Problem flashing SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus E firmware

Hi all,

first of all, sorry if I’m in the wrong place here, but I heard many of you are using the same adapter so here I go…
Recently, I purchased the above mentioned Zigbee adapter to control Phillips Hue lights without a bridge from HA. It came preinstalled with the coordinator firmware, but I didn’t do enough research and flashed it with the wrong router firmware using a common online tool. After that, I realized that I need the coordinator firmware so I wanted to reflash it, but the web tool didnt work anymore so I connected to it using SecureCRT. In short, I couldn’t even get to the bootloader for a while (holding BOOT while pressing RST), without getting anything in the console out of the device, then I managed to flash another firmware, but with 6 errors, not sure what exactly they are. So not, I either have a router firmware, with blinking green pairing LED and console output working (I see some logs) or a coordinator firmware, where I get no flashing, only the power diode and no console output. All flashes are with 4 to 6 errors. Zigbee2mqtt in HA or in basic container can’t connect to it with the output:

[21:35:44] INFO: Preparing to start... [21:35:44] INFO: Socat not enabled [21:35:45] INFO: Starting Zigbee2MQTT... Starting Zigbee2MQTT without watchdog. [2025-02-05 21:35:46] info: z2m: Logging to console, file (filename: log.log) [2025-02-05 21:35:46] info: z2m: Starting Zigbee2MQTT version 2.1.0 (commit #unknown [2025-02-05 21:35:46] info: z2m: Starting zigbee-herdsman (3.2.5) [2025-02-05 21:35:46] info: zh:adapter:discovery: Matched adapter: {"path":"/dev/ttyUSB0","manufacturer":"ITead","serialNumber":"cea809c3a039ef11963057f454516304","pnpId":"usb-ITead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_cea809c3a039ef11963057f454516304-if00-port0","vendorId":"10c4","productId":"ea60"} => zstack: path=/dev/ttyUSB0, score=4 [2025-02-05 21:35:46] info: zh:zstack:znp: Opening SerialPort with {"path":"/dev/ttyUSB0","baudRate":115200,"rtscts":false,"autoOpen":false} [2025-02-05 21:35:46] info: zh:zstack:znp: Serialport opened [2025-02-05 21:35:47] info: zh:zstack:znp: Writing CC2530/CC2531 skip bootloader payload [2025-02-05 21:35:48] info: zh:zstack:znp: Skip bootloader for CC2652/CC1352 [2025-02-05 21:36:06] error: z2m: Error while starting zigbee-herdsman [2025-02-05 21:36:06] error: z2m: Failed to start zigbee-herdsman [2025-02-05 21:36:06] error: z2m: Check https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/installation/20_zigbee2mqtt-fails-to-start_crashes-runtime.html for possible solutions [2025-02-05 21:36:06] error: z2m: Exiting... [2025-02-05 21:36:06] error: z2m: Error: Failed to connect to the adapter (Error: SRSP - SYS - ping after 6000ms) at ZStackAdapter.start (/app/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/zigbee-herdsman/src/adapter/z-stack/adapter/zStackAdapter.ts:113:27) at Controller.start (/app/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/zigbee-herdsman/src/controller/controller.ts:136:29) at Zigbee.start (/app/lib/zigbee.ts:69:27) at Controller.start (/app/lib/controller.ts:142:13) at start (/app/index.js:161:5)

My current Zigbee2Mqtt config:
socat
enabled: false master: pty,raw,echo=0,link=/tmp/ttyZ2M,mode=777 slave: tcp-listen:8485,keepalive,nodelay,reuseaddr,keepidle=1,keepintvl=1,keepcnt=5 options: "-d -d" log: false server: mqtt://core-mosquitto:1883 user: xxx password: xxx

mqtt
port: >- /dev/serial/by-id/usb-ITead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_cea809c3a039ef11963057f454516304-if00 adapter: ember

The latest flashed firware is called ncp-uart-hw-v7.4.5.0-zbdonglee-115200.gbl
And the console output while flashing:
Gecko Bootloader v1.12.00 1 upload gbl 2 run 3 ebl info BL > begin upload Starting xmodem transfer. Press Ctrl+C to cancel. Transferimg ncp-uart-hw-v7.4.5.0-zbdonglee-115200(1).gbl… 100% 232 KB 4 KB/s 00:00:56 5 Errors
With no “success” or something like that.

My question is, is my dongle bricked? Do i need to tap into the exposed UART pads on the back of the PCB? Is there anybody who can give me some guidance on flashing the firmware successfully?

You are not the only one…

Can you properly format your entire z2m config? It’s difficult to understand how exactly it’s configured right now. And also show your Docker container configuration.

It looks like z2m is trying to access the dongle using the zstack driver, which is the wrong one for the Dongle E.

Are you sure it is a Dongle E ? The usually have a V2 in the USB description. Something like
usb-ITead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_cea809c3a039ef11963057f454516304-if00-port0

1 Like