#Zigbee: Xiaomi Sensors using Raspberry Pi (without Gateway!)

This tutorial allows you to connect Xiaomi (or Aqara) sensors (e.g. door, pir, temperature, water, switch) to a Raspberry Pi or similar system without using any Xiaomi Gateway.

This is what I will try to accomplish in this tutorial:

1. Flash the USB-Zigbee Dongle with the correct FW
2. Install a broker to connect to the sensors
3. Configure the sensors using the broker

Hardware

Xiaomi sensors use Zigbee for the connection which means we need some extra components to connect to them. This is the list of needed hardware:

Software

We need to flash the CC2531 of the Wireless Zigbee USB-Dongle. That's why we need the SmartRF04EB or a TI CC-Debugger and the debugger cable. You need the last two components only one time in order to flash the Zigbee dongle.

To flash the Wireless Zigbee CC2531 you need the following software and drivers:

To download the SmartRF Flash Programmer, you need to register to Texas Instrument. It's free and it's very simple. If you don't want to register, you can surely find the tool on the Internet, but be aware of virus or/and malware.

Flashing the Zigbee Dongle

1. Connect the SmartRF04EB to the Zigbee dongle as described in Fig. 1. Check that the cable is not twisted. On debugger side, the nose of the connector should be pointing out of the debugger. On the dongle side, the nose should be pointing to the inside of the debugger.
2. Connect only the debugger to your PC (you do not need to connect the Zigbee dongle) and open the (SmartRF) Flash Programmer.
3. You should see something like Fig. 2: On the System-on-Chip, the SmartRF04EB should be listed.
4. If the SmartRF04EB is not listed:
   • Try to reset the SmartRF04EB by pressing its reset button.
   • Or, check under Device Manager (Windows + Pause > Device Manager) if the SmartRF04EB is correctly install. It should look like Fig. 3.
     • If you see a ? mark over the device, you should decompress the downloaded Cebal driver file, and let Windows search for the drivers under the win_64bit_x64 folder. After that, open the (SmartRF) Flash Programmer again and reset the SmartRF04EB using its reset button.
5. If the SmartRF04EB is listed, the image that you need to flash is located inside the downloaded Z-Stack-firmware-master.zip file inside the ZIP file under coordinator/Z-Stack_Home_1.2/bin/default/CC2531_DEFAULT_yyyymmdd.zip.
   • Extract the CC2531ZNP-Prod.hex file.
   • Use the Flash image: locator of the (SmartRF) Flash Programmer to select that extracted file.
   • Press the Perform actions button and wait until you get CC2531 - ID0050: Erase, program and verify OK.

After flashing the Dongle, you are ready to connect the Zigbee sensors to your Raspberry Pi. Then, connect the Zigbee dongle to the Raspberry Pi, and follow the next steps.

Fig. 1: SmartRF04EB adapter board connected to the Zigbee dongle.

Fig. 2: Flashing the Zigbee dongle using (SmartRF) Flash Programmer.

Fig. 3: Device Manager - SmartRF04EB correctly installed.

Zigbee & Raspberry Pi

I found at least two ways to integrate the Zigbee sensors to the Raspberry Pi.

ioBroker

(GitHub)

This runs on Node.js v8.x, then you need to install it first. If you've already installed another version you can remove it using the following:

sudo apt-get --purge remove node
sudo apt-get --purge remove nodejs

and then, install it with this:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev libudev-dev libpam0g-dev nodejs
sudo reboot

Then, install ioBroker typing the following:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ioBroker/ioBroker/stable-installer/installer.sh | sudo bash -

After installing it, you can access its interface using a browser and pointing to http://<<ip-raspberry-pi>>:8081. It also uses the port 9000 for internal communication, which should not be used, otherwise it is not going to run.

After installing ioBroker, you need to configure the interface to add the ZigBee adapter.

1. Go to http://<<ip-raspberry-pi>>:8081.
2. Go to Adapters (on the left side) and search for the Zigbee adapter plugin and install it (see Fig. 4).
3. After installing it, go to Instances (on the left side) and you should have something like Fig. 5. The Zigbee adapter is installed, but it is not running yet (circle yellow).
4. Go to a terminal and type the following ls -la /dev/serial/by-id/ you are going to get something like this

   pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ls -l /dev/serial/by-id
   total 0
   lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Dec 16 23:17 usb-Texas_Instruments_TI_CC2531_USB_CDC___0X00124B0018E1A598-if00 -> ../../ttyACM0

5. Click on zigbee.0 and go to the Settings Tab, and on the COM port name field, type the following:/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Texas_Instruments_TI_CC2531_USB_CDC___0X00124B0018E1A598-if00 (check Fig. 6).
6. Click on Save and Close, and the circle should be now green.
7. Now, you can pair your devices. To do that, click again on zigbee.0 and then on the green on the right side. A windows with a countdown should open.
8. Press the reset button of your Zigbee device with a 2 seconds tact. The pairing should be announced on the opened window.
9. More info about ioBroker can be found on its documentation.

Fig. 4: Zigbee adapter installation.

Fig. 5: ioBroker running instances.

Fig. 6: Zigbee adapter settings.

Fig. 7: Zigbee paring devices.

Zigbee2mqtt

(GitHub) This tool connects to the Zigbee Dongle to pair with the Xiaomi sensors. Every time a sensor sends a signal, this tool publishes a MQTT topic to the broker. You can combine this tool with Home-Assistant or Domoticz. The documentation helps you to configure this feature.

1. To install the tool, simple clone the repository and install it using npm typing the following

   # Setup Node.js repository
   sudo curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
   
   # Install Node.js
   sudo apt-get install -y nodejs git make g++ gcc
   
   # Verify that the correct nodejs and npm (automatically installed with nodejs)
   # version has been installed
   node --version  # Should output v10.X
   npm --version  # Should output 6.X
   
   # Clone zigbee2mqtt repository
   sudo git clone https://github.com/Koenkk/zigbee2mqtt.git /opt/zigbee2mqtt
   sudo chown -R pi:pi /opt/zigbee2mqtt
   
   # Install dependencies
   cd /opt/zigbee2mqtt
   npm install

2. Now that you have setup everything correctly you can start zigbee2mqtt.

   cd /opt/zigbee2mqtt
   npm start

3. To run zigbee2mqtt as daemon and start it automatically on boot we will run Zigbee2mqtt with systemctl.

   # Create a systemctl configuration file for zigbee2mqtt
   sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/zigbee2mqtt.service

   Add the following to this file:

   [Unit]
   Description=zigbee2mqtt
   After=network.target
   
   [Service]
   ExecStart=/usr/bin/npm start
   WorkingDirectory=/opt/zigbee2mqtt
   StandardOutput=inherit
   StandardError=inherit
   Restart=always
   User=pi
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target

   Save the file and exit. Verify that the configuration works:

   # Start zigbee2mqtt
   sudo systemctl start zigbee2mqtt
   
   # Show status
   systemctl status zigbee2mqtt.service

   Enable the service typing:

   sudo systemctl enable zigbee2mqtt.service

4. Do not forget that zigbee2mqtt requires a MQTT Broker!
5. For pairing devices follow this link.

Conclusion

This post allows you to connect Xiaomi sensors to a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian. To do that, you need to flash first a Zigbee dongle using a CC Debugger and the Texas Instrument software. The connected sensors can be added to Home-Assistant or Domoticz in order to control and monitor your home. This option works without any need of installing or configuring the Xiaomi cloud, nor the Xiaomi application on the smartphone. As I mentioned, check this article: #Raspberry Pi: Xiaomi Sensors & Home Assistant (Hass.io) to integrate the sensors to Hass.io.