I haven’t dug into any of this yet, but I thought one of the benefits of this device is that it already has firmware on it so it might be possible to reflash with USB – See above
I know about that page, but I wonder if it actually works ? I always used my CC-debugger to flash CC2531/CC2530 devices.
I don’t have a CC debugger. I have a Bus Pirate, but from a quick google, didn’t see any CC debugger emulator for the Bus Pirate.
I’ll try the Windows route at some point or maybe the RPi method from here:
You do not have to reflash the adapter as the Itead CC2531 USB adapter with the old ZHA 1.2 firmware should still work in backwards compatibiliy mode. You can however upgrade if you want to use Zigbee 3.0 devices in Zigbee 3.0 mode.
Easist way to upgrade firmware today should be via zigpy-znp which I think should be able to do it via USB if you have a Linux computer GitHub - zigpy/zigpy-znp: TI CC2531, CC13x2, CC26x2 radio support for Zigpy and ZHA
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It should be possible to upgrade firmware via USB via zigpy-znp
There are Z-Stack 3.0.x firmware available from
It is not possible to flash a CC2531 via USB if it does not already have a firmware
The firmware the itead CC2531 is shipped with does not support eg the IKEA E1743. You don’t need ZigBee 3.0 support for this ( it is a bad idea to flash the ZigBee 3.0 firmware on a CC2531, highly unstable), but it needs the latest 1.2 ZigBee firmware.
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Thanks. I have Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 4. Now I have ordered CC Debugger and downloader cable also. Hopefully I will get USB dongle, CC Debugger and downloader cable together.
But still avoid to use flash method which requires soldering. Suggest me flash method (which doesn’t require soldering) so I can use aquara and ikea zigbee stuffs. Thanks
Thanks. I have Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 4. Now I have ordered CC Debugger and downloader cable also. Hopefully I will get USB dongle, CC Debugger and downloader cable together.
But still avoid to use flash method which requires soldering. Suggest me flash method (which doesn’t require soldering) so I can use aquara and ikea zigbee stuffs. Thanks
The CC debugger does not require soldering.
I’ve had a lot of trouble with ZHA and Xiaomi/Aqara devices … Has anyone had good luck and have tips to share?
I’ve got a CC2531 as well as the Sonoff zbbridge… both work fine as far as MQTT is concerned… but ZHA just doesn’t seem happy.
People report that Z-Stack 3.0.x firmware is stable as long as you you do not have to many direct connect children / devices (less than 15) so make sure connect mains connected Zigbee routers first (like the IKEA signal repeater) then you can still build a medium Zigbee mesh network.
If you plan on builing a larger Zigbee network then recommendation is to buy a better Zigbee coordinator hardware than the Itead CC2531 regardless if run Zigbee 3.0 firmware or not.
With the Z-Stack 3 firmware you can upgrade to better hardware later by backibg up and restiring NVRAM but the new hardware also needs to be Texas Instruments with Z-Stack 3 firmware
For someone starting out now is Zigbee2MQTT a good choice?
The Z-Wave support is moving to using MQTT which will decouple the process that controls the network from the Home Assistant process. It’s nice not to have to wait for the whole Z-Wave network to restart every time HA restarts.
It also seems desirable to messaging-level access to all the devices without too many layers.
I have been using zigbee2mqtt for 1,5 year now, it is rock solid. But to be honest, if I started now I would not buy a CC2530+CC2591 anymore, but one of the more powerful boards. But everything is working, and switching to one of the newer boards is re-pairing everything, so for the moment I stick with what I have.
Thank you for all the info. I did buy the ITEAD board to start experimenting. So far all of my switches are Z-Wave. I want to add sensors on ZigBee to not overload the Z-Wave network.
Could you give an example of the hardware you’d use if you were starting fresh today?
See here :
The ones starting with CC26 are the newer, more powerful ones.
And can be bought by following this thread, which lists two sellers. "Zzh!" (short for "Zig-a-zig-ah!") open-source hardware licensed Zigbee USB-stick based on TI CC2652R
slaesh now also make an alternative CC2652 USB dongle that support Z-Stack 3 firmware
CC2531 is a good starter choice if just want to try out Zigbee and are not sure yet if want to go all in.
If upgrade CC2531 to Z-Stack 3 firmware then you can replace it later with a CC2652 with zigpy-znp.
As long as have Z-Stack 3 firmware from the start then can back up and restore to another adapter.
Simplest is probably to upgrade to Z-Stack 3 firmware first before you start connecting any devices.
You want to connect a few mains-powered Zigbee router devices first to make it a larger Zigbee mesh.
Always-on mains-powered Zigbee routers act as signal repeaters and range extenders.
Suggest buying “IKEA Trådfri Signal Repeater” as dedicated routers that are less tempting to unplug.
I had exactly the same experience.
No matter what I tried I couldn’t get the Xiaomi single button to pair to my HUSBZB-1 stick using ZHA. Luckily I had a working CC2531 stick I had been tinkering with using zigbee2mqtt so I fired that system back up and it paired the first time and has been working perfectly since then.
It’s literally the only thing I have paired to that stick. It seems like waste of resources for a single button but it’s working so I’m not messing with it.
Have you guys upgraded the EmberZNet NCP application firmware on your HUSBZB-1 USB dongles?
Apparently, they ship with really old firmware but @walthowd has instructions for updating the FW here