Zigbee buyer's guide

[Hedda]

@Hedda

Zigbee Coordinator product purchase recommendation summary:

If you today want a Zigbee Coordinator that can work great with either Home Assistant’s ZHA integration (built-in Zigbee gateway implementation) or Zigbee2MQTT (third-party Zigbee gateway application that can run stand-alone) then currently the best purchase recommendation is to buy a Texas Instrument CC2652P based USB radio adapter dongle with external antenna, (like for example ITead’s Sonoff ZBDongle-P , flashed with the latest stable community build of TI’s Z-Stack Zigbee Coordinator NCP firmware). (The only downside with using CC2652-based USB radio adapters is that there are currently no built-in features to upgrade Z-Stack Zigbee Coordinator firmware so that has to be done using third-party add-ons and external tools).

Update: Zigbee2MQTT now have has full support for Silcon Labs EFR32MG2x (EFR32MG21) and newer Silabs EmberZNet based adapters via their new ”ember” adapter driver as long as it has been updated to EmberZNet 7.4.x.x Zigbee NCP firmware or later.

I do not have it myself and do not know of anyone who tested it as of yet, but FYI, on paper this new Sonoff-branded EFR32MG24-based USB dongle from Itead could be a “best-in-class” contender(?):

• ITead’s new “SONOFF Dongle Plus MG24" based on Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 radio microcontroller SoC has now been launched

ITead’s new “SONOFF Dongle Plus MG24" based on Silicon Labs EFR32MG24 radio microcontroller SoC has now been launched

FYI, ITead just released a new “SONOFF Dongle Plus MG24”, a Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter (and optional Thread Border Router) based on the newer ERF32MG24 radio MCU from Silicon Labs, as an improved version of their previous “Sonoff ZBDongle-E” (based on EFR32MG21) which out-of-the-box is compatible with both Home Assistant’s built-in ZHA integration (Open Home Foundation’s officially supported Home Assistant native Zigbee gateway based on the zigpy project) as well as the just as popular third…

That is, that SONOFF Dongle Plus MG24 is a new Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter with external antenna and it is plug-and-play compatible with Home Assistant’s ZHA as well as with Zigbee2MQTT.

PS: For those that are not in a hurry there a several recent product leaks around an upcoming official “Home Assistant” branded “ZBT-2” USB dongle that will be manufactured by Nabu Casa, but there is no release date news so might still take long time before will be available, see collected hints here:

• Frient joins Works with Home Assistant - #3 by Hedda