Home Assistant Yellow - builtin ZigBee

rjbrowning85 · November 16, 2023, 1:33pm

Any update on this? I am desperately trying to find a way to improve my zigbee reception. I am willing to give an external antenna a try. All my Google searches indicate it is possible to solder on an external antenna, but I haven’t found any posts indicating that anyone has successfully done it.

FloatingBoater · November 16, 2023, 3:25pm

Whilst it may be possible to add a higher gain antenna to a Yellow, don’t concentrate on the co-ordinator (and the driver software setting to switch antenna may not exist).

Mesh networks work better with more nodes. Add more mains powered Zigbee devices to pass messages along more reliably.

There are many guides in this forum on this of you search.

teek541 · December 13, 2023, 4:08pm

I had issues with my internal Zigbee radio on my Yellow. I just bought a skyconnect and a USB extender and it’s been working solid ever since.

jezzalencko · January 2, 2024, 2:18pm

Might have to do this myself. Having so much trouble with zigbee2mqtt right now and the Yellow on-board chip.
Pains me to have to get an external dongle though since part of the “sell” of the HA Yellow was that it “came with” Zigbee…

Racza · January 25, 2024, 3:25pm

Hi Chris, I’m actually facing very similar problems - Yellow build-in zigbee signal is very poor and unstable. It surprised me already so many times that I believe it’s simply not really usable. I mean, there are 3 Shutters that are withing 5 meters to Yellow, those works without problems, but all others not really optimal.
I though to solve it by using usb with SkyConnect, but somehow Yellow do not recognize it, or at least I do not know how to even check it. From what I read forum, it’s not possible to use multiple Zigbee adapters/coordinators on Yellow, so I guess the only way is to somehow deactivate build in Zigbee and activate the one on usb cable?

jkirjo · February 17, 2024, 10:44pm

I just did that ext antenna adding for test.Only little better without selecting/setting the ext antenna in use. This built in is really poor.
Connector

jkirjo · February 17, 2024, 10:45pm

Then some base for wlan antenna.

jkirjo · February 17, 2024, 10:47pm

And how it is now. Unfortunately the response was very weak. But is it better now, a little.

When looking at Silicon labs documents, it is surely configurable to use external antenna. But how it can be done in HA is beyond my skills.

rawzen · February 23, 2024, 9:14am

[1/3] (i’m only allowed 2 links per post).

Disclaimer: i’m not an expert in zigbee, and all the following information is the result of half-day spent on digging in silabs and NabuCasa github resources.

So, that’s right, J9 is indeed RF2G4_IO2, designed for the external antenna.
(official source - https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/data-sheets/mgm210p-datasheet.pdf, p33)

But enabling it is really not well documented to say the least.
Some information on silabs forums and KBA is quite outdated, and no longer applicable for the current SDK.
Eg. Silicon Labs Community
Antenna stub plugin is no longer there, all that has changed in a past few years.

rawzen · February 23, 2024, 9:15am

[2/3]

However, it seems that the right place to configure it now is config/sl_rail_util_rf_path_config.h
Example:

github.com

SiliconLabs/gecko_sdk/blob/911f6cdefccbae03bc66e8c790ceb7e67ca07417/platform/radio/rail_lib/plugin/rail_util_rf_path/config/efr32xg28/sl_rail_util_rf_path_config.h#L14


      
          #include "rail_types.h"
          
          // <<< Use Configuration Wizard in Context Menu >>>
          
          // <h> Chip-internal RF Path Configuration
          // <o SL_RAIL_UTIL_RF_PATH_INT_RF_PATH_MODE> RF Path Mode
          // <RAIL_ANTENNA_0=> Path 0
          // <RAIL_ANTENNA_1=> Path 1
          // <RAIL_ANTENNA_AUTO=> Auto
          // <i> Default: RAIL_ANTENNA_0
          #define SL_RAIL_UTIL_RF_PATH_INT_RF_PATH_MODE  RAIL_ANTENNA_0
          // </h>
          
          // <<< end of configuration section >>>
          
          #endif // SL_RAIL_UTIL_RF_PATH_CONFIG_H

And SL_RAIL_UTIL_RF_PATH_INT_RF_PATH_MODE is in fact being used for antennaConfig.defaultPath and RAIL_ConfigAntenna :

github.com

SiliconLabs/gecko_sdk/blob/911f6cdefccbae03bc66e8c790ceb7e67ca07417/platform/radio/rail_lib/plugin/rail_util_rf_path/sl_rail_util_rf_path.c#L47


      
          #if ((_SILICON_LABS_32B_SERIES_2_CONFIG == 1) \
            || (_SILICON_LABS_32B_SERIES_2_CONFIG == 3) \
            || (_SILICON_LABS_32B_SERIES_2_CONFIG == 8))
          #include "sl_rail_util_rf_path_config.h"
          #endif
          
          void sl_rail_util_rf_path_init(void)
          {
            RAIL_AntennaConfig_t antennaConfig = { 0 };
          #if defined(SL_RAIL_UTIL_RF_PATH_INT_RF_PATH_MODE) // efr32xg2x chip-specific
            antennaConfig.defaultPath = SL_RAIL_UTIL_RF_PATH_INT_RF_PATH_MODE;
          #endif // internal rf path
            (void) RAIL_ConfigAntenna(RAIL_EFR32_HANDLE, &antennaConfig);
          }

rawzen · February 23, 2024, 9:15am

[3/3]

I’ve manually followed the automated build process used in GitHub - NabuCasa/silabs-firmware-builder: Silicon Labs firmware builder (github actions) and indeed ANTENNA_0 is being configured (in config/sl_rail_util_rf_path_config.h) and used for MGM210PA32JIA
I managed to build the firmware, changing it to ANTENNA_1, but can’t try it out - my soldering skills are likely much worse than in software and i’m not immediately having any u.fl handy
By the way, has the J9 been connected to the ground before the soldering?
Anyway, having h/w modification already performed, i would definitely give it a try to updated firmware.

Essentially, I followed steps described in those 3 files:

github.com

NabuCasa/silabs-firmware-builder/blob/27fbaa17d2391c2ae2d034db37e642e09290c09c/Dockerfile

FROM debian:bookworm

ARG DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

RUN \
    apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
       bzip2 \
       curl \
       git \
       git-lfs \
       jq \
       yq \
       libgl1 \
       make \
       default-jre-headless \
       patch \
       python3 \
       unzip \
       xz-utils

This file has been truncated. show original

.github/workflows/build.yaml
.github/workflows/silabs-firmware-build.yaml
for “ncp-uart-hw-yellow”.

I could also share the binary, but wouldn’t recommend to trust it and build it yourself instead.
Please let me know if you need any detailed instructions.

jkirjo · February 23, 2024, 2:29pm

It is not totally grounded. I’m pretty sure, that there is some inductor/feeding thing to ground.
That software part is hard to me. I’d like to test, but i need more detailed instructions. Very noob.

rawzen · February 23, 2024, 10:22pm

I’ve forked the repo to at least make the build straightforward, you can see the diff here:

If you have any github login , you should be able to download the artifact (zip including gbl file) from the action page, direct link:
https://github.com/mrozentsvayg/silabs-firmware-builder/actions/runs/8025422656/artifacts/1271052054

Based on emberznet 7.4.0.0 (4.4.0 gecko sdk)

Very interested to see if that works, please report back or let me know if there’s anything else to unblock it.
What’s you current firmware by the way? I’ve upgraded from default 6.x to 7.3.1.0 (silabs_flasher add-on) couple days ago and it seems to be working a little better. A few end devices - couple of third reality water leak sensors and hue motion sensor kept going unavailable, holding better so far. Too soon to tell though.

jkirjo · February 24, 2024, 12:07am

Ouch, there is now a small problem. I’m very old electrician from analog-era. I have no idea, what i should do? I can copy file, if i know to where, or edit file but how i locate correct one? Very noob, as i said. Yep, firmware version. Perhaps it can be found somewhere…

rawzen · February 24, 2024, 12:57am

No worries.
The current version could be found at the coordinator’s device page.
In the Settings -> Devices & Services -> Zigbee Home Automation click on devices list and find the device. It should be named “Silicon Labs EZSP”.

In the meantime let me (try to) find the easiest way to flash the firmware …

rawzen · February 24, 2024, 1:26am

In the meantime let me (try to) find the easiest way to flash the firmware …

Here’s a doc:

Elaborated steps:

Install GitHub - hassio-addons/addon-ssh: Advanced SSH & Web Terminal - Home Assistant Community Add-ons , disable the protection mode and start it
Configure the add-on - ssh key or password, take a note the username
open web ui of the add-on and type pip install universal-silabs-flasher
from your computer copy the firmware to the addon file system, with smth like:
scp ncp-uart-hw.gbl [email protected]:
(assuming the username is default for the add-on, and the firmware file name is it is the github action artifact zip)
disable the Zigbee Home Automation integration
flashing command:
$ universal-silabs-flasher --device /ttyAMA1 flash --allow-cross-flashing --firmware ncp-uart-hw.gbl
reenable the the Zigbee Home Automation integration, take note of the version for the coordinator (as described in the post above)
test!

jkirjo · February 24, 2024, 2:42am

I can’t find any for Silicon Labs. Only zigbee coordinator is listed. Its version is 6.10.3.0 build 297. I can’t go further from that wiev.

How I ever thank you enough, when you try to guide me thru this issue?

rawzen · February 24, 2024, 3:00am

Wondering if you recently restarted the home assistant or just installed the 2024.3 update?
It also showed as “Zigbee Coordinator” to me right after the update, then after several minutes it popped up back as “Silicon Labs EZSP” in the list.

It’s not an issue anyway, you could follow the steps to update the firmware as described in the post above.

jkirjo · February 24, 2024, 3:12am

There was a core update few hours ago. After that i didn’t do separate reboot.
Have to focus to this tomorrow, now i have too many beers in my head…

jkirjo · February 24, 2024, 3:50pm

Are one of these suitable for that purpose?
Screenshot 2024-02-24 at 17-47-41 Home Assistant