[NEW HARDWARE REQUEST] CC2674P (Texas Instruments CC2674P10 based) Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter?

[Hedda]

@Daniel-zhan-itead @liangjia2019 @guozi7788 can you please forward a hardware request to ITead/Sonoff product managers?

I would like to suggest that you look into making and selling an upgraded variant of your ITead's Sonoff ZBDongle-P (Zigbee Coordinator USB dongle adapter) that would instead be based on the new Texas Instruments CC2674P (CC2674P10) SoC chip:

https://www.ti.com/product/CC2674P10

https://www.ti.com/document-viewer/CC2674P10/datasheet

https://www.ti.com/document-viewer/lit/html/swra765

Be sure to check out the related community discussion here:

Koenkk/Z-Stack-firmware#476

I believe this CC2674P10 SoC should be pin-compatible with their previous CC2652P chips so I think in theory that you should be able to simply update your Sonoff ZBDongle-P relatively easily if you did not also want to add additional improvements to the board design.

Texas Instruments has released its CC2674P10 radio MCU SoC which is a direct upgrade replacement for its CC2652P SoC with larger flash storage, much more RAM and a faster CPU so it should be capable of handling many more Zigbee devices, and it in additional also on paper it offers improved reception and less noise sensitivity, as well as proper support for simultaneous multi-protocol (multi-PAN via RCP-mode).

Please keep the external antenna of the previous design as before, but highly recommend that you reconsider redesigning a new dongle for a such CC2674P USB adapter so that it is a little smaller and with a longer USB plug so that there are no issues connecting it to all types of computers since your old Sonoff ZBDongle-P (and Sonoff ZBDongle-E) are infamously known for having a too short USB plug so will not work without a USB extension cable in many cases if the computer has its USB ports sunken too deeply. It is also too wide plugging it in directly normally means that the users can not use other USB ports that are too close as the wide enclosure of the ZBDongle design blocks other ports.

Keep in mind the board still needs to have good electromagnetic shielding -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_shielding

Suggest that you call the updated variant "Sonoff ZBDongle-P Pro" or something similar to indicate that it is a more premium version, however do continue to sell your existing "Sonoff ZBDongle-P" and "Sonoff ZBDongle-E" dongles as sure people will still want those too.

PS: Also recommend you consider always shipping at least a 1-meter USB 2.0 extension cable with good shielding with this USB dongle in the same package as it really makes a night and day difference in noise from EMF interference, (which is why the Home Assistant SkyConnect USB dongles ships with a 0.5 meter long USB extension cable, though it has been proven to work better with an even longer extension cable).