diff --git a/test_xbee.py b/test_xbee.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100755
--- a/test_xbee.py
+++ b/test_xbee.py
@@ -123,6 +123,13 @@ class TestChecksumming(unittest.TestCase):
         """
         self.assertTrue(XBee.verify_checksum(self.data3, self.chksum3))
         
+    def test_verify_checksum_uses_low_bits(self):
+        """
+        verify_checksum should only use the low bits of the 
+        byte summing process for verification
+        """
+        self.assertTrue(XBee.verify_checksum('\x88DMY\x01', '\x8c'))
+        
 class TestLenBytes(unittest.TestCase):
     """
     XBee class must properly encode the length of the data to be
diff --git a/xbee.py b/xbee.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/xbee.py
+++ b/xbee.py
@@ -62,6 +62,9 @@ class XBee(object):
         # Add checksum too
         total += ord(chksum)
         
+        # Only keep low bits
+        total &= 0xFF
+        
         # Check result
         return total == 0xFF
Added test and fixed bug in verify_checksum where the byte sum was not being reduced to its low-order byte before validating