Sonoff Zigbee Bridge with Tasmota and Home Assistant

[@chrisrobinson4513]

Thank you so much for your video. I had tried this process so many times and was ready to throw my gateway in the bin. I followed your instructions and it worked perfectly! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Glad it helped

[@annespacedroid]

It's definitely the go Will. Mine has been rock solid with decent range for months now. Has not missed a beat where others failed regularly. All my xiaomi sensors work perfectly. The Xiaomi Aqara Opple switches have all the key presses exposed right out of the box. Good tutorial, I think it will help those trying to establish.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Fab - glad it works for you :)

[@ChrisDowsett1]

Thanks Will for the assistance. Was a real time saver. Read the instructions, watched your video, used your links and the code inserts and after about 60 min i am up and running. Only problem i had was that on my initial setup i had a bad ground to my 1O0 pin and ended up soldering two wires together and then to ground on the USB adapter. Plus i found that blue-tack was an ace way to hold the wires to the board. Thanks

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Glad it all worked for you! Blue tack is a very clever idea - I’ll have to remember that one!

[@roymorrison1075]

Great job Will, I used Sonoff new USB zigbee bridge, it just works straight out of the box, no flashing required, plus only $8 AU cheep as chips.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Oh cool - I'll have a look at that!

[@ricardoalves750]

do you have a link to the product?

[@WillSurridgeTech]

@@ricardoalves750 uk.banggood.com/custlink/DKKR5aCRa0 (affiliate)

[@nongsung]

Great video and I'm finally off-cloud now with HA. The ZBBridge did not work properly with the cloud; losing connection or just not registering my sensors sometimes. Not reliable... I have to see if it's any better with Tasmota but the first indication is 'it is FASTER' so right now I'm happy. Had a kind of tricky wire-setup; my pins did not fit and therefore I cut the pins and stripped the wires, carefully inserting them and checking that they did not short but all was well. Thanks for the great video; you have another subscriber!

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Fantastic, congrats! I’ve been told blue tack works well for that too :)

[@serhioromano]

What advantages Sonoff bridge have over Zigbe dongle?

[@mattkiteley1]

Hi Will, thanks for the videos, really enjoying working through them as I get my home fully automated. I wonder if I could ask for a bit of help with this one, I followed the instructions line by line, all went well until I tried to execute the commands on the zigbee bridge console. When I restart, I don't get TCP start:done... I get 3 "RSL lines" from console as per below. Above that I can see that the webserver has supposedly started OK, with the port and IP address that I'm using in the Home Assistant Zigbee integration settings. However, when I try to integrate into Home Assistant, (entering socket://ipaddress:8888 and 115200 for speed etc), it doesn't connect. Am I missing something that might have stopped the TCP starting on the bridge perhaps? Any pointers to how I might best start-off identifying what's gone wrong?! Any help/advice very much appreciated! Console returns this after restarting: 9:05:11 RSL: tele/tasmota_04D533/STATE = {"Time":"2021-04-05T19:05:11","Uptime":"0T00:10:11","UptimeSec":611,"Vcc":3.438,"Heap":27,"SleepMode":"Dynamic","Sleep":50,"LoadAvg":19,"MqttCount":0,"Wifi":{"AP":1,"SSId":"WIFI NAME","BSSId":"38:D5:47:88:AC:E0","Channel":7,"RSSI":84,"Signal":-58,"LinkCount":1,"Downtime":"0T00:00:05"

[@perhansen79]

Hey Will, I am struggling to get this running. Every time the update is done, it looses wifi connecting. I am using tasmotizer 1.2.1, i tried on windows and linux. I also tried NodeMCU flasher from windows. The flash itself is going as it should, no problem there. But the tasmota AP is only showing up shortly, and i cant connect to it. I tried several phones and computers, no luck. I even tried setting the wifi within tasmotizer, also without any luck. The funny thing is when i flash with the normal tasmota firmware, without zigbee, everything is working, but obvious no zigbee function. I tried several versions of the firmware, but all zigbee versions ends with no wifi access. Have you seen that before? My sonoff board is ver. 1.1 2020.02.28.

[@cegiel1]

Is this hub better than cc2531usb, does it support more devices, compatibility is better. I can't decide which one to buy.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

I’ve never used the usb option, but I like this bridge :) not had any comparability issues yet

[@rikthefrog]

Will I have trouble soldering the pins or wires to the board. I already killed a board because of it. Looking for jumpers which fit in the holes like the tutorial one.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Hi Richard, I just had some old jumpers lying around - normal dupont ones dont fit - I'd look for some thin or stranded wire you could use instead

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Hi Richard, I just had some old jumpers lying around - normal dupont ones dont fit - I'd look for some thin or stranded wire you could use instead

[@rikthefrog]

@@WillSurridgeTech my issue was the usb to ttl dongle. I bought a new one and everything worked fine. No struggling to get zigbee devices to connect. Looks that Ikea button is a challenge. It recognize my Aoara button also incorrect.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

fantastic!

[@JoeZelMusic]

Why do we want/need to use the older version of the Zigbee chip firmware?

[@WillSurridgeTech]

The later version has actually since been removed, I believe because it was unstable. 6.7.6 is what you want

[@JoeZelMusic]

@@WillSurridgeTech thank you!

[@djrbaker1]

@Those flashing using arduino boards as a FTDI: TX goes to TX and RX to RX.

[@fpguerreiro]

Hi... Great vídeo... Just have questiono, how to use the tasmotized Bridge with node red.... Dont found any way to do it...

[@WillSurridgeTech]

I'm not sure - I have it linked to Home Assistant, and then it opens the entities up to Node Red for use in automations

[@DannyDM00]

Does it really need to be flashed with tasmota? I thought this zigbee bridge worked straight out of the box?

[@WillSurridgeTech]

I believe you can use it out of the box with this (github.com/AlexxIT/SonoffLAN), but it says it needs the cloud - to get it fully local, use tasmota

[@MATLERATGAMING]

Another great review Will. I’m using the Sonoff zigbee hub with sonoff sensors (door/motion/temp/button) in HA with the AlexxIT integration and they are rock solid. I have 4 sonoff DW2 and they give me nothing but problems in eWeLink and therefore HA. I’m interested in how reliable your zigbee door sensors are.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Seems good so far, drop me a message in a couple of months and I'll let you know more!

[@MATLERATGAMING]

@@WillSurridgeTech thanks Will 👍

[@WillSurridgeTech]

@@MATLERATGAMING :)

[@veseaprende8189]

Will, thanks for the video. I got stuck right after uploading successfully the firmware ncp-uart-sw_6.5.5_115200.ota I lost access to my zigbee hub. I did not get any error messages. any suggestions?

[@WillSurridgeTech]

If it failed, all I can suggest is reflashing tasmota and starting again

[@usmangojra]

hi, first i was not able to connect with bridge as per the jumpers arrangement. Then came to a reddit discussion where many people advised to connect Z_RST to GRD as well in addition to GPIO0. I am able to flash successfully this way , tasmota AP appears, i can connect and enter my wifi ap details. bridge can connect to my router and i can access it with IP. the problem i am facing is that it is constantly connecting and disconnecting to router , normally both LEDs on bridge are off but every 20- 30 LED1-Zigbee (green) on bridge blink and then LED2-Wifi (blue) starts blinking, meaning its disconnected to router and then it connects again but few moments later again LED1-zigbee blink and LED2-wifi also starts blinking and bridge is disconnected from router again. I cant proceed further with flashing zigbee chip. I tried falshing bridge several times but same happnings....can anyone help whats wrong am i doing?

[@MichaelSimmonds]

On another video someone suggested that 9.1.0 has problems so worth dropping down to a slightly older release

[@DesignitBuilditRepairit]

Strange I never had to push the button on the hub but sometimes when I'm doing pairing on the device I would have to push the pairing button every five seconds to get it to pair

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Odd - maybe I didn't have to push the button, but nothing added until after I had!

[@mlich786]

I tried the steps explained in the video and I ma getting the error "Unexpected error: ESP Chip Auto-Detection failed: Failed to connect to Espressif device: Timed out waiting for packet header". What may be the mistake I am doing.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Where is it you're getting that error?

[@mlich786]

@@WillSurridgeTech I am getting this error when I try to flash the ESP.

[@ChrisDowsett1]

@@mlich786 if you are still trying to do this i had the same error and it was just a bad connection on my data to ground connection. best to check you have good contacts. I stripped the ends of each wire and poked about 3mm through the board. Then after securing the top of each wire with blue-tack went under the board and gently bent the wire strands sticking out over to one side. Hope this is helpful to some one.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

The blue-tack is a good tip!

[@adamrobinson1415]

Nice video, I can’t say I had much luck with this, I got stuff paired but occasionally stuff would drop off the network, apparently the zha integration will get better with it over time, I have found deconz on a pi with a combee stick more reliable but hey it could just be me 🤷‍♂️

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Sorry to hear that; I havent had problems yet (bbut it hasnt been long!)

[@adamrobinson1415]

@@WillSurridgeTech hope it goes well, it was just ikea stuff like the plugs and the switches.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

@@adamrobinson1415 Thats a shame - I like the look of the ikea stuff (although haven't used any)

[@quasimodo1427]

Your tutorials are very good. Thanks. I was wondering if I bought 2 or 3 sonoff zigbee bridges and intergraded them into home assistant, for more range, would that work

[@asingingnun]

Do you really have that much distance between devices that repeat the signal such as plugs or lightbulbs?

[@quasimodo1427]

@@asingingnun Well right now I have a cc2531 plugged in to my HA and the range isn't very good. I was thinking of having the sonoff bridge and the cc2531 together

[@WillSurridgeTech]

According to HA you cant add another ZHA integration, so maybe you are better getting some more zigbee plugs or bulbs which act as repeaters?

[@quasimodo1427]

@@WillSurridgeTech I'll probably replace the CC2331 with the Zigbee bridge

[@WillSurridgeTech]

@@quasimodo1427 Let me know how it goes :)

[@leopullen2452]

I have tried this but all I am getting is: UPL: Successful 181500 bytes HTP: Upload transfer XMD: Init bootloader XMD: Bootloader timeout XMD: Restarting HTP: Upload done Any Idea's?

[@WillSurridgeTech]

That looks all good - then you can move onto the next step adding the template

[@leopullen2452]

@@WillSurridgeTech thanks for the replay, this does show that the upgrade failed, but will give it ago later ta

[@ighost_1337]

​@@leopullen2452 any update ? i am having same issue

[@leopullen2452]

@@ighost_1337 nope, I brought something else but thought I would try it again but waiting for another bridge to be delivered. Will let you know :)

[@leopullen2452]

So the 2nd one arrived, did the same again this time it worked. I think when I did it the first time I may have done it wrong and killed it

[@aryeguetta8592]

I am not sure that zigbee are Cheaper then Wifi - I have proof that the opposite is true - I have Zigbee and Wifi and ZB sensors costs MUCH higher then WiFi. So IMHO - The Wifi wins in price.

[@WillSurridgeTech]

Fair enough :)