Silicon Labs Category - Page 6 of 9 - CNX Software

November 5, 2021November 21, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Playing with Sonoff Zigbee & WiFi automation – Part 1: Hardware overview

Sonoff T2 Switch Zigbee Bridge Motion Sensor

I don’t think I’ve ever used Zigbee, but I’ll soon have the opportunity as ITEAD sent me the Sonoff ZBBridge gateway, a Sonoff T2 2-gang WiFi switch as well as a Zigbee motion sensor. I had reviewed several Sonoff devices in the past, but it had been over three years that I hadn’t. ITEAD recently contacted me basically telling me I could select whatever I wanted from their product list for a review on CNX Software. Since I had reviewed several of the company’s WiFi smart sockets, smart switches, and a light bulb, I had less to play with, and then I thought it might be fun to play with Sonoff Zigbee products. But I did not own any Zigbee hardware, so I had to think about a use case. I have a small annoyance in the house I rent. When we come back at night, we have to leave […]

September 27, 2021November 15, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

ZB-GW03 ESP32-based Ethernet Zigbee gateway works with Tasmota firmware

ZB-GW03 is an Ethernet Zigbee Gateway compatible with eWelink mobile app and with a design similar to SONOFF ZBBridge gateway but replacing ESP8266 SoC by ESP32 SoC, and adding an Ethernet port. The ZB-GW03 gateway is apparently based on the same Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 Zigbee Arm Cortex-M33 chip and has been hacked to run Tasmota open-source software for people preferring more flexibility and/or integration with OpenHAB or Home Assistant open-source home automation frameworks via Zigbee2MQTT. ZB-GW03 gateway specifications: Main MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32 dual-core Tensilica TX6 processor @ 240 MHz with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth connectivity Zigbee MCU – Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 Arm Cortex-M33 MCU @ 80 MHz with Zigbee 3.0 connectivity Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet, WiFi, and Bluetooth via ESP32 Zigbee 3.0 via Silabs MG21 MCU with support for 128 nodes, up to 200+ meter range One 2.4 GHz Zigbee antenna One 2.4 GHz PCB antenna for WiFi Misc […]

September 20, 2021November 24, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Arm PSA Certified Level 3 Sub-GHz wireless SoCs support Amazon Sidewalk, mioty, Wireless M-Bus, Z-Wave…

Silicon Labs has announced two new sub-GHz wireless SoCs with EFR32FG23 (FG23) and EFR32ZG23 (ZG23) devices adding to the company’s Gecko Series 2 Cortex-M33 platform. Both FG23 and ZG23 support up to one mile (~1.6 km) wireless range, 10+ year battery life on a coin-cell battery, are certified with Arm PSA Level 3 security, and support “advanced wireless technologies” such as Amazon Sidewalk, mioty, Wireless M-Bus (WM-Bus), Z-Wave, and proprietary IoT networks. Silicon Labs explains the chips’ ultra-low transmit and receive radio power (13.2 mA TX at 10 dBm, 4.2 mA RX at 920 MHz) and RF implementation (+20 dBm output power and -125.3 dBm RX at 868 MHz, 2.4 kbps GFSK), makes the long-range and long battery life possible. The ZG23 is designed for Z-Wave applications with Long Range and Mesh connectivity and can be integrated into either end devices or gateways. The company is also working on ZG23-based […]

September 16, 2021April 5, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Home Assistant Yellow – A Raspberry Pi CM4 based automation gateway (Crowdfunding)

The team behind the popular Home Assistant open-source home automation framework has just launched their second hardware with Home Assistant Yellow automation gateway based on Raspberry Pi CM4 module. This follows last year’s ODROID-N2+ based Home Assistant Blue which was a limited edition and has now been discontinued, albeit still supported. The carrier board for Home Assistant Amber is designed from scratch and notably includes Silicon Labs MGM210P Mighty Gecko Module with support for Zigbee 3.0, OpenThread, and Matter (Soon), as well as M.2 socket that can take an NVMe SSD, or an AI accelerator card. Home Assistant Yellow specifications: Supported SoM – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) with Broadcom BCM2711 quad-core Cortex-A72 processor @ 1.5 GHz, up to 8GB RAM, up to 32GB storage. (Note: optional WiFI 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity not covered by regulatory approval) Storage – Support for NVMe SSD via M.2 socket, bootable for […]

September 13, 2021September 13, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

BrakTooth vulnerabilities impact closed-source Bluetooth stacks used in chips from Espressif, Intel, Qualcomm…

BrakTooth is a family of new security vulnerabilities in commercial, closed-source Bluetooth Classic stacks that range from denial of service (DoS) via firmware crashes and deadlocks to arbitrary code execution (ACE) in certain IoT devices. A team from Singapore has discovered 16 new security vulnerabilities after evaluating 13 Bluetooth devices from 11 vendors, but after browsing through the list of certified Bluetooth devices with impacted processors, they estimate it could impact 1400 devices. We can see the list of BrakTooth-impacted SoCs include some familiar names like Intel AX200 (found in many laptops and computers through M.2 cards), Espressif Systems ESP32, Texas Instruments CC2564C, Qualcomm CSR8811/CSR8510, Bluetrum AB32VG1 board (based on AB5301A SoC) which I’ve just reviewed, and more… The good news is that most vendors have either already submitted a patch or working on it. Espressif, Infineon (previously Cypress), and Bluetrum already have released patchsets for their firmware. It’s really […]

May 12, 2021May 12, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

The Zigbee Alliance renames to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), Project CHIP becomes “Matter”

connectivity-standards association matter

The Zigbee Alliance is/was an organization of hundreds of companies creating, maintaining, and delivering open standards for Zigbee… and other Internet of Things (IoT) standards including Smart Energy, Green Power, JupiterMesh, rf4ce, Dotdot, etc… Since the organization does not reflect its involvement beyond Zigbee, the name has just been changed to the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), and while they were at it they also rebranded “Project CHIP” (Connected Home over IP) to “Matter”, maybe because “connectivity standards matter!” 😉 There’s also a new website csa-iot.org but it may not have complete information just yet, and they invite you to access the Full website (https://zigbeealliance.org/about/) for extra details. Nothing much has changed here besides the name. But there’s more to report about Matter. A dedicated website has launched for the new standard, although the code remains under the Project Chip GitHub account at this time. What’s more interesting is that formal […]

May 6, 2021May 11, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Z-Pi 7 Z-Wave gateway devkit works with Raspberry Pi and Orange Pi Zero boards

WiFi & Bluetooth are the most popular wireless protocols for home automation, alternatives like Zigbee and Z-wave have also been widely adopted, at least in some countries. And if you are interested in the latter, Aeotec has just introduced the Z-Pi 7 gateway development kit that lets you add Z-Wave connectivity to Raspberry Pi boards or Orange Pi Zero SBC with an expansion board connected over UART through the GPIO header. Aeotec Z-Pi 7 Z-Wave expansion board (ZWA025) specifications: Z-Wave connectivity Silicon Labs EFR32ZG14 Arm Cortex-M4 SoC @ 39 MHz with Series 700 and Gen7 technology Frequencies ZWA025-A: US Frequency 908.42 Mhz ZWA025-B: AU Frequency 921.42 Mhz ZWA025-C: EU frequency 868.42 Mhz TX Power – US: +9.3 dBm; EU: +4.8 dBm RX sensitivity – -97.5 dBm Range Indoor – US: 70+ meters; EU: up to 60 meters Outdoor – Up to 200 meters SmartStart native integration and S2 security. Z-Wave Plus Certified […]