[REQUEST] Zigbee Router configuration for ESPHome on ITead Sonoff ZBBridge

[Hedda]

Love to see a "Zigbee Router" configuration firmware as being a WiFi bridge it make a better Zigbee router than a coordinator.

The same question/idea/request about using ITead Sonoff ZBBridge as a Zigbee Router has also been asked and discussed here:

xsp1989/zigbeeFirmware#2

xsp1989/zigbeeFirmware#16

zigpy/zigpy#719

[thegroove]

That's great! Until now I was under the impression we would need special efr32 firmware for router functionality (which isn't available -- some discussion over at Itead's github pages about that as well). ESPHome of course can send anything serial, but I'm not familiar about how ash/ezsp encodes stuff. There's some c and cpp code available, but I don't think it's necessarily Arduino-compatible, in terms of lib inclusion. Of course, Tasmota has its own EZSP-implementation, so I can maybe use that for inspiration (I think not many people realize Tasmota has its own custom mini-zigbee2mqtt, mostly unrelated to its serial bridge functionality?)

[thegroove]

Once I get my Tube hardware, my Sonoff will instantly be obsolete, so it would be great to be able to use it as a router. I imagine this is a path that many people will follow: get a wifi bridge, become disappointed and/or outgrow it.. get proper wired hardware... now they've got a spare Sonoff ZB bridge. As a standalone router it would be an excellent choice compared to e.g. an off-the-shelf Ikea repeater, better chip and firmware options for practically the same price.

[Hedda]

FYI, @xsp1989 has now uploaded/shared a signed Zigbee Router firmware for ITead's Sonoff ZBBridge to his google drive here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H-M5CTh_XGGVl2te4vHLQ5SfGPHL6yCS/view?usp=sharing

This is the signed routing firmware used by ZBB, the usage method is the same as the unsigned firmware.

https://github.com/xsp1989/zigbeeFirmware/blob/master/firmware/Zigbee3.0_Dongle/RouterForDongle/README.md

Do you think Tasmota could send basic commands to this Zigbee Router firmware to initiate paring/joining and restart/reset?

This idea is also being discussed specifically for ITead's Sonoff ZBBridge hacked with Tasmota here -> arendst/Tasmota#11536

PS: Have not tried this myself as I got rid of my ITead Sonoff ZBBridge because being WiFi-based it did not work any good as a remote Zigbee Coordinator, but might reconsider buying one if it worked as a Zigbee Router device that can be paired/joined and restarted/reset remotely via Tasmota and/or ESPHome. So that Tasmota/ESPHome is basically only used to initiate virtual join/pair button and restart/reset the device similar to a remote power-cycle it hangs.

[Hedda]

Update from xsp1989 on router firmware posted on arendst/Tasmota#11536

"This firmware can ground the PA00 5S into pairing mode, and ground the RST to restart routing. UART is used to transmit data transparently.

and

"There is also another version of the routing firmware that can control the join network through a proprietary serial port protocol"

[Hedda]

Check out this new "How to Convert the Sonoff Zigbee Bridge into a Router / Repeater" blog article by @digiblur here:

https://www.digiblur.com/2022/02/convert-sonoff-zigbee-bridge-to-router-repeater.html

Note that the article already assumes that you have flashed Tasmota onto ITead Sonoff ZBBridge as per his previous guide:

https://www.digiblur.com/2020/07/how-to-use-sonoff-zigbee-bridge-with.html

[Hedda]

FYI, the same Zigbee Router firmware has now also been tested with ESPHome on a ZB-GW03 eWeLink Ethernet Zigbee Gateway which is based on ESP32 instead but have the same “SM-011 V1.0” EFR32MG21 Zigbee module by CoolKit that ITead uses in their Sonoff ZBBridge Zigbee Bridge:

https://github.com/syssi/esphome-zb-gw03/blob/main/docs/router.md

syssi/esphome-zb-gw03#12