Ordered one EFR32 Pro an hour ago. Hope you can ship it soon, can’t wait to try it.
Questions:
using bellows, can I backup/restore from a Sonoff ZB Bridge?
is there any documentation regarding the bellows config. parameters you mentioned?
even if not recommended, the device can also be configured as a wifi bridge? I know you won’t support it, but I’d like to know if technically it works.
I couldn’t find clear instructions regarding fw upgrades for the Pro, I checked on the site and on github’s device page. Is it an easy process or physical access to the device is needed?
The MGM12P chip should also support Thread. In the future, will this device be upgradable to Thread simply upgrading firmware?
is there any documentation regarding the bellows config. parameters you mentioned? I will add to my github shortly - it will be up in within a few days - there is a PR for bellows that hopefully will be approved and put into a new release - this is needed before the full settings can be utilized.https://github.com/zigpy/bellows/pull/397
even if not recommended, the device can also be configured as a wifi bridge? I know you won’t support it, but I’d like to know if technically it works. the ESP32 board used ESPHome, you can conifigure wifi and upload a new fw. I will post the current esphome fw and supporting files in my GitHub so a starting point can be used.
I couldn’t find clear instructions regarding fw upgrades for the Pro, I checked on the site and on github’s device page. Is it an easy process or physical access to the device is needed? I need to still create the docs. You do not need physical access. Basic procedure is use the web interface to pull PA02 Low, hit the reset toggle, then use serial program like minicom (I use Serial2 app on mac) and trigger the upload and X-Modem transfer)
The MGM12P chip should also support Thread. In the future, will this device be upgradable to Thread simply upgrading firmware? Yes, but outside the scope of my project. If Thread becomes a more of a thing I may look into it more.
General comment: I didn’t mean to press you in any way, everything’s working now and I have no rush to change my current setup, so I’ll wait for all the documentation/information to be available then will migrate. Usually I don’t change something that’s not broken, but in this case, even if the wifi bridge is working fine, I prefer the ethernet solution so I’m willing to migrate.
One of the things I liked about your coordinator is that you chose a chip that should support Thread, which I think might become THE standard in next 2-3 years, so I like that your product is upgradable to it via a fw upload.
The terminal program I use (Xshell by Netsarang) supports both Xmodem and Ymodem, so it shouldn’t be an issue. I remember the good old times of BBSes (FidoNet) and Xmodem/Ymodem/Zmodem transfers. Some things never change…
Are you referring to his coordinator or router - as Aqara devices tend to run into issues with routers. Your referring to it as a “gateway” makes me think you are referring to his coordinators (which do also look good - but are not what I’m particularly interested in).
Yes, I’m using an early version of one of his coordinators.
The router should be compatible as well, the root issue for Aqara sensors is when their parent router sends them a “leave and rejoin” packet after they have been idle too long. This is controlled by the sleepy device timeout, which is quite long on the Z-Stack router firmware so it shouldn’t be an issue.
Order for more cc2652 modules has been placed, manufacturer has stock (antenna connectors need to be added), realistically arrival to me is likely still a few weeks away. hopeful for around 3/15-20. I’ll update more when I know more exact timeline.
Good quality external PoE to USB-power extractor adds about 20 $/€ to the total cost to end-user and that external PoE to USB-power extractor unfortunately also makes for a less attractive installation.
@tube0013 How much do you think it would add to the total cost per unit if you would integrate PoE?
Checkout example the Ubiquiti Instant 802.3AF to USB adapter (SKU: INS-3AF-USB):
“Using the Ag9800MT PoE module, it can power both itself and the Raspberry Pi through passive 48V or IEEE 802.3af Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) for a single cable deployment. Mount your Pi and zoe and just pull an Ethernet cable for both power and comms!”
Electrolama has now also started development on zoe2
I believe they are LAN only (which is actually better as all the Zigbee implementations that HA understands can use a serial connection to the coordinator.
The support of devices is based upon the software communicating with the coordinator. So, in this case, ZHA. However, projects like zigbee2mqtt support more devices than the ZHA integration does, but also supports them differently.
Updating the firmware is almost always done via command line. It’s actually really easy to do and @tube0013 has great directions for how to do so on his site.
The CC2652 based router only connects via lan. Is based on a TI cc2652p2 radio module. And uses the z-stack firmware.
The efr32 pro is lan or serial, it is selectable by moving 2 jumpers on the board.
Firmware is updatable on both, the esphome firmware on the esp makes it easy to pull the appropriate pins low to access the bootloader modes and then you use the same methods as if it were connected physically with serial.
Beyond the option of serial the only other difference is the radio chipset. It is An EFR32 Series 1 with 1024k flash rom and 256k ram. Sadly I’m not going to be able to get more of these for a long time. I will be transitioning to a series 2 efr32 with 1024 flash and 96k ram. They both will support increased children up to 64. Zigbee2mqtt is also in the early stages of supporting ezsp (the stack that runs the radio) so soon this will be supported by both zha and z2m. Currently the cc coordinator is supported by both.
I finally redid my Zigbee network this weekend due to some unrelated issues, and added the router module. Worked remarkably well; powered it on and joined just as you said it would; great job!
nothing yet, but…