@Daniel-zhan-itead @liangjia2019 @guozi7788 I like to suggest/recommend that ITead look at releasing an official Zigbee NCP firmware update image based on EmberZNet 7.4.2.0 version or later 7.4.x.x bug-fix versions for your “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2” (model “ZBDongle-E”, a.k.a. "Dongle-E”) as an optional firmware update (and required for Zigbee2MQTT).
https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.4.5.0.pdf https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.4.4.0.pdf https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.4.3.0.pdf https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.4.2.0.pdfCommunity built firmware based on Zigbee EmberZNet 7.4.x.x has more or less already been proven to be relatively stable in DIY Zigbee Gateway solutions such as Home Assistant's ZHA integration, Zigbee2MQTT, OpenHAB Zigbee Binding, and Domoticz ZigBee Plugin. (Seen many users reported great results with unofficial zbdonglee firmware builds from darkxst's silabs-firmware-builder repository).
More importantly, the popular Zigbee Gateway host application software Zigbee2MQTT to soon require EmberZNet 7.4.0.0 firmware or later as they marked their old radio Silicon Labs adapter code as deprecated. At least Zigbee2MQTT has now marked their old ezsp adapter code as deprecated in zigbee-herdsman -> Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman#1039 and new code requires EmberZNet 7.4.x.x firmware.
Deprecated driver 'ezsp' currently in use, 'ember' will become the officially supported EmberZNet + driver in next release. If using Zigbee2MQTT see https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt/discussions/21462
So unless ITead provides an official EmberZNet 7.4.x.x firmware image then will no longer be able to claim Zigbee2MQTT compatibility.
I think this is also interesting to other Zigbee projects that also support Silicon Labs Zigbee Coordinator adapters because of the fact that Zigbee2MQTT's new ember adapter code will only be compatible with EZSP v13 (EmberZNet Serial Protocol) CLI/API which only came with EmberZNet 7.4.0.0 firmware and later. In addition, RCP Multi-PAN/Multi-protocol firmware will also not be officially supported by Zigbee2MQTT, instead only NCP firmware will be supported, at least for now.
zigbee-herdsman's new ember adapter code is meant to fully replace old ezsp adapter code but it does sacrifice backwards compatibility.
Zigbee2MQTT's developers on purpose choose to do a clean rewrite their new ember adapter code as "greenfield project" with focus on only supporting EZSP v13 (EmberZNet 7.4.0.0) firmware and later to oid constraints and limitations imposed by old code or old firmware.
Improved Ember (EZSP) driver (experimental) Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt#21462 New ember adapter implementation targeting EZSP 13 and above Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman#918Anyway, deprecated in this case only means that their old ezsp adapter code will no longer maintained and that users will he an yet undefined grace period to migrate to the new ember adapter. Silicon Labs adapters are currently still "experimental" in Z2M -> https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/adapters/#experimental however their plan is that this will change in the future with their new ember adapter code becomes more stable.
https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman/tree/master/src/adapter/ember https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman/tree/master/src/adapter/ezspBy the way, I am not sure how well backup and restore is working today if using their old ezsp adapter in Zigbee2MQTT but at least until recently there was no ability to restore from backup in Z2M if using that ezsp adapter in Zigbee2MQTT, see -> Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman#319 and the workaround to backup and restore before if using ezsp adapter in Zigbee2MQTT was to backup and restore using zigpy-cli, see Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt#16478 but I believe the new ember adapter in Zigbee2MQTT has full native support for backup and restore but I am not sure about native migrations from ezsp adapter to ember adapter inside Zigbee2MQTT.
PS: FYI, RCP Multi-PAN firmware is no longer recommended Home Assistant's Zigbee Home Automation integration either.
https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/01/25/matter-livestream-blog https://community.home-assistant.io/t/the-state-of-matter/679508There is a third, experimental, firmware option that supports multiprotocol, which allows the Silicon Labs chip in these products to connect to both Zigbee and Thread networks with one radio. We announced our intent to release a firmware supporting multiprotocol when we launched Home Assistant Yellow and Home Assistant SkyConnect, and this firmware has been ailable since December 2022. It integrates the Silicon Labs SDK, which adds this support for multiprotocol. During the further development and testing of the multiprotocol firmware, we he concluded that while Silicon Labs’ multiprotocol works, it comes with technical limitations. These limitations mean users will not he the best experience compared to using dedicated Zigbee and Thread radios. That is why we do not recommend using this firmware, and it will remain an experimental feature of Home Assistant Yellow and Home Assistant SkyConnect. If you currently he the multiprotocol firmware installed but don’t actively use it to connect to Thread devices, we recommend that you disable multiprotocol.