SONOFF Dongle Max Zigbee/Thread PoE Dongle | Dongle-M

A big step forward in manageability and reliability

This device has been in service - and stable - for about three weeks, which may not seem long, but given the improvement it has made to the reliability of my network, I am confident enough to write this review. For much of the last year, my Zigbee network (of 45 devices, running with Zigbee2MQTT) had been failing regularly - losing contact with all devices - sometimes multiple times a day, rarely staying up for longer than about a week. (Unable to find a solution, I've implemented a workaround that monitors and restarts Zigbee2MQTT when multiple 'device offline' reports start arriving). Upgrading to the Dongle Max was to some extent a desperate, speculative measure, but it seems to have worked. Anyway, I could see the potential advantages: the ability to put the Dongle anywhere on my network, and the better manageability via the web interface. My Dongle Max replaces a ZBDongle-P, which in turn replaced a Conbee when my network troubles started. The instructions for switching Zigbee2MQTT from the ZBDongle-P to the Dongle Max worked perfectly, which was a very big plus too.

Mind the antennas

It's a nice dongle, my first. Easy to configure. The only thing to mention is that it has 2 antenna's: one for Wifi, and one for Zigbee/Thread. Note that those have to share the same antenna (multi-pan). I did expect the dongle to run both protocols, each on a separate antenna. Nevertheless, I'm happy with it.

Does it Matter? Not that well!

I was really hoping for an easy to use open thread border router for Matter. The web interface on the Dongle M is easy to use. Switching between firmwares is quite easy. Sadly I ended up turning a $5 esp32 c6 into an OTBR with Home Assistant and will likely just use the Dongle M as a PoE ZHA adapter since. I couldn't configure this as a Matter adapter in HA as none of the guides are relevant and work with the latest HA releases.