Tasmota 8.2 Elliot supports Zigbee and Bluetooth accessories

Tasmota 8.2 Elliot, the firmware for hacking Itead Sonoff home automation modules, provides support for Zigbee (via a CC2530 module) and bluetooth via an HM10 or NRF24L01 module.

Small reminder for those who do not yet know this firmware. Tasmota is an Open Source firmware initially developed to hack modules from Chinese manufacturer Itead Sonoff since 2016 by Theo Arendst. Its goal was to provide ITEAD Sonoff devices based on ESP8266 / ESP8285 with MQTT firmware that can be updated wirelessly (Over the Air or OTA) using the Arduino IDE. Since then, the firmware has evolved and supports other home automation modules based on ESP8285, ESP8266. The ESP32 version is under development. Very complete documentation is available on GitHub at this page.

Tasmota 8.2 Elliot supports Zigbee (Zigbee2Tasmota)

Elliot is a major update to Tasmota that introduces several important new features. The most important is certainly the Zigbee support. Elliot allows you to create your own Zigbee to WiFi bridge by combining the Z-Stack firmware (GitHub project) installed on a Texas Instrument CC2530 receiver and the Tasmota firmware installed on ESP8266 / ESP8285.

Credit : PCB design for Z2T by h4nc

The principle is very similar to the Zigbee2MQTT project. You can use any ESP8266 module connected to a Texas Instrument Zigbee C2530 sniffer via a serial link.

Be careful to choose the Zigbee sniffer. The CC2531 (used by Zigbee2MQTT) only offers USB connectivity. The CC2540 is for Bluetooth.

Three methods to flash the Zigbee firmware on the CC2530 are available

Using CCLoader on an ESP8266 (Recommended Method)
CCLib for ESP8266, a project equivalent to CCLoader
Use the CC Debugger tool on a Windows PC (the method used for the Zigbee2MQTT project)

As Z2T uses a Zig.Bee UART module, the purchase of a CC Debugger programmer and GBAN cabling is not mandatory. We directly use the ESP8266 module for that! This is a substantial saving of around ten euros. All the steps are detailed in this article while waiting for the tutorial.

Zigbee2Tasmota has been tested with Zigbee Ebyte (E18-MS1-PCB and E18-MS1PA-PCB), Hexin (DL-20), WeBee (Z-002) and Asian Generic Modules (CC2530) coordinators. The list of home automation accessories available here is just impressive. It’s more or less the same hardware list as its Zigbee2MQTT counterpart.

To improve reception, preferably choose a module with an SMA or IPEX connector which will allow you to connect an amplified antenna if necessary. You will need to buy a 2.4GHz antenna (identical to the WiFi network)

With IPEX connector

With SMA connector

Jon Oxer from SuperHouse.tv posted a PCB suitable for the LoLin d1 mini. h4nc offers a PCB for NodeMCU boards. Remember to check that the PCB matches that of your CC2530 module before starting production.

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