[REQUEST] Alpha and/or Beta release versions of latest EmberZNet 7.1.x (7.1.x.x) Zigbee Coordinator NCP firmware images for testers to test on Sonoff ZBDongle-E

[Hedda]

@Daniel-zhan-itead Suggest that ITead consider providing publicly available "official" Alpha and/or Beta versions of Silicon Labs EmberZNet NCP 7.1.x (7.1.x.x) Zigbee Coordinator NCP firmware image builds for Sonoff ZBDongle-E adapters here for developers of various Zigbee gateway solutions and volunteering alpha/beta testers to test the new EZSP v9 (EmberZNet Serial Protocol version 9) interface as well as upstream bug-fixes that comes in the latest Silicon Labs Gecko SDK Suite 4.1 (GSDK. 4.1.x.x) release.

https://github.com/SiliconLabs/gecko_sdk/releases

Note! To clarify, EmberZNet 7.1.x.x is probably not ready for general use yet but great if firmware images were available to test for issues. That is, it would be great if both developers/testers could have access to Zigbee EmberZNet 7.1.x.x NCP images for development/testing.

https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.1.4.0.pdf

Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.1.3.0 GA release notes cover SDK version(s):

• 7.1.4.0 released January, 2023
• 7.1.3.0 released October 19, 2022
• 7.1.2.0 released September 28, 2022
• 7.1.1.0 released August 17, 2022
• 7.1.0.0 released June 8, 2022

FYI, there are already "unofficial" Zigbee EmberZNet 7.1.x NCP firmware builds from a couple of community members that a few people have been testing on ZBDongle-E in some different Zigbee implementations to test EZSP v9 interface in these newer firmware versions:

-https://github.com/xsp1989/zigbeeFirmware/tree/master/firmware/Zigbee3.0_Dongle-NoSigned/EZSP

• Related discussion:
  • ZBdongle-E xsp1989/zigbeeFirmware#29

• https://github.com/grobasoz/zigbee-firmware/tree/master/EFR32MG2x-768k
  • Related discussions:
    • [REQUEST] Silicon Labs Zigbee EmberZNet NCP 7.1.x.x firmware images (for developers to test EZSP v9) grobasoz/zigbee-firmware#25
    • Firmware compatibility with ITead's new “ZBDongle-E” Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus adapter based on the EFR32MG21? grobasoz/zigbee-firmware#28

That is, users of Home Assistant's ZHA integration, the Zigbee Plugin for Domoticz, as well as Zigbee2MQTT and IoBroker have been testing those unofficial firmware builds the new EZSP v9 interface using different Zigbee EmberZNet 7.1.1 builds on ITead's EFR32MG21-based “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus V2” (model " ZBDongle-E").

Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman#319

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/zha

https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/ZigbeeForDomoticz

https://doc.jeedom.com/en_US/plugins/automation%20protocol/zigbee/

PS: OpenHAB ZigBee Binding dependecies is still missing support for EZSP v9 -> openhab/org.openhab.binding.zigbee#778

[Hedda]

Note! Also be noted that you need to enable Touchlink (touchlinking) support in Zigbee Coordinator NCP firmware image -> #6

[Hedda]

FYI, Silicon Labs Gecko SDK (GSDK) Version 4.1.4.0 includes Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.1.4.0 bug-fix release for 7.1.x / 7.1.x.x

https://github.com/SiliconLabs/gecko_sdk/releases/tag/v4.1.4

https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.1.4.0.pdf

Update: Silicon Labs Gecko SDK (GSDK) Version 4.2.x includes Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.2 and bug-fix release for 7.2.x / 7.2.x.x

https://github.com/SiliconLabs/gecko_sdk/releases/tag/v4.2.2

https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.2.2.0.pdf

[Hedda]

FYI, many (or most) but not all popular open-source DIY home-automation projects have now been updated to support EZSP v11.

• Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA) integration for Home Assistant (which as you might know depends on zigpy).
• Domoticz via the Zigbee for Domoticz Plugin (see Domoticz-Zigbee, which is also depends on zigpy).
• Jeedom via official Zigbee plugin for Jeedom (which is also depends zigpy as well).

zigbee-herdsman is not lagging far behind as has already been updated to EZSP v11:

• Zigbee2MQTT (that is depending on zigbee-herdsman).
• ioBroker (ioBroker adapter for Zigbee devices that also depends on zigbee-herdsman).

The one large project that was lagging behind those others is OpenHAB but its dependencies were at least updated to EZSP v11 last month:

• OpenHAB via official OpenHAB ZigBee Binding (that depends on the "com.zsmartsystems.zigbee" framework library)
  • Note there are also a few other lesser-known projects that also depend on the same "com.zsmartsystems.zigbee" library.

PS: The only well-known open-source project in the DIY home-automation community that is lagging behind those is Zigbee2Tasmota (Zigbee to Tastmota) project and that is only because Tasmota lead Zigbee developer is currently fully focusing on getting initial support working for the new Matter standard in Tasmota, (which in turn might later also lead to a wish for him wanting to add Thread / OpenThread radio support in Tasmota in order to support Matter over Thread with native Thread Border Router / OpenThread Border Router firmware).