Zigbee speed and range

Hardware
27

“SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus” by ITead are great, recommend using one as a Zigbee Coordinator (just upgrade the firmware first) and reflashing the other three with the latest Zigbee Router firmware. See:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/inofficial-zigbee-router-firmware-released-for-itead-sonoff-zbbridge-and-zb-gw03-zigbee-gateways-bridges-as-alternative-when-used-with-tasmota-and-or-esphome/393733

and

“SONOFF ZBBridge Smart Zigbee Bridge” is not recommended as a Zigbee Coordinator adapter because it uses WiFi. But you can hack it and then reflash into a Zigbee Router instead. See:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/inofficial-zigbee-router-firmware-released-for-itead-sonoff-zbbridge-and-zb-gw03-zigbee-gateways-bridges-as-alternative-when-used-with-tasmota-and-or-esphome/393733

and

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sonoff-zbbridge-sonoff-zigbee-bridge-from-itead/187346

and

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/zb-gw03-ewelink-ethernet-zigbee-gateway-now-hacked-with-tasmota-and-esphome-so-can-be-used-via-mqtt-or-as-a-remote-zigbee-lan-adapter-with-home-assistants-zha-integration-or-zigbee2mqtt/341223

“Sonoff S31 15A WiFi Smart Plug” is only WiFi and does not support Zigbee at all, so be sure to get the “SONOFF S31 Lite zb Smart Plug US Type Zigbee Version” instead if want a Zigbee Router (though it is one of their older models so I do not think it supports the newer Zigbee 3.0 specification).

https://itead.cc/product/sonoff-s31-lite-zb/

“SONOFF ZBMINI-L ZigBee Mini Smart Switch” is not recommended as do not work as Zigbee Router and the current firmware is a little buggy, though ITead confirmed issue said they will release a firmware update via OTA once they found the root cause. See:

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/sonoff-zbmini-l-zigbee-3-0-smart-switch-by-itead-works-without-neutral-wire-and-based-on-cc2652p-so-should-be-a-good-zigbee-router/384644

Recommend get “SONOFF ZBMINI” with neutral instead of “SONOFF ZBMINI-L” without natural as that works as a Zigbee Router and seen reports that it is stable even if not got best Zigbee Router range:

https://itead.cc/product/sonoff-zbmini-zigbee-smart-switch/

If only looking at ITead’s Sonoff lineup then can also recommend " SONOFF BASICZBR3" as it is also a good Zigbee Router too uses an older chip which does not support the newer Zigbee 3.0 specification:

https://itead.cc/product/sonoff-basiczbr3/

Another product not recommended right now is their “SONOFF S26R2ZB” which currently does not support OTA updates and earlier shipping versions had very buggy firmware so have to replace the whole unit if unlucky to get one with older firmware:

https://itead.cc/product/sonoff-s26r2zb-zigbee-smart-plug-uk-de-fr/

The general rule is that battery-operated Zigbee devices and mains-powered Zigbee devices without neutral will not act as Zigbee Router devices.

2 Likes