FYI, ConBee III (ConBee 3) from Dresden-Elektronik been officially released in early November 2023.
ConBee3 runs an updated variant of Dresden-Elektronik’s custom deconz Zigbee firmware with their own serial protocol interface (which does not look to have updated documentation yet), as such is primarily meant to work with Dresden-Elektronik’s own deCONZ/Phoscon Zigbee Gateway host application (and the matching deCONZ integration) as a replacement for the older ConBee / ConBee II (ConBee 2) and RaspBee / RaspBee II (RaspBee 2) Zigbee Coordinator adapters
Note! Be aware before buying that ConBee III (ConBee 3) does not yet work with Home Assistant’s ZHA integration because it has not been updated with support ConBee III (ConBee 3) interface, though support for it has recently been added to the zigpy-deconz library that it depends on → Conbee III support by puddly · Pull Request #232 · zigpy/zigpy-deconz · GitHub
Zigbee2MQTT (a.k.a. Z2M) is however supported as the zigbee-herdsman library that it depends on has already been updated for the new ConBee III (ConBee 3) interface → Update deCONZ adapter and driver by ChrisHae · Pull Request #788 · Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman · GitHub
ConBee III (ConBee 3) hardware board is based on the more modern Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 +20dBm radio SoC, which is the same as MCU chip as Home Assistant SkyConnect (USB stick) , ITead’s “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2” (model “ZBDongle-E”) , Aeotec Zi-Stick (model “ZGA008”) , easyiot ZB-GW04 Zigbee dongle, as well as in the SMLIGHT SLZB-07, however all those other adapters are running Silicon Labs Zigbee EmberZNet firmware with its standard EZSP (EmberZNet Serial Protocol), while ConBee III is running custom Zigbee firmware with its own deconz serial protocol.
ConBee III (ConBee 3) - What’s new
The shipping firmware supports Zigbee 3.0 and Zigbee Green Power devices. A separate OTBR (OpenThread Border Router) firmware will also be made available as a tech preview soon.
- modern SiLabs EFR32MG21 micro controller
- custom Zigbee 3.0 and Zigbee Green Power firmware
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for future Thread and Matter applications
- integrated push button for service functions
Migration is only possible if want to continue using deCONZ/Phoscon
Seamless migration from deCONZ/Phoscon to ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT is not possible (nor vice versa).
If using deCONZ then it is possible to transfer a Zigbee installation to a new system using the Phoscon app backup function. This allows you, for example, to transfer an existing Zigbee network from a ConBee or ConBee II to the ConBee III without having to re-pair/re-joing all devices.
https://phoscon.de/en/conbee3/upgrade
Note! If using deCONZ addon then version 2.24.x` or later of the is required for the ConBee III dongle.
If using Home Assistant’s native ZHA integration with any Zigbee Coordinator then you can easily replace/upgrade it to a new ConBee III adapter via the built-in radio migration feature, just follow → https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#migrating-to-a-new-zigbee-coordinator-adapter-inside-zha
It is by the way generally recommended to upgrade the firmware on a new ConBee/RaspBee adapter before you start using it for a new installation or before migrating to it. See:
https://github.com/dresden-elektronik/deconz-rest-plugin/wiki/Update-deCONZ-manually
https://deconz.dresden-elektronik.de/deconz-firmware/?C=M;O=D
https://flemmingss.com/how-to-update-conbee-conbee-ii-firmware-in-windows-10/
Upgrade is possible if want to continue using same Zigbee software
Upgrade from ConBee 2 / Raspbee 2 is possible only if continue using the same Zigbee software, see:
PS: Why not buy and migrate to a other radio type if you are using the ZHA ( Zigbee Home Automation) integration or Zigbee2MQTT? IMHO, the only good reason to buy a ConBee or RaspBee adapter today is if want to use Dresden-Elektronik’s deCONZ/Phoscon as both the ZHA integration and Zigbee2MQTT have better support for Silicon Labs EmberZNet (EZSP/Ember NCP) and Texas Instruments Z-Stack ZNP based Zigbee Coordinator adapters than what they have for the ConBee/RaspBee adapters.