I would focus on the peak power output (taking antenna gain into account), because that quantifies the transmitted signal, when the data is present.
Sonos S31: 4dBm (2.5mW)
IKEA TRADFRI: 11.5dBm (14mW)
OK Eric, I agree with that.
Perhaps this also clarifies why earlier you experienced pairing issues between the Temp sensor and the Sonoff ZB Bridge (with the S31 ZB Lite as repeater in between).
It could well be that the S31 due to its quite limited RF power could not easily reach the Temp sensor (and perhaps also by other RF interference around it). The IKEA repeater has much more power and may give a much more reliable connection between the various ZB devices.
Perhaps this also clarifies why earlier you experienced pairing issues between the Temp sensor and the Sonoff ZB Bridge (with the S31 ZB Lite as repeater in between).
No, I think you may be confused about the specifics of the situations.
- the temp sensors were already paired with the Sonoff ZB Bridge and most were working fine (never disconnecting from the Bridge). Only 1 far temperature sensor kept disconnecting.
- the Sonoff S31 was paired with the ZB Bridge and placed somewhat close to (within 10-15 feet) the temperature sensors but it didnât start automatically pairing and repeating the temperature sensors.
- I added the IKEA TRADFRI repeater to the ZB network and within an hour, the Sonoff S31 started to behave like it should have all along. Note, I never moved the S31 or the temperature sensors, so nothing changed with respect to location and signal strength.
From looking at that evidence, it sure appears that the addition of the TRADFRI repeater changed the behavior of the Sonoff S31.
OK, good to know! Thanks.
Knowing this, then I would think that there is a flaw with the firmware of the S31 Zigbee Lite at the moment. This may get solved in future with updates of the FW.
So, if people like to use it only for the repeater function, then it is better to stay away from the S31 and buy an IKEA TRADFRI instead. That one functions much better as ZB repeater and has also higher RF power.
Do you have the same view?
Cheers
Do you have the same view?
Yes, I agree. With the behavior of the current Sonoff S31 firmware, and its lesser RF performance, the IKEA TRADFRI is a much better choice for a Zigbee repeater.
Iâm not aware of a way to update the firmware in these Sonoff Zigbee end devices.
Is there one?
the Sonoff and ewelink devices donât support Firmware updates, they donât have an OTA cluster at allâŚ
Do any of the Zigbee device brands allow for firmware updates? Aqara?
Ikea and Ledvance are the 2 brands that actually make updates publicly available. beyond them there is a collection of files available here, the index.json file also as link to the hue firmwares. https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-OTA
I have never seen a firmware update for a sensor type device.
Most Zigbee devices do but many will officially only do OTA firmware updates via first-party hub/gateway/bridge/controller, however some third-party hubs/gateways/bridges/controllers has the possibility to manually and/or automatically do OTA firmware updates for different devices (of many brands/manufacturers) if the OTA firmware image files are available.
DeCONZ and Zigbee2MQTT are among the best for doing automcatic OTA firmware updates, and ZHA can perform OTA firmware updates if you provide the OTA firmware image files or automatically for IKEA and Ledvance.
Is it not the case that for many Zigbee + battery button cell sensors firmware upgrades are not possible because of the following?
-
Zigbee battery powered sensors only have a Zigbee radio onboard which is not ideal for collecting a FW update via air.
The Zigbee Bridges/Hubs/Gateways usually have also a wifi radio on board which is great for quick FW update downloads. -
The Zigbee battery powered sensors are usually very small and many times to not have any pins / connectors on the board to allow FW updates.
-
Those sensors are battery powered, and like with an iPhone/Ipad, the manufacturer doesnât like to push new FW to a device if it is not connected to a power adapter (to prevent that a device is updating its FW and at the same moment is running out battery power).
I donât think so, I have Lutron Auroas and they have gotten multiple FW updates. Ikea and Hue both have released fw for their battery powered buttons/remotes. the updates are usually pretty slow, ikea remotes that have accelerometers within can be kept awake to do the update faster by shaking during the process.
Any idea which other Zigbee end device brands get firmware updates OTA?
How about the Aqara?
Would those updates come through the Sonoff Zigbee Bridge?
Any links to how-to pages appreciated.
everyone I know about is on the Zigby-OTA github repo I linked above. I contributed the Terncy smart dial one, which I got via sniffing the zigbee traffic from the terncy hub.
That the Sonoff Zigbee temp sensor has no capability for FW upgrades is probably not a big issue. I would be more concerned if the Sonoff (mains) powered devices (like the S31 Zigbee Lite) which should all have the repeater functionality, have no capability to receive FW upgrades. Not sure if that is the case for all Sonoff Zigbee (mains) powered devices.
Does anyone knows that?
If only Sonoffâs Zigbee Bridge is able to receive FW updates, then that would be a big Con for their whole ZB platform
Btw, first time I heard about Terncy Hub, it looks like an impressive device, also Homekit compatible!
Do we know, is this Hub compatible as well with the Sonoff ZB sensors?
Do we need to buy a Sonoff Zigbee Bridge and leave it with stock firmware, for the purpose of OTA updates?
A better question would be if someone could convince ITead to make Sonoff Zigbee devices OTA firmware images download URLs public so that third-party Zigbee implementations can use them. IKEA and Ledvance/OSRAM already do so and that is why ZHA supports OTA for those by default. Read:
FYI, ITead has announced in a video that they will soon sell a Sonoff branded Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle that is based the exact same Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 SoC as their Sonoff ZBBridge Zigbee Bridge
Note! Ember USB Zigbee adapters/dongles/sticks like these are highly recommended over using a remotely connected Ember module using a serial-to-ip bridge / serial forwarding server like ser2net.
https://github.com/zigpy/bellows#warning-about-zigbee-to-wifi-bridges
The reason Ember remote bridges over serial-to-IP proxy server is not recommended is that clients using the EZSP serial protocol requires a robust connection between the EmberZNet Zigbee stack running on EFR32 MCU and the serial port of the Zigbee radio. With solutions such as ITEAD Sonoff ZBBridge or a Ser2Net serial proxy connection over a WiFi network it is expected to see NCP entered failed state. Requesting APP controller restart in the logs. This is a normal part of the operation and indicates there was a drop in communication which caused packet loss to occurred between the zigpy radio library and the Zigbee radio. The use of serial network proxies/bridges/servers over WiFi is therefore not recommended when wanting a stable Zigbee environment with Silicon Labs Ember based Zigbee radios. The developers of the bellows radio library for the zigpy project has more information about this if needed.
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Ethernet will work fine. Iâve had my ebyte gateway up for over a month now with no disconnects/failures. @walt is stress testing an early version of my CC2652p2 based gateways and it has been rock solid. I will have CC2652p2 based serial over ethernet and some based on the SM-011 efr32 module as well as a higher end one based on the MGM12P32F1024GE-v4 module for sale shortly - all waiting on some shipments.