Sonoff's Zigbee 3.0 Dongle Plus Offers Z-Stack, Home Assistant Compatibility for Under $10
Featuring a shielded aluminum case and an SMA connection with bundled antenna, Sonoff hopes this is all the Zigbee dongle you'll ever need.
Home automation specialist Sonoff is taking orders for a new, sub-$10 USB dongle designed for Zigbee communication — offering a shielded aluminum housing, SMA connector for high-gain external antenna, and a copy of the Z-Stack coordinator firmware pre-loaded.
"The Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle is a universal Zigbee USB stick," the company writes of its latest product, brought to our attention by CNX Software. "It can be used as a universal Zigbee gateway in Home Assistant or other open-source platforms via ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT to locally control all your Zigbee sub-devices, so you don't need to invest [in] Zigbee hubs for different brands - all you need is a universal gateway: Dongle Plus!"
Built around Texas Instruments' CC2652P chip pre-flashed with the Z-Stack 3.x.0 coordinator firmware, and with a CP2102N for USB-to-serial communication, the dongle includes an aluminum housing designed to reduce interference from nearby radio sources, a claimed +20dBm output gain, and an SMA connector for an external antenna. A physical DIP switch on the board allows hardware flow control to be enabled or disabled, and an unpopulated pin header provides access to the TCK, TMS, reset, and power pins.
Sonoff has priced the Dongle Plus at $10.99, though it's currently up for sale at a discounted $9.90 with bundled dipole antenna; an optional five-foot USB extension cable can be added to the order for $1.99, to allow for more flexibility in positioning.
The dongle's launch comes as Sonoff works to fund its NSPanel Smart Scene Wall Switch, a multi-functional smart home control panel built around a colour touchscreen display with two physical buttons. Launched earlier this week, the campaign has already easily surpassed its modest funding goal with nearly $165,000 raised at the time of writing.
More information, and a link to order, is available on the ITEAD web store, though the company notes that stock is limited and pre-orders placed after October 18 won't ship until late November.