Well-known smart home accessory maker Sonoff released a new Zigbee and Thread dongle on Monday, featuring an upgraded chipset.
The company is behind some of the most popular dongles for open-source smart home platforms, and this new model, the Dongle Plus MG24, looks to build on the success of predecessors like the Sonoff Dongle-E. The new release is also strategic for Sonoff to keep expanding its product line for the open-source community and maker user base.
A new chip and a fresh design
After using the same design for years, Sonoff has finally given its new Dongle Plus a fresh look. The new model is tiny and sleek, solving a major issue where the previous bulky dongle would block adjacent USB ports. Considering many smart home host devices are compact, an oversized accessory could easily obstruct two or even four USB-A ports.
However, the new flat design may compromise thermal performance, as it lacks the metal-finned heat sink of the older models.
Compared to the previous Sonoff Dongle E, which used a Silicon Labs MG21 chip, the new model features a more powerful MG24. This new chip comes with significantly more on-chip resources – 1,536 kb of flash and 256 kb of RAM, up from 1,024 kb of flash and 96 kb of RAM on the MG21, according to Silicon Labs’ spec comparison. This makes the dongle more future-proof, as both Matter and Thread continue to evolve and demand more resources.
Like the MG21, the MG24 supports the multi-protocol feature, allowing it to run Zigbee and Thread simultaneously from a single dongle. This is a powerful and budget-friendly feature used in commercial products like the SmartThings Station. For Home Assistant users, this means you can use a single Sonoff Dongle Plus MG24 for both Zigbee2MQTT/ZHA and an OpenThread Border Router, albeit with a minor loss in performance. Sonoff suggested that MG24 can run this feature better than MG21 on Dongle E on the product page.
The firm also highlights the dongle’s durability, stating it can survive 100 firmware flashes, 500 plug/unplug cycles, liquid spray, and high and low temperatures. This makes it a better option for use in challenging environments like basements or sheltered outdoor areas.
The rotatable antenna has also been upgraded from 2 dBi to 3 dBi (with a max of 4.5 dBi) for better performance.
Similar to the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1, the Dongle Plus MG24 includes a USB extension cable to help reduce signal interference from USB 3.0 ports. Sonoff has also created an online tool that allows users to easily flash pre-built firmware, such as RCP firmware for OpenThread Border Routers or Zigbee router firmware.
You can use it with Home Assistant or other open-source projects. It’s also a good option if you host an OpenThread border router on a NAS or in a Dockerized home server.
Availability and upcoming models
The dongle is available now from the vendor’s online store, priced at $35.50. A 10% discount is available for a two-pack.
Another of the company’s MG24 dongles, Sonoff Dongle Max, which will offer power over Ethernet (PoE) support and additional device management features, is launching soon. Targeted at power users, it delivers an ultimate dongle solution for home integration with a web console, webhooks, AP hotspots, and pre-installed WireGuard, similar to its competitor Smlight SLZB-06.
(Source: Sonoff, Silicon Labs, Image Source: Sonoff)
