ITEAD has launched a new Zigbee dongle with the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus powered by Texas Instruments CC2652P wireless MCU which follows the company’s Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle based on Silicon Labs EFT32MG21 Cortex-M4 microcontroller.
The dongle is pre-flashed with Z-Stack 3.x.0 coordinator firmware which enables ZHA in Home Assistant or Zigbee2MQTT compatibility.
Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus (ZBDongle-P) specifications:
- Wireless MCU – Texas Instruments CC2652P SimpleLink Arm Cortex-M4F multiprotocol 2.4 GHz wireless MCU with integrated power amplifier for Bluetooth 5.2 Low Energy, Thread, Zigbee 3.0
- Connectivity – Zigbee 3.0 with SMA antenna connector, +20 dBm output gain
- Host interface – USB port with CP2102N USB to TTL chip
- Expansion – 5-pin IO header with programming pins
- Misc – Boot and reset buttons, LED, DIP switch for hardware flow control
- Power Supply – 5V/100mA via USB port, LDO
- Dimensions – 87 x 25.5 x 13.5 mm (Aluminum alloy enclosure); antenna: 108 mm length
- Weight – N/A
- Temperature Range – -10°C to 40°C
ITEAD does not directly compare the “Plus” version with the earlier Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle, but the new model should have a longer range, and possibly support more nodes with “21 direct children by default and up to 40 children”, while also writing “you can modify the relevant configuration to support up to 100 children”.
As a universal Zigbee USB stick, SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus can be used with a Home Assistant gateway or other open-source platforms via ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT to locally control Zigbee sub-devices as explained in a short getting started guide. That means it can be connected to Home Assistant Blue or a Raspberry Pi board for additional Zigbee connectivity. Such gateway would support any compatible Zigbee devices include the many Sonoff “ZB” devices
The SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus ships with an antenna and a user manual for $9.90. But note that supply is limited, and the USB dongle is only up for pre-order, with the second batch of dongles soon to be sold out, and orders after October 18 will only be shipped at the end of November.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress
I’m just curious why it needs a “heatsink” type housing, considering ZigBee chips don’t run hot at all.
The company says the “aluminum housing effectively reduce signal interference”
I just payed 3x the price for a zigstar v4 and I got a 3d printed case which isn’t very good.
With shipping it comes to 40usd to send to the Netherlands. Maybe it will be available on aliexpress, that would save a lot on shipping
By default they ship it with DHL, but you can choose the Special Line for $4.38…
Coupon bf9zyp7q takes a 1.19 off
This dongle would be even better if they exposed some of the unused pins so they could be used for I/O.
PTVO’s configurable firmware now supports the CC2652P: https://ptvo.info/cc2652r1-cc2652rb-cc2652p-cc1352p2-configurable-router-firmware-748/
I/O similar to this ITEAD Zigbee CC2531 USB Dongle: https://itead.cc/product/cc2531-usb-dongle/
Arduino – Zigbee ?
very soon: https://github.com/Wiz-IO/wizio-cc
I purchased one of these Zigbee Dongles and have not been able to get it working. I can see the dongle with ‘lsusb’ :
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 10c4:ea62 Cygnal Integrated Products, Inc.
Plugging in an original siliconlab device gives the following response:
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 10c4:ea60 Siliconimage CP210x
So neither windows nor linux can properly handle this device. Hence my dongle is not recognized as a UART serial adapter and therefore neither Homeassistant nor zigbe2mqtt will discover it. I suspect that the CP2102N is not original Siliconlabs silicon but maybe a counterfeit one.
The Sonoff/ITEAD customer support is unable to help. They directed me to the silicon lab driver. However AFAIK the silicon lab driver is part of the mainline Linux.
This linux cp210x.c driver does not support the device id 10c4:ea62
see excerpt from the source code below:
{ USB_DEVICE(0x10C4, 0xEA60) }, /* Silicon Labs factory default */
{ USB_DEVICE(0x10C4, 0xEA61) }, /* Silicon Labs factory default */
{ USB_DEVICE(0x10C4, 0xEA63) }, /* Silicon Labs Windows Update (CP2101-4/CP2102N) */
I wonder if others have experienced the same issue or have any advice other than to return it?
Sorry, I do not have a solution, but I can see you are not alone in having the same problem.
https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/61638
For reference, I found it by searching for the PID/VID: “10c4:ea62”
Thanks for the hint. Unfortunately in the forum you pointed out, no solution is available. I added a note with my conclusion there.
I still have no response from Sonoff/ITEAD, they simply went dark on me. It would be good to know if this issue is just a temporary production issue and fixed now.
Where to buy this? I’m based in the UK.
Also does it support Hive (heating system) without their hub?