So, my Sonoff Zigbee USB stick turned up and it looks that the firmware is quite old.
I think that I have found a video which runs me through the upgrade process. It points to this repo for the source files that I should use for flashing: Releases · Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware (github.com)
However, the video has him pulling the files for flashing from a folder named Z-Stack_3.x.0 and I notice at the same level there is also a folder named Z-Stack_Home_1.2 and I was just curious if the Home mentioned in that folder name relates to Home Assistant?
To complicate matters further the video was made earlier this year and talks about using Zigbee2MQTT and I don’t know if this uses a different flash file. At the moment the Sonoff device is already recognised by Home Assistant and when I joined my sensor it seemed to work right out of the box. I’m therefore not sure if Zigbee2MQTT is something I need to use or if it offers any major benefits of just using the in-built Home Assistant integration.
Could someone please help me by pointing me in the direction of the right firmware file and perhaps clarify the situation with Zigbee2MQTT and any potential benefits?
Offtopic + depends if it is a CC2652P based “ZBDongle-P” or a EFR32MG21 based "ZBDongle-E so they use different firmware, but the Zigbee solution used supports the same firmware for them, see:
So, I guess having thought some more what i’m asking are two things:
Is the firmware listed in the video above unique to Zigbee2MQTT or is it the same firmware irrespective of what method you use with the device?
I believe the default method for Zigbee integration is via ZHA. That seems to work out of the box so i’m curious why you would choose to also add Zigbee2MQTT. What benefits does this really offer?
No. It will however unique to the CC2652P based “ZBDongle-P” adapter so make sure that you did not buy the EFR32MG21 based "ZBDongle-E adapter which looks almost identical.
Yes
Off-topic, please search existing other threads or start a new thread, hwoever, FYI both ZHA and Zigbee2MQTT will work with the firmware they ship with but will work better with newer firmware. See example → General question: ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT and why?
I use both with two separate adapters but personally prefer the idea behind ZHA because it is integrated
@Hedda Do you know of any sure fire way to identify which model I have?
Smart Home Junkie seems to suggest that the new E model has additional writing on the box. If that’s the case it would suggest mine is the -P model.
Apologies also for lumping lots of questions in here. For the next question i’ll be sure to search the forum first and only open a new thread if I can’t find any solution.
The firmware is the same for ZHA or z2m, but as @Hedda notes, there are two different versions of the Sonoff stick with different FW files and flash methods. Do you have the “P” or “E” version?
Yes look on the back of it as the “ZBDongle-E” adapter do say “Model: ZBDongle-E” on it there while the “ZBDongle-P” adapter do say “Model: ZBDongle-P”.
The “ZBDongle-P” is also about a centimetre longer than the “ZBDongle-E” model if you look at specs.
Finally you could open it up and look at the board to see if SoC chip says CC2652P or EFR32MG21.
Thanks Hedda. Hopefully this will be my last post here.
My eyesight is not the best and the writing on the chip is super small, but through a use of my mobile and zooming in I think I managed to determine that mine is a Dongle-P.
The writing on the back of mine only says USB Dongle PLUS, nowhere does it explicitely say Dongle-P or Dongle-E. But this could be due to it being older stock. There is a date (which i’d presume is maybe date of manufacture) on the back near where it says USB Dongle PLUS which reads 2021-07-29.
I’ll flash it with the correct firmware and can then do some experimentation to decide if I want to just use ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT. I already have an MQTT broker running anyway so the workload in implementing Zigbee2MQTT isn’t particularly huge.
You must have“ZBDongle-P” then. The “ZBDongle-P” was previously known as “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus” before was renamed when the “ZBDongle-E” variant was released in July of 2022.
Does anybody know if ZT3L (if im not mistaken) module in BSEED smart socket supports repeater function? Chinese store support seems did not understand my question, neither I could see mention about that in their manuals.
I have purchased few or them particularly for that purpose.