Checking the correct of the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2 (ZBDongle-E) settings and the method of searching/pairing with zigbee devices

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
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  • Platform information:
    • Hardware: Raspberry Pi3 Model B rev. 1.2 with 120Gb USB SSD
    • OS: Linux/6.1.21-v7+ (arm)
    • Java Runtime Environment: 17.0.13 (undefined)
    • openHAB version: 4.3.3
  • Issue of the topic: checking the correct of the Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2 (ZBDongle-E) settings and the method of searching/pairing with zigbee devices
  • Please post configurations (if applicable):
    • Bindings: ZigBee Binding installed
    • The dongle is installed in the RPi USB port and configured via ZigBee Binding as a Things as follows (current conf):
UID: zigbee:coordinator_ember:9545a90f43
label: Ember Coordinator / Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2 (ZBDongle-E)
thingTypeUID: zigbee:coordinator_ember
configuration:
  zigbee_port: /dev/ttyUSB0
  zigbee_channel: 11
  zigbee_initialise: false
  zigbee_concentrator: 0
  zigbee_trustcentremode: TC_JOIN_INSECURE
  zigbee_extendedpanid: 09A453989DC7662A
  zigbee_baud: 115200
  zigbee_flowcontrol: 2
  zigbee_panid: 23328
  zigbee_powermode: 1
  zigbee_txpower: 0
  zigbee_networksize: 25
  zigbee_linkkey: 5A6967426565416C6C69616E63653039
  zigbee_childtimeout: 86400
  zigbee_networkkey: 2447622C2B05317FDCB67D39069D18B9
  zigbee_meshupdateperiod: 86400

Things have a state of ONLINE.

Hello everyone!

Questions:
1. It has been noticed that when configuring Tnings in the dongle port configuration form, there are 3 options available for selection:

/dev/ttyAMA0
/dev/ttyUSB0
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Itead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_b857582acc14ef11ac0075b8bf9df066-if00-port0

checked that the dongle takes the ONLINE status when selecting the port:

/dev/ttyUSB0

or

/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Itead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_b857582acc14ef11ac0075b8bf9df066-if00-port0
  • which of the port options is CORRECT?

2. I have two ZigBee devices for the test:
Smart Power Plug (model Neo-2 ZigBee 3.0 16A 3680w) powered by Tuya
Smart Temperature & Humidity Sensor (model HZ-HT-03 ZigBee 3.0) supported by Tuya

after reading the OH instructions and many topics in the community, i did not find (did i search poorly?) a step-by-step description of how to switch the dongle coordinator to the zigbee device search mode in the latest version of OH.
As i understood from what i read, the search mode in the UI is as follows:

  1. go to the Settings → Things section, where you can click the + button to add Things, then in the Choose Binding section, select ZigBee Binding, as a result we will find ourselves in the Add a new Thing: zigbee section
  2. in the Add a new Thing: zigbee section, the Scan button is available, as well as the Add Manually section, in which 5 types of Zigbee-coordinators are available for selection for their subsequent configuration in OH.
    My Zigbee-dongle was manual configured through one of these settings.
    When i press the Scan button, in my case, scanning occurs without subsequent results, while both zigbee-devices are switched to the pairing mode with the coordinator. I will also note that both devices are new and have not been paired with the zigbee network before.
  • did i understand correctly that the Scan button in this section is intended to enable the search mode for the zigbee-coordinator of external zigbee-devices?
    And in my case, the lack of search results (both devices were not found) is due to incompatibility with my Sonoff Zigbee Dongle?
2

Do you see anything in either your events or openhab log when you start the scan? Are there any errors or warnings related to the Zigbee?

Are you sure both of the devices you are trying to add are in pairing mode when you press the scan button in the OH GUI? Do they have a blinking light or other pairing indicator? You may want to factory reset them and try to pair again.

I use the similar SONOFF Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus-E Gateway and it works well with Tuya Zigbee sensors.

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is a link that points to correct /dev/tty…
This link is generated during startup so that you will always get the correct device, even if you switch your usb-devices. So the advice is to use this link.

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I use exactly the same Sonoff Zigbee Dongle (stick) as yours.

In my experiments to force the stick to enter the pairing state, i periodically looked at the log, but never saw the corresponding states of the stick.

My difficulties with setting up and launching the stick into the pairing and device detection mode were successfully resolved thanks to several actions:

  1. setting the correct stick port settings in the form:
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Itead_Sonoff…
  1. purchasing devices that are obviously compatible with the stick.

The combination of these 2 points, as well as your valuable advice to pay attention to the information about the stick state in the log allowed me to make sure that the stick works correctly, and the zigbee-device search functionality is really implemented where I expected.

But i noticed such a feature that the state of the functional status of the stick - PAIRING - is displayed in the log ONLY when pairing with a COMPATIBLE device is in progress.
In my opinion, this is not informative enough ((

5

Thanks for your help!

Yes, i independently determined the correctness of such a port a little earlier than you suggested to me.

6

In the future, you can turn on DEBUG logging in the Zigbee binding settings. I should have mentioned that. Then you will get more information in the log file to see what is going on.

Glad to hear that the binding works for you.

7

You are talking about Stream Events located in the Debug tab of the Developer Tools section UI?
Yes, is a good tool, but with a limited amount of information output and to use it you need to pause all other processes except Zigbee. I hadn’t thought about it before. Taken it into service! Thanks a lot!

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FWIW I use Zigbee2MQTT on a standalone Raspberry:

That way, I can place the Pi with the Sonoff USB dongle where the best coverage is. My OH-Pi is in my technical room in the cellar. :wink:
The Zigbee-devices I use are then connected via MQTT with my OH-instance. Works stable since.

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FWIW I run 2 sonoff dongles one using the zigbee binding(ZBDongle-E version) and one attached to Zigbee2MQTT (ZBDongle-P version) on standalone system no conflicting channels by setting them on opposite spectrum ranges where lobes do not overlap and do not interfere with wireless channels that way if I buy a device that does not play nice with the official zigbee binding (cheap China ali express ones mostly) then I can still use them. I do not use the HA discovery however and normally just configure them as generic mqtt things. works very well and is very stable. also, the mqtt allows me to add those devices to multiple openhab test environments

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Hi @Vertack, under Administration, Settings, Add-on Settings, you can pick ZigBee binding. Then you’ll see the page below and you can set the DEBUG or lower level on various logs. See also: ZigBee - Bindings | openHAB for debug information.

image
image1096×481 19.9 KB

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Hi @jswim788, thanks for the very important advice!

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Hi @binderth and @justaoldman !

I haven’t evolved my system to the point where I need to use MQTT yet, but thanks for sharing the tip!