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June 11, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - No Comments

SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra Review – eWelink app, Matter Bridge, Turbo Mode for extended range, and Home Assistant

We have received two more Zigbee smart home products from ITEAD to review. It appears that SONOFF has strategically introduced a variety of Zigbee devices in the first half of this year. The first one we will be reviewing is the SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra, which we believe will eventually replace the Zigbee Bridge (2020) and Zigbee Bridge Pro (2022) and comes with additional features, such as being a Matter Bridge. The second device we’ve received is the SONOFF Micro Zigbee USB Adapter for which we’ll post a review in the next few days, But first, let’s dive into the SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra review. Overview SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra (Ultra for short and also called SONOFF ZBBridge-U) is a multi-functional device. Compared to its predecessor, the Zigbee Bridge Pro, the Ultra shows big improvements in features and hardware specs. It boasts a much more powerful chip (Rockship RV1109 vs. […]

May 24, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 11 Comments

SONOFF SwitchMan M5 Matter Review – A Matter Smart Wall Switch tested with eWelink, Apple Home, and Home Assistant

Review SONOFF SwitchMan Smart Wall Switch M5 Matter

We received the latest Smart Wall Switch from SONOFF, called the SwitchMan Smart Wall Switch-M5 Matter, which we will refer to in short as M5 Matter. This model supports Matter (over WiFi) and is very similar to its predecessor, the SwitchMan Smart Wall Switch-M5, with the addition of Matter. The M5 Matter provides an alternative option for easy integration with other Smart Home platforms that support Matter. This device is the second one from SONOFF to support Matter, we already reviewed the first Matter device, the SONOFF MiniR4M at the end of last year. Matter, developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), is supported by major companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, LG, and Samsung, as well as other smaller companies. It could be a boon for Smart Home enthusiasts seeking a universal communication standard between devices, offering more choices, less complexity, and potentially lower costs. Let’s take a closer […]

May 17, 2024May 17, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra (ZBBridge-U) Zigbee 3.0 gateway and Matter Bridge supports up to 256 sub-devices

SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra, also known as ZBBridge-U, is a Zigbee 3.0 gateway and Matter Bridge powered by a 1.5 GHz Rockchip RV1109 dual-core processor and equipped with Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 multiprotocol SoC. The gateway also offers WiFi and Ethernet connectivity and supports up to 256 Zigbee 3.0 sub-devices improving on the 128 sub-devices supported by the earlier SONOFF ZBBridge-P (ESP32+CC2652P) that also lacks Matter support. The new ZBBridge-U gateway further implements a Turbo mode increasing the line-of-sight range to up to 200 meters. SONOFF Zigbee Bridge Ultra (ZBBridge-U) specifications: SoC – Rockchip RV1109 dual-core Arm Cortex-A7 @ 1.5 GHz with RISC-V MCU @ 400 MHz, 2D graphics engine, 1.2 TOPS NPU, 5MP H.264 and H.265 hardware video decoder and encoder System Memory – 1GB DDR4 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash for the OS Connectivity 10/100M Ethernet RJ45 port 2.4GHz WiFi 4 Zigbee 3.0 via Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 SoC with […]

May 10, 2024May 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

SONOFF ZBMicro Zigbee USB smart adapter adds any USB device to your Smart Home setup

SONOFF Micro Zibgee USB Smart adapter, or SONOFF ZBMicro for shorts, is a Zigbee 3.0 USB adaptor to remotely control USB devices via your smartphone app or home automation solution based on Home Assistant or other solution to turn on/off the device, set timers to control charging times, configure smart scenes, or control with voice commands. The new home automation device from ITEAD is based on a Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 multiprotocol SoC, works with the usual eWelink app, as well as Home Assitant and OpenHAB open-source solutions when the server is fitted with a compatible Zigbee 3.0 USB dongle SONOFF ZBMicro specifications: Wireless MCU – Silicon Labs EFR32MG21 MCU core – Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller @ 80 MHz Memory – 96KB SRAM Storage – 352KB flash, 1024KB ROM for protocols and library functions Wireless – Zigbee 3.0 USB – USB 2.0 Type-A port Misc User Button – single press: Turn on/off […]

April 29, 2024April 30, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 5 Comments

Review of SONOFF SNZB-06P human presence and SNZB-04P door/window Zigbee sensors

SONOFF has been gradually refreshing its Zigbee product lineup since August 2023, and CNX has recently written about the Temperature/Humidity Sensor (SNZB-01P), Switch/Button (SNZB-02P) and Motion Sensor (SNZB-03P), and the SONOFF SNZB-06P human presence sensor. I’ve now had the opportunity to review both the SONOFF SNZB-06P and the new Door/Window Sensor (SNZB-04P). After we keep trying them out for a few weeks, we think reliability is much improved, especially with the Door/Window Sensor, the materials made as well as the appearance look better than the previous models. As for the Human Presence Sensor, it’s the first generation, which is quite impressive considering its price and features. Let’s take a closer look. Door/Window Sensor (SNZB-04P) review Unboxing Obviously, the rounded design differs from the previous rectangular version. It integrates better with the surroundings than the previous model. Additionally, the lithium battery capacity is larger (CR2450 @550mA vs. CR2477 @1000mA), resulting in […]

March 20, 2024March 19, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 6 Comments

SONOFF POW Ring Review – A WiFi CT Clamp power meter tested with eWelink and Home Assistant

The trend of measuring the energy usage of household electrical devices has become increasingly popular among Smart Home users in the past few years. We have received the new SONOFF POW Ring Smart Power Meter Switch device for review from ITEAD. Unlike SONOFF’s existing energy monitoring devices such as POW Elite, SPM, DualR3, POW3, and POW Origin, this new device, also called POWCT, utilizes a current transformer (CT) to measure the current flow, or total power being consumed. This method provides no physical contact with live wires and reduces the risk during installation. Additionally, it can measure currents of up to 100A, which is significantly higher than previous models. This makes it suitable for measuring electricity usage at the main circuit breaker, energy generated from solar panels, or even for Electric Vehicle (EV) home chargers. The SONOFF POW Ring, which we are testing today, is not only a Smart Power […]

March 14, 2024March 14, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

$35 SONOFF POW ring smart power meter (POWCT) safely supports up to 100A

SONOFF POW Ring smart power meter is the first CT clamp-based WiFi power meter from ITEAD. It is designed for installation in an electric cabinet to measure whole-house power consumption with up to 100A current. The power meter relies on an ESP32 microcontroller for control and wireless connectivity with a range of up to 130 meters thanks to an external high-gain antenna. It is supported by the usual eWelink mobile app that also enables integration with Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and IFTTT services, and ITEAD also mentions integration with the Home Assistant open-source framework. SONOFF POW Ring (POWCT) specifications: MCU – ESP32 WiFi and Bluetooth microcontroller Connectivity – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 (802.11b/g/n) with SMA antenna connector for an external antenna to be placed outside of the electrical cabinet Current transformer (CT) interface type – RJ9 Current transformer detection range – 0 to 100A Measurement category – CAT II 0-100A […]

March 11, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linux 6.8 release – Notable changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.8 on the Linux kernel mailing list: So it took a bit longer for the commit counts to come down this release than I tend to prefer, but a lot of that seemed to be about various selftest updates (networking in particular) rather than any actual real sign of problems. And the last two weeks have been pretty quiet, so I feel there’s no real reason to delay 6.8. We always have some straggling work, and we’ll end up having some of it pushed to stable rather than hold up the new code. Nothing worrisome enough to keep the regular release schedule from happening. As usual, the shortlog below is just for the last week since rc7, the overall changes in 6.8 are obviously much much bigger. This is not the historically big release that 6.7 was – we seem to […]