[REQUEST] Support for Silicon Labs EFR32 (Mighty Gecko family) based Zigbee radio adapters using EZSP serial protocols?

[Hedda]

Will you consider adding support for Silicon Labs Zigbee cordinator dongles/sticks via EZSP (EmberZNet Serial Protocol) CLI/API?

It is maybe possible for you to port the EZSP (EmberZNet Serial Protocol) code from the bellows library to zigbee-herdsman (in a similar manner to how zigpy-cc which was ported from zigbee-herdsman)?

• Porting https://github.com/zigpy/bellows open-source python code for EZSP commands to TypeScript for zigbee-herdsman?

  • Compared to https://github.com/zigpy/zigpy-cc library that was in reverse ported from zigbee-herdsman's TypeScript code to Python script code which I guess is kind of proof that such protocol can ported between projects with similar goals?

I understand that the bellows library itself was based Silabs official EZSP Reference Guides from Silicon Labs, like UG100:

• https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug100-ezsp-reference-guide.pdf
  • https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/application-notes/an706-ezsp-uart-host-interfacing-guide.pdf

PS: Silicon Labs EFR32 family replaces its old ETR35x however both are Ember NCP and support the same EmberZNet Zigbee stack.

[Hedda]

I understand that an adapter interface code needs to be implemented in zigbee-herdsman for Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker support?

https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman/blob/master/src/adapter/adapter.ts

https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman/tree/master/src/adapter

Would that be a similar to how deConz (ConBee/RaspBee) adapters and ZiGate adapter has been added to zigbee-herdsman?

#72

#241

@Koenkk if you do not already have a Silicon Labs EFR32MG1 or EFR32MG2 based Zigbee dongle/stick then could I offer to donate hardware to you? Maybe make an earmark PayPal donation of $30 US-dollars to you so that you can purchase on for yourself?

PS: I am only a home automation enthusiast and not affiliated with Ebyte, Silicon Labs, or any resellers of hardware or software. Unfortunately, I do not have the TypeScript/JavaScript coding skills to port or implement EZSP adapter support zigbee-herdsman.

[Hedda]

Silicon Labs also has a few different official EFR32MG2 and EFR32MG1 devkits called "EFR32 Mighty Gecko Wireless Starter Kit".

Perhaps more importantly, buying any "EFR32 Mighty Gecko Wireless Starter Kit" gives the buyer/dweveloer full official access to Silabs Zigbee Stack, SDK, libraries and documentations which should allow you to compile your own firmware for all their chips.

UPDATE! Silabs has now released a new $99 "EFR32xG22 Wireless Gecko Starter Kit" (SLWSTK6021A) which only contain one mainboard and two low-power radios (Zigbee Green Power compatible):

• https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/wireless/efr32xg22-wireless-starter-kit

Silicon Labs SLWRB4180A which is the official EFR32xG21 +20 dBm powerful reference radio board can be bought separately:

https://www.silabs.com/development-tools/wireless/slwrb4180a-efr32xg21-wireless-gecko-radio-board

That same radio board is also included in the more expensive Silicon Labs SLWSTK6006A EFR32xG21 Wireless Gecko Starter Kit:

• https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/wireless/efr32xg21-wireless-starter-kit

• https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/wireless/mesh-networking/mighty-gecko-starter-kit

While the low-power radios are not really usable as Zigbee coordinators (as meant for battery operated endpoint devices), for $99 that kit can be useful to developers as buying such an official kit also gives full access to the Zigbee Stack/SDK and libraries.

[Hedda]

Z-Smart Systems by @cdjackson also has Java code which support EZSP protocol for all Ember dongles at @zsmartsystems

Z Smart System has a Java device driver for Ember based serial dongles (among other dongles):

• https://github.com/zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee
  • https://github.com/zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee/tree/master/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.ember
  • https://github.com/zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee/tree/master/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.ember.autocode
  • https://github.com/zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee/tree/master/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.console.ember

For reference, Z Smart System also has a sniffer library written in Java which uses same serial interface:

• https://github.com/zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.sniffer

The framework implements a package structure that allows efficient use of re-usable components in a number of different applications.

Package	Description
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee	The main framework and cluster library implementation
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.autocode	Code generator for the ZigBee cluster library classes
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.cc2531	Dongle driver for the Texas Instruments ZNP CC2531
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.conbee	Dongle driver for the Dresden Electronics Conbee
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.ember	Dongle driver for the Silabs EZSP Network Co-Processor
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.ember.autocode	Code generator for the Ember NCP dongle commands
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.telegesis	Dongle driver for the Telegesis dongle
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.telegesis.autocode	Code generator for the Telegesis dongle commands
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.xbee	Dongle driver for the Digi XBee dongle
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.dongle.xbee.autocode	Code generator for the XBee dongle commands
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.console	Console commands for the general framework
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.console.ember	Console commands for the Silabs Ember NCP
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.console.main	Main CLI console application
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.serial	Serial driver implementation
com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.test	Overall tests and code coverage

Silicon Labs Ember EM35x / EFR32

The library supports the Silicon Labs EZSP protocol using ASH or SPI protocols over a serial interface. The implementation of the SPI protocol assumes that the SPI provides a TTY-like software interface to the application, or is otherwise abstracted via the ZigBeePort interface.

It is worth noting that EM3588 devices that have an embedded USB core will likely work with any baud rate, where dongles using external USB interface (eg CP2102 used with an EM3581) will likely require a specific baud rate.

Currently there are two main NCP images - one that supports hardware flow control with a baud rate of 115200, and one that supports software flow control with a rate of 57600.

Ember NCP configuration

The library provide a standard set of configuration constants to configure the NCP for use as a coordinator. There are two methods available in the Ember driver to manipulate the configuration maps updateDefaultConfiguration and updateDefaultPolicy. The configuration is sent to the NCP during the initialisation sequence which is performed when calling the ZigBeeNetworkManager.initialize() method, so any changes to configuration must be performed prior to this.

The Ember dongle driver includes a public method getEmberNcp() which returns a EmberNcp class. This class provides high level methods for interacting directly with the NCP.

Ember Reset

By default the library uses the ASH Reset command to reset the NCP when the framework starts. Silabs have stated that this is not reliable due to possible communication problems between the NCP and the host. Where possible the user should implement a hardware reset to reset the NCP. Since this is application specific, the framework provides an interface for the application to implement this reset. The user should implement the EmberNcpResetProvider interface, and set this during NCP initialisation with the ZigBeeDongleEzsp.setEmberNcpResetProvider() method.

Ember MfgLib use

The library provides access to the mfglib functions in the NCP to facilitate device testing. To use this function, create the ZigBeeDongleEzsp and then call the getEmberMfglib(EmberMfglibListener) method to get the EmberMfglib class and also set the callback listener. The EmberMfglib class provides access to the mfglib functions.

Note that this can only be used if the dongle is not configured for use in the network (ie initialize has not been called).

The com.zsmartsystems.zigbee.sniffer project is an example of the use of these features to provide a network sniffer to route frames to Wireshark.

[Koenkk]

Adding a new adapter indeed requires the implementation of the adapter.ts.

Note that adding support for a new adapter is a lot of work, given that we already support 2 powerful adapters (conbee and CC2652R/CC1352P-2 which will also available as USB in the future: https://electrolama.com/projects/zig-a-zig-ah/) I don't see a good time/reward ratio at the moment.

[Hedda]

That is understandable, hopefully someone else might be willing to take on such a project.

My thinking is just that hardware-independence and improved compatibility with multiple Zigbee 3.0 coordinator adapters/dongles from different manufacturers would be beneficial to everyone in the long run.

That is, support for more Zigbee 3.0 coordinator adapters/dongles could democratize to the platform, meaning it makes it more accessible to users around the world, which in turn help drive development by attracting more developers which can contribute to projects like Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker in the future.

Both Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker has certainly already achieved a lot in regards to democratizing the entry-point to Zigbee Home Automation with the CC2531 USB-sticks as Zigbee coordinator (which I see Itead now even sells pre-flashed with compatible coordinator firmware at a very low price from China), but improved accessibility in my head also means improved support for enhanced hardware adapters with Zigbee 3.0 capability at lower prices and perhaps more importantly easier to find pre-flashed Zigbee 3.0 adapters with compatible coordinator firmware at low prices all over the world.

IMHO all Zigbee based projects would benefit from lower prices for Zigbee 3.0 coordinator hardware and support for multiple adapters/dongles from different manufacturers, both directly and indirectly, in all open-source projects for home automation.

[SillyDay]

@Hedda Ebyte E180-ZG120A(B) is a Serial port transparent transmission module, running Ebyte private firmware,not EZSP. (However, it can act as a standard ZigBee3.0 router in the Network) For example, I sent AABBCCDDEEFF(not HEX) to the serial port, then I captured
In other words, the moudule running a Ebyte offical firmware cant't act as a standard coordinator like CC2652R, while it can connect your serial device to ZigBee network easily.(zigbee-herdsman &
zigbee-herdsman-converters modification needed)

[Hedda]

@SillyDay Sorry if I was unclear. I suspected that something like would be the case, though I believed that it did not come with any application firmware at all, only a bootloader firmware from the factory.

I am of course suggesting that 'someone' first also need to build/compile a "standard" EmberZNet Zigbee coordinator firmware image for these Silicon Labs EFR32MG12 SoCs using the official Simplicity Studio software from Silabs so that we are able to reflash E180-ZG120B modules and E180-ZG120B-TB boards before they will be able to used with zigbee-herdsman and Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker as coordinators.

That is, if 'someone' builds/compiles EmberZNet Zigbee coordinator firmware image for these Silicon Labs EFR32MG12 SoCs then those image files can be shared to everyone for flashing your own hardware.

That would be similar concept and principle to how zigbee-herdsman already work with Texas Instruments CC253x & CC26X2R1 SoCs when you flash those with pre-compiled firmware from https://github.com/Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware/tree/master/coordinator as the all the CC2530/CC2531 sniffer USB sticks and CC2652R boards can not be used before you flash them either unless you first flash them with a Z-Stack coordinator firmware.

The main issue regarding building a such "standard" Silicon Labs EmberZNet Zigbee coordinator firmware image for an EFR32MG12 SoC is that in order to to get access to the EmberZNet Zigbee stack from the official Simplicity Studio software you first need to buy and register an official development kit for Zigbee from Silicon Labs, to gain license rights to build a firmware with their Zigbee stack so to speak, like example their official devkit called "EFR32 Mighty Gecko Wireless Starter Kit" (article number: SLWSTK6000B) which cost almost $499 US-dollars, though in their defence that kit does contain three (3) complete dev boards/mainboards with six (6) matching EFR32MG12 Zigbee radio modules designed for development.

• https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/wireless/mesh-networking/mighty-gecko-starter-kit

Or EFR32xG21 Wireless Gecko Starter Kit (SLWSTK6006A) for 3 x EFR32MG21 Series 2 radio boards:

• https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/wireless/efr32xg21-wireless-starter-kit

I would have thought that the Ebyte module would most likely only come with standalone bootloader firmware preloaded for boot. Such standalone bootloader firmware usually is just enough to allow you to flash and upgrade the main application firmware via USB (without having to use a JTAG connector). That is, just enough bootloader firmware to allow USB flashing of an application firmware like Silicon Labs EmberZNet Zigbee coordinator firmware image for EFR32MG12 SoCs.

• https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug103-06-fundamentals-bootloading.pdf

I would think you have to build/compile Zigbee stack (Zigbee EmberZNet) project with coordinator device type config in their SDK ("Simplicity Studio") and then flash application bootloader firmware with Zigbee stack yourself with either "Simplicity Studio" or "Simplicity Commander" or other flashing tools.

You can use Simplicity Studio (Silicon Labs SDK) for non-Zigbee development without buying an official devkit, but I do not think that you can create an EmberZNet Zigbee coordinator firmware image with it without registering an official Zigbee devkit from Silabs as you will not have access to the EmberZNet?

• https://www.silabs.com/mcu/programming-options

If and when you do have registered an official Zigbee devkit from Silabs so you have access to the EmberZNet Zigbee stack in Simplicity Studio (Silabs SDK) then I believe that these might be a couple of relatively easier to follow how-to guide for building EmberZNet for EFR32 and EM35x firmware, (as I understand they call protocol such as their EmberZNet Zigbee stack for "apps").

• https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/quick-start-guides/qsg106-efr32-zigbee-pro.pdf

• https://www.silabs.com/support/mesh-networking-training/zigbee/zigbee-3-0-dyi-building-a-zigbee-3-0-switch-and-light-from-scratch

I don't own one myself but would imagine that once you bought their official devkit they have made it simple enough start using their latest SDK or other firmware tools (like "Simplicity Studio" and "Simplicity Commander") and it will even detect the hardware once it is plugged in to then start a new project.

• https://www.silabs.com/products/software

Guessing that you first might need to register a serial number together with dev kit article-number to your account for full SDK access, again like for the official "EFR32 Mighty Gecko Wireless Starter Kit" (that kit part number is "SLWSTK6000B") as that official dev board in that dev kit is kind similar to the Ebyte E180-ZG120B-TB eval board as they both use the same type of EFR32MG12 SoC chip in Silicon Labs EFR32 family.

• https://siliconlabs.force.com/KitRegistration

Simplicity Studio

• https://www.silabs.com/products/development-tools/software/simplicity-studio
  • https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/training/simplicity-studio/simplicity-studio-introduction.pdf
  • https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/application-notes/AN0822-simplicity-studio-user-guide.pdf
  • https://www.silabs.com/support/training/simplicity-studio

Simplicity Commander

• https://www.silabs.com/community/mcu/32-bit/knowledge-base.entry.html/2016/07/22/simplicity_commander-65kS
  • https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug162-simplicity-commander-reference-guide.pdf

Silicon Labs has its community knowledge-base here:

https://www.silabs.com/community/wireless/zigbee-and-thread/knowledge-base

Silicon Labs also have different user forums here:

• https://www.silabs.com/community/wireless/zigbee-and-thread/forum

• https://www.silabs.com/community/software/simplicity-studio

Silicon Labs IoT also has a community on Slack:

• https://silabsiot.slack.com/

Silicon Labs IoT also has a community on Gitter:

• https://gitter.im/Silabs-IoT

[Hedda]

Should be noted that Silicon Labs makes it clear that it is OK for multiple developers within a company, organization or team share a single Silabs account for use with their Simplicity Studio SDK.

So if example "team zigbee2mqtt" or "team zigbee-herdsman" (with both Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker developers) collectively bought an official Silicon Labs Zigbee devkit and register that to a shared account then all developers on that team could, as long as they login with that same account, use the Simplicity Studio SDK with access to EmberZNet Zigbee stack to build Zigbee coordinator firmware images for the EFR32MG12 SoC chip.

Perhaps even Silicon Labs / Silabs would be willing to sponsor Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker devs with some official EFR32 devkits?

Alternatively, maybe the Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker community could donate earmarked for a devkit?

I heard that Silicon Labs have donated hardware to Home Assistant developers, so it could also be worth it to try to contact Silicon Labs Salesforce and explain that you would like a logon for an open-source organization/project without owning a dev kit, as an "organization" is a loose term.

After all, projects like Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker does help Silicon Labs sell chips, and selling chips is the core buisness of Silicon Labs as a company. Guess that the answer to that specific question might differ depending on how Silabs feelings are towards helping open-source projects which are not-for-profit and only help them sell more chips indirectly.

Regardless it would be to their benefit if Zigbee2MQTT and ioBroker via zigbee-herdsman had support for Ember based coordinators as that would both sell more hardware as well as make more developers use/know their software.

[Hedda]

Another tip is this "Zigbee Boot Camp Course" wiki for Silicon Labs @MarkDing has put on GitHub :

• https://github.com/MarkDing/IoT-Developer-Boot-Camp/wiki/Zigbee-Boot-Camp

• https://github.com/MarkDing/IoT-Developer-Boot-Camp

He has also put together this PDF with Silicon Labs ZigBee Onboarding Roadmap for beginners:

• https://github.com/MarkDing/IoT-Developer-Boot-Camp/wiki/files/ZB-Zigbee-Boot-Camp/Silicon-Labs-ZigBee-Onboarding-Roadmap.pdf

[Hedda]

@cdjackson from @zsmartsystems also mention two main NCP images in their README.md

• https://github.com/zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee

  "Currently there are two main NCP images - one that supports hardware flow control with a baud rate of 115200, and one that supports software flow control with a rate of 57600."

Perhaps he would be willing to tip how to build or make EmberZNet Zigbee coordinator firmware for EFR32MG12 SoC chip like the official EFR32 devkit or Ebyte E180-ZG120B / E180-ZG120B-TB?

@cdjackson at least keeps adding new EZSP support from UG100 to com.zsmartsystems.zigbee

• https://github.com/zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee/pulls?q=ezsp

• https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug100-ezsp-reference-guide.pdf

• https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/application-notes/an706-ezsp-uart-host-interfacing-guide.pdf

[cdjackson]

This statement is probably a little old now - it was made when Silabs provided pre-build firmware images which they no longer do. You now need to compile them for your hardware, so data rates etc are configurable. It is relatively easy to compile the firmware if you have the SDK etc. I do have a document that I provide to customers but don’t really want to publish it on the net but can answer questions if needed.

[Hedda]

@cdjackson So in your opinion, once someone has registered an official EFR32 devkit to their account for Silicon Labs and installed + login to Simplicity Studio SDK it should be relatively easy for them to build and compile an EmberZNet PRO Zigbee coordinator firmware image file for an EFR32MG12 based module like the E180-ZG120B-TB evaluation board which then could be shared to everyone so that anyone could flash their own Ebyte E180-ZG120B module based hardware with more freely available software? ...again similar to how Koenkk share Z-Stack coordinator firmware images?

[cdjackson]

I’m not familiar with the EByte module so can’t really comment on that. If it is a standard EFR32 under the hood, and doesn’t do anything too non-standard, then yes, it’s reasonably straight forward to create firmware. You will need to know the hardware configuration of the module though (ie what pins of the EFR32 are connected where in the module) - I’m not sure if this information is available?

…

On 27 Apr 2020, at 10:28, Hedda ***@***.***> wrote: @cdjackson <https://github.com/cdjackson> So in your opinion, once someone has registered an official EFR32 devkit to their account for Silicon Labs and installed + login to Simplicity Studio SDK it should be relatively easy for them to build and compile an EmberZNet PRO Zigbee coordinator firmware image file for an EFR32MG12 based module like the E180-ZG120B-TB evaluation board which then could be shared to everyone so that anyone could flash their own Ebyte E180-ZG120B module based hardware with more freely available software? ...again similar to how Koenkk share Z-Stack coordinator firmware images? — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#168 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAH6IQ6WBKQ5SR62TMTJYEDROVF5BANCNFSM4MNFW4CQ>.