - this is a uint8
-// it uses a sync.Map
 
 
-// now we can describe our function that takes a framable and contains it + calculates checksums.
+// calculateChecksum is a helper function to calculate the 1-byte checksum of a data range.
+// the data range does not include the start delimiter, or the length uint16 (only the frame payload)
 func calculateChecksum(data []byte) byte {
 	var sum byte
 	for _, v := range data {
@@ -40,6 +39,7 @@ func calculateChecksum(data []byte) byte {
 	return 0xFF - sum
 }
 
+// WriteFrame takes a frameable and writes it out to the given writer. 
 func WriteFrame(w io.Writer, cmd Frameable) (n int, err error) {
 	frame_data, err := cmd.Bytes()
 
@@ -90,7 +90,6 @@ const (
 
 // AT commands are hard, so let's write out all the major ones here
 
-
 // Now we will implement receiving packets from a character stream.
 // we first need to make a thing that produces frames from a stream using a scanner.
 
@@ -109,9 +108,13 @@ func xbeeFrameSplit(data []byte, atEOF bool) (advance int, token []byte, err err
 	}
 
 	if startIdx := bytes.IndexByte(data, 0x7E); startIdx >= 0 {
-		// we have a start character. get the length.
+		// we have a start character. see if we can get the length.
 		// we add 4 since start delimiter (1) + length (2) + checksum (1).
 		// the length inside the packet represents the frame data only.
+		if len(data[startIdx:]) < 3 {
+			return startIdx, nil, nil
+		}
+		// FIXME: add bounds checking! this can panic.
 		var frameLen = binary.BigEndian.Uint16(data[startIdx+1:startIdx+3]) + 4
 		if len(data[startIdx:]) < int(frameLen) {
 			// we got the length, but there's not enough data for the frame. we can trim the
@@ -125,3 +128,29 @@ func xbeeFrameSplit(data []byte, atEOF bool) (advance int, token []byte, err err
 	// we didn't find a start character in our data, so request more. trash everythign given to us
 	return len(data), nil, nil
 }
+
+
+func parseFrame(frame []byte) ([]byte, error) {
+	if frame[0] != 0x7E {
+		return nil, errors.New("incorrect start delimiter")
+	}
+	fsize := len(frame)
+	if calculateChecksum(frame[3:fsize - 1]) != frame[fsize] {
+		return nil, errors.New("checksum mismatch")
+	}
+	return frame[3:fsize - 1], nil
+}
+
+
+// stackup
+// low level readwriter (serial or IP socket)
+// XBee library layer (frame encoding/decoding to/from structs)
+// xbee conn-like layer (ReadWriter + custom control functions)
+// application marshalling format (msgpack or json or gob)
+// application 
+
+
+type XBeeConn interface {
+	io.ReadWriter
+	WriteFrame(Frameable, bool) Frameable
+}
diff --git a/internal/xbee/api_frame_test.go b/internal/xbee/api_frame_test.go
index e4399f1..8ccbc88 100644
--- a/internal/xbee/api_frame_test.go
+++ b/internal/xbee/api_frame_test.go
@@ -69,6 +69,26 @@ func Test_xbeeFrameSplit(t *testing.T) {
 			wantToken:   []byte{0x7E, 0x00, 0x02, 0x23, 0x11, 0xCB},
 			wantErr:     false,
 		},
+		{
+			name: "trailing start delimiter",
+			args: args{
+				data:  []byte{0x53, 0x00, 0x02, 0x23, 0x11, 0x7E},
+				atEOF: false,
+			},
+			wantAdvance: 5,
+			wantToken:   nil,
+			wantErr:     false,
+		},
+		{
+			name: "incomplete length value",
+			args: args{
+				data:  []byte{0x53, 0x00, 0x02, 0x23, 0x11, 0x7E, 0x00},
+				atEOF: false,
+			},
+			wantAdvance: 5,
+			wantToken:   nil,
+			wantErr:     false,
+		},
 	}
 	for _, tt := range tests {
 		t.Run(tt.name, func(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/internal/xbee/rxframe.go b/internal/xbee/rxframe.go
index e69de29..525f738 100644
--- a/internal/xbee/rxframe.go
+++ b/internal/xbee/rxframe.go
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+package xbee
+
+import (
+	"encoding/binary"
+	"fmt"
+)
+
+type RxFrame struct {
+	Source  uint64
+	ACK     bool
+	BCast   bool
+	Payload []byte
+}
+
+func ParseRxFrame(data []byte) (*RxFrame, error) {
+	// data is the binary that *isn't* part of the frame
+	// i.e it excludes start delimiter, length, and checksum.
+
+	// check the frame type (data[0])
+	if data[0] != byte(RxPkt) && data[0] != byte(RxPktExpl) {
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("incorrect frame type 0x%x", data[0])
+	}
+
+	rx := &RxFrame{
+		Source:  binary.BigEndian.Uint64(data[1:]),
+		Payload: data[12:],
+	}
+	// RX options
+	opt := data[11]
+	// todo: use this
+	fmt.Print(opt)
+
+	return rx, nil
+}
diff --git a/internal/xbee/session.go b/internal/xbee/session.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29