ITead’s “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2” (model "ZBDongle-E") based on Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 radio SoC/MCU

[kbonnel]

Is there a difference / recommendation on using the itead firmware vs. the darkxst firmware that I see throughout many posts / firmware upgrade discussions?

[Hedda]

Already asked and answered a few posts above yours,
I posted this reply two months ago:

In practice they only differ in the version of the Silicon Labs EmberZNet SDK that the firmware image been build from.

There might also be some small configuration difference but both are built from the official SDK from Silicon Labs.

Sonoff has just not made any update images since initial release, however if they did it would basically be the same.

Recommendations varies depending on setup and devices used but in general with Zigbee the saying ”do not fix was isn’t broken” goes a long way.

So be sure to follow all the other best practice tips before update the firmware, see:

Zigbee networks: how to guide for avoiding interference + optimize using Zigbee Router devices (repeaters/extenders) to get a stable mesh network with best possible range and coverage

Who is this guide for? I have tried to make this guide to be a comprehensive collection of the most basic yet essential tips with a set of actions and best practice steps that should be applicable to all types of Zigbee setups, regardless of what type of Zigbee adapter/gateway/hub/bridge/devices that you are using. This guide is meant for both those who are new to Zigbee as well as those who been using Zigbee devices for years but might not been aware of the underlying prerequisites to optimiz…

[kbonnel]

I apologize, I totally missed that post above.

[Coelacanthus (Celeste Liu)]

@darkxst

Zigbee network itself is limited to 250kbps itself. NCP firmware is only relaying commands and data so in actual fact is going to need much less. I dont think there is any evidence that anything higher then 115200 for NCP will be better. theoretically 230 might be slightly better.

RCP multipan firmware is a different beast. Now you are offloading the coordinator role to your host for processing. That means the serial connection is now transferring the raw zigbee/thread data. you now need to keep up with the 250kbps, you also now have 2 networks (zigbee and thread) sharing the radio, which probably creates some overhead over the 250.

Is Thread’s situation similar to Zigbee’s? I’m trying to find the right Thread adapter for my smart home network. I found SMLIGHT SLZB-07 and ZBDongle-E, the former has hardware flow control and the latter does not. I’m not familiar with Thread network internals, so I don’t know if hardware flow control is an important feature of Thread.

[Hedda]

@Coelacanthus

Is Thread’s situation similar to Zigbee’s? I’m trying to find the right Thread adapter for my smart home network. I found SMLIGHT SLZB-07 and ZBDongle-E, the former has hardware flow control and the latter does not.

You need to understand and be aware of that the Thread integration (and the Matter integration to support devices that use Matter over Thread especially) is still experimental and in early state of development so my advice would be to just buy a separate dedicated Home Assistant SkyConnect / Connect ZBT-1 for Thread if want to try using it via a USB dongle Thread (and Matter support) as that one has much better support for more developers than any other hardware.

@Coelacanthus

I’m not familiar with Thread network internals, so I don’t know if hardware flow control is an important feature of Thread.

Hardware flow control is not really important with modern hardware and newer firmware, but FYI the Home Assistant SkyConnect / Connect ZBT-1 USB dongle support hardware flow control too.

[kaioruru_lad (Thomas Evans)]

Thank you! After reading this I noticed I didn’t have the SecureCRT maximized to see the command input window! Also didn’t realize pressing 1 and the CCCC… means ready to upload via Transfer > Send Xmodem

[darkxst (Tim L)]

@Coelacanthus

Is Thread’s situation similar to Zigbee’s? I’m trying to find the right Thread adapter for my smart home network. I found SMLIGHT SLZB-07 and ZBDongle-E, the former has hardware flow control and the latter does not. I’m not familiar with Thread network internals, so I don’t know if hardware flow control is an important feature of Thread.

Thread is also 250kbps, but since it is an RCP firmware the full bandwidth can be used between dongle and PC. This is why most thread builds are 460800 buaudrate.

Hardware flow control is not really important, I’ve yet to see any buffer overruns with ZBDongle-E which is with no flow control for thread.