$10 T-Zigbee board combines ESP32-C3 and TLSR8258 for Zigbee 3.0, WIFi and BLE connectivity

LilyGO T-Zigbee board combines ESP32-C3 WiFi and BLE wireless microcontroller and Telink TLSR8258 multi-protocol wireless SoC compatible with BLE 5 Mesh, Zigbee, RF4CE, Thread, 6LoWPAN, HomeKit, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary standards.

As I understand it, T-Zigbee is designed to act as a Zigbee to WiFi bridge, and is compatible with Zigbee2MQTT and Home Assistant, allowing easy integration into your home automation setup. Based on the hardware, I’d assume it may be usable as a BLE to MQTT gateway as well, in a fashion similar to GL.inet GL-S10 gateway, for people willing to work on the software/firmware.

T-Zigbee specifications:

Wireless MCUs
- Espressif Systems ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity
- Telink Semiconductors TLSR8258 (PDF product brief) ~~Arm Cortex-M0~~ multiprotocol microcontroller @ 48 MHz with BLE 5 Mesh, Zigbee, RF4CE, Thread, 6LoWPAN, HomeKit, ANT, and 2.4GHz proprietary connectivity
Antennas – 2x PCB antennas, 2x u.FL antenna connectors
USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming
Expansion via 2x 21-pin headers
- ESP32-C3 – Up to 9x GPIO, 4x ADC, SPI, UART
- TLSR8258 – Up to 12x GPIO, 2x UART, 2x I2C, digital MIC, PWM, SPI, I2S
Misc – Reset and user keys, 3x user LEDs, DIP switch for mode selection (UART/programming selection between ESP32-C3 and TLSR8258)
Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port
Dimensions – 7.5 x 2.9 cm

LilyGO provides Arduino sketches for factory testing and a Zigbee2MQTT implementation on Github, and the company also links to ZBHCI online documentation showing how to use Zigbee2MQTT. That project also appears to support Xiaomi RTCGQ11LM Aqara human body movement and illuminance sensor and Xiaomi WSDCGQ11LM Aqara temperature, humidity, and pressure sensor. The board has plenty of radios, but you’d be on your own if you attempt to use it for anything other than the provided WiFi and Zigbee bridge demo code.

LilyGO T-Zigbee ESP32-C3 Zigbee board is fairly inexpensive currently selling for under $10 on Aliexpress before taxes.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.