[REQUEST] EmberZNet NCP 7.1.x.x and 7.2.x.x Zigbee Coordinator firmware images for Elelabs EFR32 adapters?

[Hedda]

@NilsBohr Request Zigbee firmware as Silicon Labs EmberZNet 7.1.4.0 Zigbee NCP and EmberZNet 7.1.4.0 Zigbee NCP images:

Suggest that Elelabs consider providing publicly available "official" Alpha and/or Beta versions of Silicon Labs EmberZNet NCP 7.1.x.x and Silicon Labs EmberZNet NCP 7.2.x.x Zigbee Coordinator NCP firmware image builds for Elelabs EFR32 based 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), EZSP v10 (EmberZNet Serial Protocol version 10), and EZSP v11 (EmberZNet Serial Protocol version 11) interface revisions as well as upstream bug-fixes that come in newer versions of the SDK.

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

Gecko SDK (GSDK) Version 4.2.3.0 for Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.2.3.0

https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.2.3.0.pdf

Gecko SDK (GSDK) Version 4.1.4.0 for Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.1.4.0

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

Zigbee EmberZNet 7.1.4.0

• 2.4GHz Zigbee Smart Energy support for xG24
• 802.15.4 Signal Identifier and MAC CCA Mode 2 and 3 support for xG24
• Zigbee Green Power Gateway Backup
• Updated GCC and IAR compiler version
• Alpha Concurrent Multiprotocol Zigbee in NCP mode and Open-Thread in RCP mode
• Alpha Dynamic Multiprotocol Bluetooth and multi-PAN 802.15.4 in RCP mode
  Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.1.4.0

Zigbee EmberZNet 7.2.3.0

• Watchdog Refresh
• Dynamic Multiprotocol Zigbee-NCP + Bluetooth-NCP support is now available.
• Support is available for storing encryption keys securely on EFR32MG2x parts that support the Secure Vault-High feature.
• Zigbee Smart Energy Dual-Band 2.4GHz and Sub-GHz support for end-devices is now available on EFR32xG12 parts.
• Simultaneous Dual-PHY Smart Energy support is now available on EFR32xG24+Si4468 parts.

[Hedda]

FYI, depending on Zigbee application implementation the end-user use it will be important for end-users to know EmberZNet SDK 7.1.0 firmware added an update to EZSP v9 (EmberZNet Serial Protocol version 9) which might break some Zigbee application implementation if a user upgrades to so Silabs Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.1.0.0 NCP firmware before the Zigbee
application developers have added support for EZSP v9.

In general, the EZSP v9 protocol version largely remains the same as that of EZSP v8 protocol version, but I understand that there is a breaking change in some responses so that needs implementation to keep compatibility, (like adding sl_Status enum based on sl_Status.h from Silicon Labs Gecko SDK v4.1.0).

So for now would recommend that end-users do not flash the very latest EmberZNet 7.1.x firmware and instead use no higher than 7.0.x firmware unless they know that the developers of the Zigbee application implementation they use already added support for EZSP v9 protocol version. Again, that is only until EZSP adapter implementation is updated to support additions to EZSP v9.

Developers of Zigbee application implementation need to look at EZSP Reverence guide Rev 4.4 and 4.3 + EZSP Reference Guide for 7.0.0 with the changes from 6.10.x highlighted is here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20220401230237/https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug100-ezsp-reference-guide.pdf

and for 7.1.0 with the changes from 7.0.0 > 7.1.0 hightlighted is here (until the next version):

https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug100-ezsp-reference-guide.pdf

PS: From the related pull request for the bellows radio library in zigpy I gather that key new feature is adding sl_Status enum based on sl_Status.h from Gecko SDK v4.1.0 so developers of zigpy based Zigbee applications should see zigpy/bellows#462

[Hedda]

@NilsBohr EmberZNet 7.1.x firmware image build is requested by community developers to add/test EZSP v9 support, please see:

zigpy/bellows#462 (bellows library is used by zigpy based applications which include "Home Assistant ZHA integration", "Zigbee Plugin for Domoticz", and "Zigbee Plugin for Jeedom", as well as possibly other smaller projects).

Koenkk/zigbee-herdsman#319 (zigbee-herdsman is used by Zigbee2MQTT)

zsmartsystems/com.zsmartsystems.zigbee#1332 (com.zsmartsystems.zigbee is used by OpenHAB ZigBee Binding).

Note! EmberZNet 7.1.x firmware should not yet be recommended to end-users as most of the apps only support EZSP v8 as of yet.

[Hedda]

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

https://github.com/grobasoz/zigbee-firmware/tree/master/EFR32MG2x-768k

Related discussion -> xsp1989/zigbeeFirmware#29

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

Related discussion -> grobasoz/zigbee-firmware#28

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

[Hedda]

FYI, Silicon Labs has now also released Gecko SDK 4.2.0 with Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.2.0.0 GA:

https://github.com/SiliconLabs/gecko_sdk/releases/tag/v4.2.0

Any chance you could release some builds for zigpy and zigbee-herdsman developers to test?

This EmberZNet 7.2 looks to use EZSP v9 (EmberZNet Serial Protocol version 9) same as Zigbee EmberZNet 7.1 (or?)?

https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.2.0.0.pdf

New features are mostly related to Dynamic Multiprotocol and multi-PAN 802.15.4 in RCP mode:

• Secure key storage support for MG2x parts that support Secure Vault-High
• Dynamic Multiprotocol Bluetooth and multi-PAN 802.15.4 in RCP mode
• Dynamic Multiprotocol Zigbee-NCP + Bluetooth-NCP (experimental)
• Manufacturing Library (MfgLib) support for Concurrent Multiprotocol RCP
• Zigbee + OpenThread Concurrent Lis-tening on MG24 parts (experimental)
• Zigbee on Host (ZigbeeD) support for 32 bit and 64 bit x86 architecture (experimental)
• MGM240S SiP Module Support

They also added simultaneous Dual-Band and Dual-PHY for Zigbee Smart Energy on MG24/MG12:

• MG24+Si4468 Dual-PHY Zigbee Smart Energy support
• MG12 Dual-Band 2.4GHz + SubGHz Zigbee Smart Energy support

Deprecated in release 7.2.0.0:

• The Secure EZSP feature will be removed in a future release.

PS: Silicon Labs also released Gecko SDK (GSDK) Version 4.1.4.0 as a bug-fix release that contains Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.1.4.0:

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

[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 only large project that was lagging behind is OpenHAB but its dependency was at least updated to EZSP v11 this week:

• 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).

[Hedda]

FYI, Silabs Zigbee EmberZNet SDK 7.2.3.0 has now been released as part of Silicon Labs Gecko SDK (GSDK) Version 4.2.3.0

https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/release-notes/emberznet-release-notes-7.2.3.0.pdf

Silicon Labs Zigbee EmberZNet 7.2.3.0 release states that it is specifically targeting quality improvements and bug fixes.

https://github.com/SiliconLabs/gecko_sdk/releases/tag/v4.2.3