Hi all,
in the last months i dedicated my free time to build and use zigbee devices. Since there is a great software project to build own custom zigbee firmware, i decided to design a board that look like a Wemos d1 mini but with cc2530 inside. With this board and PTVO firmware configurator (or others), it is possible to build various custom zigbee end devices with sensors (temperature, humidity, air quality, gas etc.), relay, energy meters, switches, buttons etc.
Here te board documentation:
This seems to be interesting. What battery life did you experience? If it worth to build sensors based on this than on ESP8266?
For now firmware configurator does not support deep sleep, therefore is not perfectly suited for battery powered devices. Firmware configurator author is working on it.
Regarding the second question, there is to consider that zigbee standard is much better for home automation and iot devices: it produces 1/10 to 1/20 less electromagnetic emissions respect to wifi and can easily cover longer range thanks to mesh technology. Using zigbee In big houses or in presence of obstacles for rf, coverage issues can be easily solved.
Iām moving all my wifi devices to zigbee and avantages are considerable.
Interesting !
By any chance is it possible to use gpio expander ? (MCP23017 or PCF8574T)
Sorry, not at the moment.
Added Zigbee RFID tag reader project to Cookbook:
Good work!
Any chance you can share the Gerber and silkscreen files?
tindie.com will not ship to Norwayā¦
Sorry, added Norway. It where excluded by mistake
Added new rev.B with USB connector:
Cool! Ordered three ones. Do you know about other firmware than ptvo? Seems like you would need āpremiumā (paying like 7 euro/device) for developing support for new sensorsā¦
Hi, you can find other examples (provided with free firmwares) here and here.
PS: iām not related in any way to PTVO. I use his great firmware configurator (that is free for most of the applications) and others, but iām only an independent hardware engineer. I designed Z1 mini to let myself and other people to easily build own zigbee devices 
Hi @gt4020,
Do you have any plans to release a version with the E72-2G4M20S1E (CC2562P) module from Ebyte?
Would be a real improvement even for an end-device not only for a router or coordinator.
Thanks.
Yes, maybe in the future .
I just found the Z1 while googling for āzigbee development boardā, and I would like to thank you for your efforts! I have ordered one unit and will see what I can do with it.
Some months ago, I have built a basic sun-sensor using a photo-resistor on a esp32 board, which communicates with my home assistant via MQTT. Although it only reads new sensor values every 2 minutes and otherwise deep-sleeps, and only connects to WiFi/MQTT when the value changes for a given amount, I only get it to run for approximately 1 month on battery, which is way too low.
I was hoping that when using zigbee and a smaller board designed for less energy consumption the results would be better. Plus I like the idea to make zigbee devices.
Did you maybe meanwhile add support for sleep modes & energy saving? Do you have any user experience for battery usage?
These devices use the ptvo firmware, which has a premium version which includes battery support https://ptvo.info/zigbee-configurable-firmware-features/premium/
yeah exactly. I have mixed feelings about that. On the other hand writing your own firmware is not exactly easy, esphome for a zigbee chipset would be excellent.
Well, Iāll give it a shot. All together its gonna be like 30ā¬ for the board + premium. Almost the price of some commercial sensor, but well.
Hi. Tindie.com is out of stock do you have any other place. I need 2 for test and if all works fine other 50.
To Colombia ā¦
@gt4020 is this project still supported, if not could you release the gerber files for the model B and the ISCP adapter?
I want to make a lux meter that I can power from the USB
