Sonoff dongle plus router/repeater - changing TX power

Hi all

I was able to flash CC1352P2_CC2652P_launchpad_router_20221102 onto my Sonoff dongle pluses, and they seem to work fine so far. This version is supposed to allow changing of TX power from default of 9dBm.

I see there’s a reference to: Set the transmit power through the serial port command SYS_SET_TX_POW

If anyone has done this before, or knows what the above means, please let me know, e.g what application/command line to use. I tried SmartRF Studio 7 with the dongle plugged in via USB on my Windows PC, but the device couldn’t be detected.

Cheers
Joe

It is exposed via zigbee as a config entity:

ZHA:

Zigbee2MQTT UI:

or Zigbee2MQTT via HA entity:

Thanks jerrm, I see this now after upgrading to 2022.12.x

cheers
Joe

Hi all,

I don’t have the same configuration screen in my setup (Transmit power setting is not shown) :

@jerrm : is there anything particular to configure (yaml or anything else?) to get this tx_power setting to appear?

My setup :

  • RPI 4
  • HAOS 10.5
  • HA 2023.8.3
  • Sonoff Dongle P (CC2652P) with 20221226 firmware

Where am I wrong?

Thanks for your help :slight_smile:

Florian

you are looking at the general ZHA screen. Click under Appareils connectés on your router

Thank you Francis for your reply but i’m not sure to understand what you suggest.

The screenshot i posted is showing the properties page for my zigbee dongle coordinator, it is not the zha general screen…

The list under “appareils connectés” is only showing devices connected to my coordinator, so my coordinator is not in this list.

As far as i understand the previous post, the transmit power setting should be shown under the “Controles” section, and it is not the case for me.

TX Power is exposed in the GUI settings for 2652 based router sticks, not coordinators.

AFAIK, the tx power of the coordinator can only be set in configuration.yaml, but I’m not sure of the syntax.

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Thank you @jerrm, very clear.
I did’t notice it was only for routers.
I will try to change power tx with configuration.yaml file

edit : i found that page ITead's "Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus" (model "ZBDongle-P") based on Texas Instruments CC2652P +20dBm radio SoC/MCU - #189 by Hedda
not tried yet

That is correct. But I recommend leaving them as default as it only makes them louder but not listen better. That is, it only amplifies radio transmission signal and not reception so devices that can can hear it might not have strong enough radios to reply back. Solution is instead to add more Zigbee router devices → Zigbee networks: how to guide for avoiding interference and optimize for getting better range + coverage

Thank you @Hedda, I must admit that LQI values are much better since i flashed with 20221226 firmware (all values are +20 or +30 higher). I was previously on stock firmware (february 2021).
I will play with tx_power setting only if i lost devices (it is not the case for the moment)

Another tip is that can possibly get better reception by replacing the external antenna with one of higher quality, but again, the best way for Zigbee is still just to add many more known good Zigbee Router devices to build out your Zigbee network mesh as well do everything you can to avoid interference close to the Zigbee Coordinator and all the devices → Guide for Zigbee interference avoidance and network range/coverage optimization

Yes for sure!
I have a total of 37 zigbee devices, among them I have 13 routers which contribute to the stability of my network

Pretty sure the default changed from +5db to +9db somewhere in between.

Generally I agree with @hedda though, trying to bump higher may cause more harm than good. Worth testing, but don’t put too much faith in LQI numbers. LQI as a diagnostic is better than nothing, but not by much.

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