Aeotec Zi-Stick (model “ZGA008”) Zigbee Coordinator USB dongle based on Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 +20dBm radio SoC/MCU

[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

It also is because thier partner Samsung is quickly moving away from anything ZWave. Aeotec is now the authorized hardware partner making all of Smartthings gear. (except the Station, we’ll ignore it for now.) As of this month’s SmartThings dev conference we have Samsung execs on record (in response to why the SmartThings Station does not include a ZWave radio) saying Matter and Zigbee are thier go forward technologies. (if im Aeotec in already know this)

The Poppy purchase happened about the same time Samsung handed over all the plans for thier gear. So Aeotec is absolutely swimming in rights to plans for Zigbee and Thread powered gear now. I’d suspect a big push from them to have thread
/Matter equivalents of thier ZWave stuff within a couple years. Thier ZWave gear is pretty well made. I expect the same from thier Zigbee lines.

[Hedda]

@NathanCu

Thier ZWave gear is pretty well made. I expect the same from thier Zigbee lines.

Yeah I have been using Aeotec Z-Wave 500 series products for years and they have all kept on working, (the only product from them that I have not been impressed with has been their previous Nano Dimmer Z-Wave 500 series module when used with LED lightbulbs as it was not as compatible with single low-power LED lightbulbs as competing Z-Wave products, causing some flickering at lower power even when using their bypass).

@NathanCu

SmartThings Station does not include a ZWave radio

Ah, I did not know that. I however doubt that Aeotec will stop making Z-Wave devices any time soon as it should not be much effort on their part to release both Thread, Zigbee, and Z-Wave variants of the same products if they are all based on SoC’s from Silicon Labs, so they will more or less run the same application code for the functions and only replace the radio chip and build different firmware images.

PS: Off-topic, but I actually migrated from a Samsung SmartThings Hub to Home Assistant myself a few years back when I started to get too many devices, and still think Samsung SmartThings’s device-level originated approach offers a more user-friendly experience for beginners that are just getting started with home automation compared to Home Assistant 's entity-level originated approach.

[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

It absolutely does. I was a mod on SmartThings community site for years until the 200 device issue finally bit me and I had to move.

The reset they had eliminating groovy set back customizations for a bit but the new infrastructure looks better. (if you ignore the weird abstraction layer they put between users and devices now) allows for more local use.

I don’t see aeotec dumpling ZWave either especially now there are multiple chip manufacturers and matter keeps shooting itself in the foot. But the uptake of matter/thread/zigbee by Aeotec is absolutely for a reason.

[Hedda]

Anyone got the Aeotec Zi-Stick (model “ZGA008”) and if so can check its USB product description?

USB product description is needed in order to add this to ZHA’s whitelist for automatic USB discovery:

Community help wanted to whitelist all compatible Zigbee and Z-Wave dongles/adapters for automatic USB Discovery in Home Assistant

FYI, Zvidar released both a black-colored Z-Wave 800 series USB dongle called “Zvidar Z-GW-V20” as well as a white-coloured Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 based Zigbee dongle called “Zvidar Z-DG-Z01”: http://www.zvidar.com/pro/20.html https://zigbee.blakadder.com/Zvidar_Z-DG-Z01.html https://www.domadoo.fr/en/interface-domotique/6500-zvidar-zigbee-usb-dongle-efr32mg21-chipset-compatible-thread-and-matter.html https://shop.smarthome-europe.com/en/interface-domotique/5486-zvidar-zigbee-usb-dongle-efr3…

If anyone own one would appreciate it if let us know USB product description to be used as identifier so that it can be added to the Home Assistant core and the ZHA integration for automatic USB discovery:

• https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#discovery-via-usb-or-zeroconf
  • https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/usb/

[nena632]

Hi Hedda,

Not sure if you already got the info.

I just received the dongle:

[  347.389230] usb 1-1.2: new full-speed USB device number 8 using dwc_otg
[  347.532208] usb 1-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=1a86, idProduct=7523, bcdDevice= 2.64
[  347.532231] usb 1-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0

[Hedda]

@nena632 not sure but do not believe the VID and PID is unique? Suggest you also cross-post that here for continued dicussion → Community help wanted to whitelist all compatible Zigbee and Z-Wave dongles/adapters for automatic USB Discovery in Home Assistant

Community help wanted to whitelist all compatible Zigbee and Z-Wave dongles/adapters for automatic USB Discovery in Home Assistant

Also have Zigbee or Z-Wave USB dongles that are not whitelisted for automatic USB discovery in HA? Please help this whole community and companies making USB adapters to get their USB devices on the whitelist for each integration in order to be automatically discovered and correctly identified. https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2021/09/01/release-20219/#usb-discovery Back-story: Home Assistant developer and Nabu Casa employee Nick Koston (a.k.a. bdraco) recently added a new user-friendly feat…

Best would also be to open a support ticket to the manufacturer and ask then to always write a unique vendor id and product id description to the EEPROM of the USB-to-Serial bridge/converter chip on the board.

[gtracy (Glenn Tracy)]

Any update on this device?

[illright (Lev Chelyadinov)]

I bought this device to add Zigbee capabilities to my Raspberry Pi 4B, the setup process of ZHA was very smooth, added a couple of IKEA devices, all is well.

I initially plugged it into the USB 3.0 port, but the TRADFRI control outlet was misbehaving. I replugged it into USB 2.0 and now it seems to be working well. Not sure if that was the culprit, but there’s no point in taking up a perfectly good USB 3.0 port with this.

[NathanCu (Nathan Curtis)]

@illright

Not sure if that was the culprit

Almost certainly. Also recommend keeping the stick on at VERY least a short (half meter) usb extension cable to keep the stick away from the USB3 bus.

[ve2hrj (Richard)]

Hi,
I did read all of previous notes, but none of them really help for me.
I got the Zi-Stick “ZGA008” Zigbee 3.0 USB and when I try to add it, Home Assistant request to use one of this list:

So, what should we use?

I tried all and cannot see where it is attached:

…any help is very appreciated.
System:
Khadas Edge 2 Pro https://www.khadas.com/edge2
Work great, very fast.

Richard.

[francisp (Francis)]

You choose EZSP, but the serial port you have to see in your hardware settings.

[ve2hrj (Richard)]

Hi,
thank you for the quick response, I’m not sure if the first in the list “EZSP” is the correct one.
but here is my port list from Serial and USB :

Khadas@Khadas:~$ grep -i 'serial' /var/log/dmesg
[   10.866494] kernel: rockchip-cpuinfo cpuinfo: Serial                : 2b6922f4e2c0985e
[   11.577629] kernel: Serial: 8250/16550 driver, 10 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
[   11.578151] kernel: febc0000.serial: ttyS9 at MMIO 0xfebc0000 (irq = 111, base_baud = 1500000) is a 16550A
[   11.660353] kernel: usb usb1: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   11.660379] kernel: usb usb1: SerialNumber: fc800000.usb
[   11.673674] kernel: usb usb2: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   11.673700] kernel: usb usb2: SerialNumber: fc880000.usb
[   11.734328] kernel: usb usb3: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   11.734355] kernel: usb usb3: SerialNumber: fc840000.usb
[   11.794328] kernel: usb usb4: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   11.794354] kernel: usb usb4: SerialNumber: fc8c0000.usb
[   11.795495] kernel: usb usb5: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   11.795521] kernel: usb usb5: SerialNumber: xhci-hcd.6.auto
[   11.796091] kernel: usb usb6: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   11.796117] kernel: usb usb6: SerialNumber: xhci-hcd.6.auto
[   12.057575] kernel: usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=1, SerialNumber=0
[   12.670705] kernel: usb 1-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   12.710744] kernel: usb usb7: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   12.710771] kernel: usb usb7: SerialNumber: xhci-hcd.8.auto
[   12.711205] kernel: usb usb8: New USB device strings: Mfr=3, Product=2, SerialNumber=1
[   12.711221] kernel: usb usb8: SerialNumber: xhci-hcd.8.auto
[   13.138030] kernel: usb 7-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   13.280792] kernel: usb 8-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   13.611771] kernel: usb 7-1.1: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   13.611786] kernel: usb 7-1.1: Product: USB Serial
[   13.708064] kernel: usb 8-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   13.921187] kernel: usb 7-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[   14.058383] kernel: usb 8-1.2.4: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=6
[   14.058425] kernel: usb 8-1.2.4: SerialNumber: 0013000001
[   14.402809] kernel: usb 7-1.2.3: New USB device strings: Mfr=0, Product=0, SerialNumber=0
[   16.387417] systemd[1]: Created slice Slice /system/serial-getty.
[   17.306061] kernel: usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[   17.306075] kernel: usbserial: USB Serial support registered for generic
[   17.307295] kernel: usbserial: USB Serial support registered for ch341-uart
[   19.717670] kernel: of_dma_request_slave_channel: dma-names property of node '/serial@febc0000' missing or empty
[   19.717702] kernel: dw-apb-uart febc0000.serial: failed to request DMA, use interrupt mode

khadas@Khadas:~$ grep -i 'tty' /var/log/dmesg
[   10.361180] kernel: Kernel command line: root=UUID=08105240-f66d-4c61-989e-741dc51b6a91 rootflags=data=writeback rw rootfstype=ext4 storagemedia=emmc androidboot.storagemedia=emmc androidboot.mode=normal  khadas_board=Edge2 earlycon=uart8250,mmio32,0xfeb50000 console=ttyFIQ0 console=tty0 irqchip.gicv3_pseudo_nmi=0 partition_type=generic fan=auto lcd_panel=ts050 
[   10.752970] kernel: printk: console [tty0] enabled
[   10.789095] kernel: Registered FIQ tty driver
[   10.857157] kernel: printk: console [ttyFIQ0] enabled
[   10.857252] kernel: Registered fiq debugger ttyFIQ0
[   11.578151] kernel: febc0000.serial: ttyS9 at MMIO 0xfebc0000 (irq = 111, base_baud = 1500000) is a 16550A
[   16.387417] systemd[1]: Created slice Slice /system/serial-getty.
[   17.306168] kernel: cdc_acm 7-1.2.3:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[   17.308857] kernel: usb 7-1.1: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[   22.571138] kernel: ttyFIQ ttyFIQ0: tty_port_close_start: tty->count = 1 port count = 2
khadas@Khadas:~$ 

Hope that help, have a great one!
Richard.

[francisp (Francis)]

It is a Silicon Labs EFR32MG21, so EZSP
and according to this

kernel: usb 7-1.1: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0

probably ttyUSB0

what is the output of

ls/dev/serial/by-id

?

[ve2hrj (Richard)]

Hi Francisp,
thank you again, I did that before and just to validate the input:

As you can see, it does not connect.

I just reinstall Home Assistant yesterday after re-installing Ubontu from zero.
let me know if you need more information to review.
Have a good one.
Richard.

[francisp (Francis)]

What is the output of
ls /dev/serial/by-id ?

[ve2hrj (Richard)]

Hi Francisp,
here it is:

khadas@Khadas:~$ ls /dev/serial/by-id 
usb-0658_0200-if00  usb-1a86_USB_Serial-if00-port0
khadas@Khadas:~$ 

Hope that help.
Richard.

[francisp (Francis)]

@ve2hrj

usb-1a86_USB_Serial-if00-port0

so for port you use
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-1a86_USB_Serial-if00-port0

speed you will have to figure out yourself.

[ve2hrj (Richard)]

Hi FrancisP,
Thank you again for your help, at lease I have part of the answer.
Would be nice if there is a log with better error description when we have just “Failed to connect” error.

Thank you again for your help, have a great one!
Richard.

[Hedda]

Use EZSP and 115200 baudrate speed, but USB port you have to figure yourself via the hardware settings, however use ”serial/by-id” if possible.

Unfortunate Aeotec missed a unique USB product identifier which would have allowed for full automatic USB discovery of it, so suggest complain to Aeotec about that. See:

Community help wanted to whitelist all compatible Zigbee and Z-Wave dongles/adapters for automatic USB Discovery in Home Assistant

Also have Zigbee or Z-Wave USB dongles that are not whitelisted for automatic USB discovery in HA? Please help this whole community and companies making USB adapters to get their USB devices on the whitelist for each integration in order to be automatically discovered and correctly identified. https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2021/09/01/release-20219/#usb-discovery Back-story: Home Assistant developer and Nabu Casa employee Nick Koston (a.k.a. bdraco) recently added a new user-friendly feat…

[bigfudge (Kev)]

Hey i’, new to Home Assistant and want to use this stick. I now have to choose a installation method. I want to use a Zimaboard with Casa OS. There i can install HA as container.

Can i use this stick in the container version of HA? Or do i have to install the full HA OS because i need Addons and Supervisor