The Home Assistant SkyConnect is a USB stick with support for Zigbee, Matter, and Thread connectivity designed to work with the popular Home Assistant open-source home automation solution, and enables users to bring Home Assistant Yellow (previously known as Home Assistant Amber) functionality to any platform running Home Assistant.
The USB dongle is based on a Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 Gecko Series 2 Arm Cortex-M33 wireless microcontroller with an 802.15.4 multi-protocol 2.4 GHz radio that can concurrently run both Zigbee 3.0 (EmberZNet/EZSP) and Thread/Matter (OpenThread/Spinel) stacks/protocols at the same time by using firmware in RCP RCP (Radio Co-Processor) mode.
Home Assistant SkyConnect specifications:
- MCU – Silabs EFR32MG21 Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller @ up to 80 MHz with DSP and FPU, up to 1024 KB flash, up to 96 KB RAM, 2.4 GHz radio
- Wireless
- USB – USB 2.0 Type-A male up to 12 Mbps
- Bridge – Silabs CP2102N USB to UART chip
- Power Supply – 5V DC / up to 150mA
- Dimensions – 38.5 x 18 x 4.5mm
- Weight – 4 grams
The SkyConnect dongle supports Over-The-Wire (OTW) firmware updates, which will notably enable Matter support in November since at launch only Zigbee and Thread are supported. The USB stick will ship with a 50cm extension cable because the “USB 3.0 ports (the ones with blue on the inside) are known to cause significant noise and radio interference to any 2.4Ghz wireless devices”.
The Home Assistant SkyConnect USB stick is up for pre-order for $29.99 on Seeed Studio, Ameridroid, and several European distributors that you can find on the product page. The first batch is supposed to ship in November or December. The price tag is higher than for the Sonoff ZBDongle-E ($19.90) based on the same EFR32MG21 microcontroller, but the official dongle is quite smaller and I suppose you’d sponsor the open-source project that way.
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.
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Matter/CHIP is handled at the application layer (e.i. Home Assistant core integrations or its addons running on the host computer) and not on in the network stacks running in the firmware on this adapter. So this adapter does enable the application to use a Matter/CHIP over a Thread network but that does not make this a Matter/CHIP device itself. Instead, it will run just be a standard OpenThread Border Router. See -> https://community.home-assistant.io/t/home-assistant-skyconnect-usb-stick-announced-will-be-compatible-with-both-zigbee-and-thread-including-matter-chip-over-thread/433594/
A tip is that all Zigbee and Thread users should follow these best practices -> https://github.com/zigpy/zigpy/wiki/Generic-best-practice-tips-on-improving-Zigbee-network-range-and-general-stability
Turns out Z*-Technology is a PITA for “bigger” networks. I moved away from all that devices over to wifi (and ethernet) only (esphome nodes) which a working a treat with over 100 devices with the “normal” house wifi infrastructure (1 Router and 2 Repeaters).
Besides deploying and updating/upgrading is a treat and other than all this Z*-Stuff I came across it is uniform to setup and super stable.
Not only that but it’s region locked which 8s why it doesn’t come on the HA yellow board. I agree, ESPHome is the way to go. Flashing over WiFi or USB is super easy and I can’t see how they could possibly make it more user friendly. No soldiering required, at least for most devices. I also don’t know anyone that actually uses it 8n HA.
There are several reasons we did not include Z-Wave on the mainboard itself. For example, each region of the world requires a different Z-Wave antenna and the regulatory approval for a board with one radio is much simpler than that with two.
I think you are mixing up Zigbee and Z-Wave. Zigbee and Thread is 2.4GHz worldwide, same as
WiFi.
Only Z-Wave have region frequecies but newer devices with Z-Wave 700/800 chips can change frequency so devices can be global.
I was replying to NewNews on why I don’t use Z-Wave personally. The reason I mentioned is it’s straight from Home Assistants crowdfund page for the HA yellow.
I have been also been ordering cheap Chinese bulbs pre flashed with ESPHome and I’m trying to move everything to direct Wifi or ZigBee with a few BLE devices. Until I see if thread/matter is really the future I’m waiting although I did preeorder the SkyConnect because it’s a great price..
I have seen other standards backed by multiple big companies fail very badly like DiVX. DIVX was a rental format variation on the DVD player in which a customer would buy a DIVX disc (similar to a DVD) for approximately US$4.50, which was watchable for up to 48 hours from its initial viewing. After this period, the disc could be viewed by paying a continuation fee to play it for two more days. Disney DreamWorks, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount Pictures all backed DIVX.
Not saying that’s going to happen with Thread but, just saying. With most ESPHome devices you point to a GitHub URL in the Yaml and there is one button to update all ESPHome devices if there has been an update of the GitHub page, it shows as available and ready to be updated on the ESPHome tab. Below is from the crowdfund that I was quoting.
Home Assistant Yellow has an integrated Zigbee chip by Silicon Labs to control Zigbee-enabled devices in your home. The chip is Thread-certified and will support the upcoming Matter smart home standard.
Z-Wave is an alternative to Zigbee but is not compatible with Zigbee. Home Assistant Yellow does not include a Z-Wave radio, but it is possible to use a Z-Wave USB stick or attach the AEOTEC Z-Pi 7 inside the case. There are several reasons we did not include Z-Wave on the mainboard itself. For example, each region of the world requires a different Z-Wave antenna and the regulatory approval for a board with one radio is much simpler than that with two.
Small Zigbee network is a PITA but a larger network is easier because it has more router devices. Zigbee OTA updates is however also not good if buy chinese devices because almost none get updates.
Z-Wave devices have better range and and its more expensive devices do get updates so is actually more user freindly as you what you pay for.
But I think that multiple border routers and easier updates is what Matter/CHIP over Thread is meant to solve in the future.
The price was also a good reason for me to move completely away from that Z-* and go all in for esphome based devices which often only cost 1/3 (or less) than comparable Z-* devices.
Updates/Upgrades are guaranteed (for now monthly updates) on esphome – for all my Z-* devices I think I never got any update/upgrade (different brands) I was aware of – but it is also not clear how to apply them (every manufacture often got it’s own way) -> a real No-Go!
Sure, it’s all fantastic until your internet goes down, or the manufacturer of your wifi devices shuts down, which has happened before. Wifi is definitely not the answer.
“the USB stick will ship with a 50cm extension cable because the “USB 3.0 ports (the ones with blue on the inside) are known to cause significant noise and radio interference to any 2.4Ghz wireless devices”.
Are we sure about this RF interference scenario? Is it specific to a unique motherboard or chip? Is this universal for all blue USB A 3.0 ports, spanking all devices ever made? The implications are massive if all those 2.4Ghz keyboards are effected by this.
It’s not the first time I read about this, USB 3.0 may interfere with Bluetooth, and it’s not specific to particular chips. Others may have other details about this issue.
Very interesting indeed. This is a topic I’m interested to learn more about.
BTW, my auto correct evidenced some comical, self awareness, on the provious post, and should have read “spanning” LOL
USB 3.x is 5 or 10Gig, both of which are close to multiples of 2.4Ghz, so there is a decent chance of interference. Can be improved by device makers, but their main goal is to not go over the same limits that common transmitters have to abide to, so it’s usually not a big focus for them, so you get devices that radiate a bunch of interference.
It’s fairly well known too, Intel investigated this in 2012 https://www.usb.org/sites/default/files/327216.pdf