Hi,
since about 4 years I’m using a “Bitron Video AV2010/10 Funkstick” with an Silicon Labs EM3587 chip with a few devices (only about a dozen things) and it was working as expected. Usually, I like Z-Wave more for battery powered devices. One specific device (a vertical blind wand) was only available as a Zigbee device which was the reason to use Zigbee at all. Over the time some simple other devices (weather sensors and smart plugs) were added because Zigbee was now available.
While changing my OH system from .things file based configuration to GUI thing configuration, I’ve done a complete reset of this Zigbee stick and reinstalled all Zigbee things/items via GUI again.
All devices but one are working again. One device - the vertical blind wand - is not able to re-join the Zigbee network. All others were able to re-join the new configured Zigbee stick.
It looks like I ran into the following problem, which is described in the very extensive OH Zigbee binding manual.
Excerpt:
“Firmware versions higher than 6.4.0.0 may be required to work with some newer devices (i.e. those conforming to the Zigbee 3.0 standard). If your dongle has older firmware then devices may appear to join the network, but will not work as they will leave the network if they do not receive updated security information.”.
The current firmware of the AV2010/10 stick is shown as version 5.8.1.0.
In this thread I’ve read something about how to update the firmware of this stick. The provided firmware link to github showing the latest firmware version 6.7.10 (although it is already 4 years old - but newer as the version in my stick).
Also the Zigbee binding manual describes a lot of details about how to update the firmware.
Now I wonder if I should try to do the firmware upgrade of my existing stick? The process seems quite complex and many options exists to do it. I’m pretty sure there are some risks to not get the system back in relatively short time (because I need the temperature sensors to control the temperatures of my solar equipment here in the hot desert).
What are your suggestions:
Should I try to update the firmware of this “old” stick (it may be outdated/discontinued because the vendor link is not longer active) or should I just buy a new “better” stick which just works out of the box?
As of 2025, which stick is the “best” or preferred one with the least problems using OH 4.3.3 (running in a docker container with the image “openhab/openhab:4.3.3-debian”)?
Which Zigbee sticks are you using successfully with OH?
Thanks!