$10 T-Zigbee board combines ESP32-C3 and TLSR8258 for Zigbee 3.0, WIFi and BLE connectivity

LilyGO T-Zigbee board combines ESP32-C3 WiFi and BLE wireless microcontroller and Telink TLSR8258 multi-protocol wireless SoC compatible with BLE 5 Mesh, Zigbee, RF4CE, Thread, 6LoWPAN, HomeKit, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary standards.

As I understand it, T-Zigbee is designed to act as a Zigbee to WiFi bridge, and is compatible with Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant, allowing easy integration into your home automation setup. Based on the hardware, I’d assume it may be usable as a BLE to MQTT gateway as well, in a fashion similar to GL.inet GL-S10 gateway, for people willing to work on the software/firmware.

T-Zigbee ESP32-C3 WiFi Zigbee board

T-Zigbee specifications:

  • Wireless MCUs
    • Espressif Systems ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity
    • Telink Semiconductors TLSR8258 (PDF product brief) Arm Cortex-M0 multiprotocol microcontroller @ 48 MHz with BLE 5 Mesh, Zigbee, RF4CE, Thread, 6LoWPAN, HomeKit, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary connectivity
  • Antennas – 2x PCB antennas, 2x u.FL antenna connectors
  • USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming
  • Expansion via 2x 21-pin headers
    • ESP32-C3 – Up to 9x GPIO, 4x ADC, SPI, UART
    • TLSR8258 – Up to 12x GPIO, 2x UART, 2x I2C, digital MIC, PWM,  SPI, I2S
  • Misc – Reset and user keys, 3x user LEDs, DIP switch for mode selection (UART/programming selection between ESP32-C3 and TLSR8258)
  • Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port
  • Dimensions – 7.5 x 2.9 cm

T-Zigbee pinout diagram

LilyGO provides Arduino sketches for factory testing and a Zigbee2MQTT implementation on Github, and the company also links to ZBHCI online documentation showing how to use Zigbee2MQTT. That project also appears to support Xiaomi RTCGQ11LM Aqara human body movement and illuminance sensor and Xiaomi WSDCGQ11LM Aqara temperature, humidity, and pressure sensor. The board has plenty of radios, but you’d be on your own if you attempt to use it for anything other than the provided WiFi and Zigbee bridge demo code.

LilyGO T-Zigbee ESP32-C3 Zigbee board is fairly inexpensive currently selling for under $10 on Aliexpress before taxes.

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13 Comments
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Unai Uribarri
2 years ago

TLSR8258 does not have any ARM core but a proprietary one.

Jon Smirl
2 years ago

This hardware is capable of being a Thread border router. Do they have the software for that?

TLS
TLS
2 years ago

I’d suggest you talk to Telink, but from my past experience, their SDK is for more advanced users only. Let me know if you need a contact there.

Jon Smirl
2 years ago

No Thread in the SDK… But they have it in the datasheet.
http://wiki.telink-semi.cn/wiki/chip-series/TLSR825x-Series/#software-development-kit

Thread is needed for Matter support.

We are not pursuing Thread at the moment, Matter also works on Wifi which we are using.

WereCatf
WereCatf
2 years ago

I’ll have to buy a couple! There are lots of quite reasonably priced Zigbee-devices out there, but the bridges are so often fully vendor-locked and/or otherwise horrible crap, not to mention expensive.

Jeroen
Jeroen
2 years ago

Looks ok, seems they also have a esp-idf impelmentation for zigbee2mqtt, i prefer that to arduino

Jens
Jens
2 years ago

Hmm only 30 pieces available for this price… sold out

Deets
Deets
2 years ago

I guess they will make a version with esp32-h2 eventually?

itchy n scratchy
itchy n scratchy
2 years ago

Has h2 been seen in the wild anywhere already?

Morti
Morti
2 years ago

In true expressif fashion the h2 will be 2 years late give or take. I’ve been following that product almost weekly and it doesn’t look promising.

Theguyuk
Theguyuk
2 years ago

From reddit

03/13/22 Update: Customer service told me that they expect to have engineering samples beginning May 2022. According to Espressif, the product will be available via their regular online distributor channels like AliExpress, Mouser, and Digikey. “

Hedda
Hedda
2 years ago

Which Zigbee stack and seriql API does that Telink TLSR8258 use? To clearify, this hardware does not specifially support ”Home Assistant” as its Zigbee stack is not supported by Home Assistant’s ZHA integration. Instead they just mean that Zigbee2MQTT is a bridge to MQTT so any application that support MQTT can use it, which include Home Assistant and practically all other open-source home automation software applications put there.

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