GW70-XK (EFR32MG24) — specs and setup for ZHA / Zigbee2MQTT

Hardware
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Full disclosure up front: I’m the technical support guy at AVATTO. This is our dongle, so take that for what it’s worth. I’m not here to sell anything. no links, no prices.

GW70-XK is a USB dongle with an EFR32MG24 radio. That chip runs Zigbee 3.0 and Thread natively, which is the reason this thing can double as a Zigbee coordinator or a Thread RCP.

It ships flashed as a Zigbee coordinator (EmberZNet/EZSP). You can also reflash it as a Thread RCP or as a Zigbee router, and there’s a “MultiPAN” mode where it runs Zigbee and Thread at the same time. Firmware switching is done with a small flasher utility, so no separate debugger is needed.

Item Value
Model GW70-XK
Type USB dongle
Chip EFR32MG24
Flash / RAM 1.5 MB / 256 KB
Protocols Zigbee 3.0, Thread
Frequency 2.4 – 2.48 GHz
Antenna SMA, rotatable, 5 dBi
Range ~200 m open field
Port /dev/ttyUSB0
Shell aluminum
Size 221.5 × 24.5 × 11 mm
Temp -10 to 40 °C
Reflashes rated ~500

ZHA

Plug it in , then Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → Zigbee Home Automation. It should show up as /dev/ttyUSB0. Pick EZSP if it asks about the radio type. Pair devices from the ZHA UI like you would with any coordinator.

Zigbee2MQTT

  1. Plug the dongle into the HA box and open the Home Assistant web page.

  2. Sign in, then go to Settings → System → Hardware. Find the dongle’s ID — it’s the newly added one — and remember the name.

  3. Open Zigbee2MQTT and click Start.

  4. Click Open Web UI to get to the configuration page.

  5. Select the dongle ID you found in step 2. Pick the wrong one and the dongle won’t show up at all.

  6. Under Serial, pick Ember, not EZSP, and submit.

  7. Let the countdown finish, refresh the page, and the dongle shows up as added.

Note the adapter: use **ember**, not ezsp

Thread / Matter

Flash it to Thread RCP mode, install the OpenThread Border Router add-on, point it at this stick. Then Matter-over-Thread devices join through HA. Most of the questions I get about this are from people who bought it purely for Matter and forgot the Thread part.

That’s it. If something’s unclear or a device won’t pair, reply here and I’ll answer. And if I’m wrong about something, tell me