Not able to probe SkyConnect

Hardware
1

Hello.

I bought a SkyConnect and had a lot of problems making it work with Ikea styrbar.

I have tried a lot. Running Home Assistant as a Docker under Linux, under virtualbox under Windows and the same under Linux.

Now the dongle stopped working and I don’t know why. When I try to connect in home assistant it tells me it cannot be probed. I then tried the tool on the website for updating firmware but get an error message saying “the running firmware could not be detected”. Can you please tell me what to do? Is it bricked forever?

Hope anyone can help.

2

Maybe try the silabs-flasher on linux with no HA running just to make sure the SkyConnect still works.

Install: $pip install silabs-flasher
See if it can read the SkyConnect’s firmware data:
$ silabs-flasher --device /dev/ttyUSB0 info

3

Hey @wmaker and thank you for replying.

I have tried what you suggested and just get this

$ silabs-flasher --device /dev/ttyUSB0 info
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/nimo7/.local/bin/silabs-flasher", line 224, in <module>
    main()  # pylint: disable=no-value-for-parameter
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/click/core.py", line 1128, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/click/core.py", line 1053, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/click/core.py", line 1659, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/click/core.py", line 1395, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/click/core.py", line 754, in invoke
    return __callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/click/decorators.py", line 26, in new_func
    return f(get_current_context(), *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/nimo7/.local/bin/silabs-flasher", line 27, in inner
    return asyncio.run(f(*args, **kwargs))
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/asyncio/runners.py", line 44, in run
    return loop.run_until_complete(main)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/asyncio/base_events.py", line 646, in run_until_complete
    return future.result()
  File "/home/nimo7/.local/bin/silabs-flasher", line 153, in info
    brd_manuf, brd_name, version = await ezsp.get_board_info()
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'get_board_info'

It doesn’t look to me like there is any connection. I have installed the “system profiler and benchmark” app and it does see the device as “Silicon Labs CP210x UART Bridge”. So it is discoverable, but that’s it.

Do you, or anyone else, have any ideas of anything I can do and what should I buy instead if I want to control both ZigBee and Matter devices, and this device is dead? Are there any better alternatives?

4

From the last line of the log, the silabs-flasher apparently is using ezsp to get the board_info and this is failing. Its possible that your SkyConnect firmware either got reprogrammed, which will happen when you use multi-pan, or something else in the firmware is broke.

Here is another suggestion,
In linux shell/command, enter:
$ dmesg | grep cp21
You should see various output, but confirm that cp210x is attached to ttyUSB0 device and that it did not detach or disconnect.

If this looks good, then I would recommend you try to reprogram your SkyConnect using the newer “universal silabs flasher”.
First, install it: $pip install universal-silabs-flasher
Now try to flash it with the original firmware. Here is what another user did:

5

You sir (@wmaker), are amazing.
I had to fiddle a little and also download the firmware (couldn’t find the one from the other post, so found a newer), but it worked and my SkyConnect works again.
A big thanks to you

6

Great! (yeah I forgot to tell you where to get the firmware). If this worked for you, then mark it as a solution.

7

Sorry . Not used to do that. Usually I find out without asking. Har been marked and once again thank you :pray: