ITead's "Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus" (model "ZBDongle-P") based on Texas Instruments CC2652P +20dBm radio SoC/MCU

were you using a usb hub? are you booting from a usb hdd/ssd?

I am booting from USB SSD. I tried two different hubs, but they caused more problems, so am not currently using one.

Not end of the week I know, but I would just ask here:
Does this batch comes with any different firmware or config, maybe, than the last batch?

IN STOCK NOW
AFAIK, the same

It is easy to flash other firmware. And new firmware should be available today, together with the Zigbee2mqtt update.

What power adapter are you using? I’m using a 3.5 amp. I myself have had problems with sata drives pulling to much power. It was probably a power fluctuation. If it’s connected through HDMI some monitors and TVs push power through a HDMI and can cause a crazy back feed. If you have the ssd drive and a ZigBee USB connected without external power that could of been to big a voltage swing for it. Kind of like flickering the lights on and off. I have a HDMI unit where somehow it would power my pi4 through it’s HDMI alone. (Not stable it would just keep it from restarting)

Hope they flashed a unique “product description” to CP2102N chip EEPROM for USB discovery in ZHA:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/community-help-wanted-to-whitelist-all-compatible-zigbee-and-z-wave-usb-adapters-for-automatic-discovery-in-home-assistant-os/344412

ITead replied before saying they change the default “CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller” text in the Product Description String value field to “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus” in their next batch

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/community-help-wanted-to-whitelist-all-compatible-zigbee-and-z-wave-usb-adapters-for-automatic-discovery-in-home-assistant-os/344412

ITead has also had contact with Zigbee2MQTT developer about building a +9 dBM firmware for it, see:

_Originally posted by @Koenkk in TI SimpleLink CC13xx and CC26xx SDK 5.30 / 5.30.00.56 released with support for newer CC13xx and CC26xx hardware chips · Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt · Discussion #9744 · GitHub

I have had contact with Sonoff about this, they are currently checking whether it is possible to set a default transmit power of 9dbm (to pass certifications), waiting for them to reply

This is what I got from them: As the certifier recommends us to set the default transmit power as 9.61 dbm, which need to lower than 10. You may take this as a reference to adjust your plan?

_Originally posted by @Koenkk in “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus” model "ZBDongle-P" by ITead is based on Texas Instruments CC2652P can now be ordered for $19.90 · Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt · Discussion #8840 · GitHub

No reply yet, I’ve send them a firmware which sets the default dbm to 9, they are currently testing it in their lab.

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Yeah, I think you might be on to something. I put the USB hub back on (though it is itself unstable), and ordered another one to try again. I put both the hub and the RPi in a smart plug that I can toggle when everything goes to hell. Now I have to get my network stable again. Many endpoints just keep dropping off, and I can’t even add new ones.

what power adapter are you using? maybe a higher power psu instead of a usb hub? sorry if my reply was late…

Those 2 things are exactly what I was hoping to see in this new batch.

But yeah, flashing a different FW is easy enough.

Note that writing “product description” to CP2102N chip EEPROM will be separate from CC2652P FW.

Both can probably be updated by the end-users themselves but I do not know of any existing simple to use script/tool that can easily write a new custom “product description” to CP210x chips EEPROM(?).

Though found these which would probably be modified to write changes to CP210x EEPROM?

https://github.com/VCTLabs/cp210x-program

Anyway, even if the current batch have added “product description” written in CP2102N EEPROM now, we can probably assume that they are not yet shipping this batch with a +9 dBM firmware on CC2652P.

Oh, the official RPi power supply.

I’m using zha. Up to date home assistant core and os.

The dongle will not let me add any new devices and the Ikea buttons I had 90% don’t work now and are unavailable.

I just tried another sonoff dongle as I ordered 2 and neither allows me to add any new devices. I tried adding an ecosmart bulb, Ikea button and an aqara door sensor.

The dongle is a massive upgrade in network speed for the devices that can connect and a huge downgrade in reliability over the nortek as I never had issues pairing with the nortek or Ikea buttons falling off.

I will add I just got these 2 dongles in their November batch. Not sure if this is a systemic hardware issue. I was troubleshooting with puddly on GitHub and he thinks it’s a hardware issue as well. After restoring my Nvram on his stick and having no issues at all.

I also tried adding decices via repeaters and that didn’t work either even though in the logs when you add a device it said it successfully sent a pairing request to the device

have you tried going back to a sdcard and seeing if the added power needed for the sata ssd or a defective usb-sata adapter was causing some of your problems?
right now im using a 3.5 amp cana. I use my official pi psu to charge batteries an even that job it doesn’t do well because of its plug being so large.

As noted by qooqoo and other, Raspberry Pi and other SBCs can act weird when not got a good PSU.

Maybe test with both older “20210120” firmware version as well as with the latest “20211114” (develop):

https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/raw/5adbe76236167e17ee24588e70ba35850f7061ab/coordinator/Z-Stack_3.x.0/bin/CC1352P2_CC2652P_launchpad_20210120.zip

https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/blob/7c5a6da0c41855d42b5e6506e5e3b496be097ba3/coordinator/Z-Stack_3.x.0/bin/CC1352P2_CC2652P_launchpad_coordinator_20211114.zip

Note all Koenkk’s older firmware that has been uploaded can be found in the commit history on GitHub:

https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/commits/master/coordinator/Z-Stack_3.x.0/bin

Also, are you using a good enough power-supply unit if using the dongle on a single-board computer?

If I just got them from the late November batch I wonder what firmware they shipped with. Is there an easy way to find out?

Not sure if you’re talking to me about having a good power supply as I see there’s another discussion about that. I’m using an odroid n2+ with the provided power supply and I don’t have issues controlling devices just issues with Ikea buttons and adding devices. I have 107 devices and 99% work. I don’t think pairing would draw so much additional power that a power supply issue would be the culprit.

If you have 107 devices and 99% of them work then I doubt your issue is specific to this Sonoff Plus dongle and thus you are more likely to find help by posting a new dedicated thread about it instead. Tip is then to lead with the fact that you already have 107 devices and 99% of them are working fine.

Since 107 devices are quite a lot since there is a limit to how many devices you can have connected directly as direct children to the Zigbee coordinator.

So my first guess is that you either do not have enough “good” Zigbee router devices or that one of your existing Zigbee router devices is giving you issues, so to troubleshoot I would try to join through a different Zigbee router device or maybe even remove some battery-operated devices (if those are direct children connected directly to the Zigbee coordinator) and then re-add them though a Zigbee router device instead after you added more Zigbee routers.

Anyway, remember that there is a limit to how many direct children a Zigbee coordinator can have, and understand that proper use of Zigbee router devices is essential in a Zigbee network. Recommend read all these general tips which are all directly or indirectly related to proper use of Zigbee routers:

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#best-practices-for-avoiding-pairing-difficulties

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha#using-router-devices

https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant.io/pull/18864

Regarding IKEA buttons you should check out this blueprint → ZHA - IKEA TRADFRI - 5 Button Remote - Custom Actions

Help is by the way still wanted testing firmware upgrade(s) with pull request patch for ITead’s Sonoff CC2652P USB dongle with JelmerT cc2538-bsl tool using the new option --bootloader-sonoff-usb

https://github.com/JelmerT/cc2538-bsl/tree/feature/ITead_Sonoff_Zigbee-delay

Please report firmware upgrade issue with it or confirm it working under which operating system here:

https://github.com/JelmerT/cc2538-bsl/pull/114

(There is a longer related troubleshooting discussion in https://github.com/JelmerT/cc2538-bsl/pull/114 )

Note that for ZHA it is recommended to always do a backup before upgrading the firmware, see links in:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/zha-integration-to-do-nightly-backup-of-both-zigbee-coordinator-adapter-dongle-stick-and-zigbee-database/357558

Personally I recommended doing backup with zigpy-znp then restore backup after upgrading firmware.

All of them worked with a nortek stick which is from 2015. There’s no reason it shouldn’t work now. The only 1% of the issues I am having are Ikea buttons and not being able to add any devices. The Ikea shades of which I have 13 work perfectly fine. The majority are ecosmart zigbee bulbs that are routers and again everything worked fine on nortek no issues.

After a firmware update do I need to restore the network configuration again?