J'ai changé de coordinateur Zigbee/Thread, et il est trop BEAU ! (SMLight MR1-U)

<section class="review-transcript"> <p><strong>Yes — I changed my Zigbee coordinator.</strong> Today I’ll explain why I did it, what I switched to, and whether migrating all my devices was easy. <strong>Spoiler: yes.</strong></p> <p>Hello everyone, this is EmerC and welcome back. Until now, I was still using an older Sonoff Zigbee USB dongle (the ZBDongle-E). It worked fairly well, but I became less convinced over time.</p> <p>First, the antenna is quite small compared to what’s available today. Second, it was plugged into my rack and stuck out noticeably — not very clean or optimized.</p> <p>Another reason: more and more brands are pushing new Matter/Thread products (for example IKEA’s newer range). I wanted to bring Thread into my smart home more seriously. Until now I only had a small amount of Matter-over-Thread, and it was going through Alexa. That worked, but I didn’t want to overload Alexa if I add many more Thread devices.</p> <p>So I switched to the <strong>SLZB-MR1U</strong> from <strong>SMLIGHT</strong>.</p> <p>This is a coordinator similar to SMLIGHT devices I’ve shown before, but here you get <strong>two antennas</strong>. That means you can run <strong>Zigbee</strong> and <strong>Thread</strong> on the same device — which is really cool.</p> <p>Powering it is flexible: you can use USB power and then connect via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, or you can connect it directly by Ethernet with <strong>PoE</strong>, which powers the device automatically. That’s what I did because I already have a PoE switch in my office. One cable for power and network — it’s perfect.</p> <p>Once connected, the device appears on your network. You can access it via its IP address, or via the device hostname. In my case it was <code>slzb-mr1u</code>. It hosts a small web server, and through the web interface you can manage a lot: configure both radios independently, enable/disable Wi-Fi, and more.</p> <p>The biggest advantage for me is that you don’t have to keep the coordinator next to your smart home box. You can place it somewhere strategic in the home — ideally more central — instead of hiding it inside a cabinet or behind a TV. Zigbee2MQTT connects to it over the network rather than via USB, but otherwise everything works the same.</p> <p>If you search online, you’ll notice there are many SMLIGHT models (MR1, MR2, MR3, MR4, etc.). This is mainly because new versions are released when new chips become available. In general, there are two chip families: <strong>EFR32</strong> (Silicon Labs) and <strong>CC</strong> (Texas Instruments). You can choose newer chips or older well-tested ones depending on your preference.</p> <p>The “U” in MR1U is important: it means you can add a <strong>third protocol</strong> using the USB port, by plugging in an additional dongle. In other words, you could run Zigbee + Thread and still add another protocol later if needed (on top of built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth).</p> <p>Overall, this feels like the core of the smart home: Zigbee, Thread, potentially Bluetooth, and even something like Z-Wave later by adding a USB coordinator. It’s designed to be expandable.</p> <p>Configuration is extremely simple. In the interface, you choose which chip handles Zigbee and which handles Thread. I put Zigbee on the EFR32 chip because my old Sonoff dongle was also EFR32, which makes migration easier. I put Thread on the CC chip. In theory both combinations can work, but I recommend choosing the option that matches your previous coordinator for an easier migration.</p> <p>For Zigbee2MQTT configuration, the device provides the address, port, and adapter details. One important note: it may still suggest the older ZSP option, which is deprecated. I recommend updating the device and switching to a newer approach.</p> <p>Also, the interface may suggest using a hostname like <code>slzb-mr1u.local</code>. I recommend using the fixed IP address instead, especially if you have a static IP, because it avoids potential issues later.</p> <p>For Thread, it’s also simple: install the OpenThread Border Router add-on in Home Assistant, enter the same IP address with the Thread port, and Home Assistant will add the device to your Thread network.</p> <p>Now, the biggest concern with switching coordinators is usually re-pairing everything. I have a lot of devices (around 70), so that sounded painful — but in reality it took almost no time thanks to a technique shared by the community.</p> <p>If you already use Zigbee2MQTT, the key is: stop Zigbee2MQTT, go into the configuration, and change the serial connection from your USB dongle to the network adapter URL/IP of the SMLIGHT device. Then restart Zigbee2MQTT. That’s it.</p> <p>It can take some time for the network to stabilize as devices reconnect. In my case, only a few devices didn’t come back automatically and had to be re-paired. But the majority restored themselves, which is fantastic.</p> <p>This generally works best if you stay on the same chip family (for example EFR32 to EFR32), which is what I did.</p> <p>Overall, I’m a big fan of these SMLIGHT dongles. I previously used another one as a router, but now I’m using this one as my main coordinator. I expect strong performance because the antenna is much larger than the small USB stick antennas.</p> <p>The only minor negative: with two antennas it looks a bit “geeky” and not very pretty. To fix that, I’m designing and 3D-printing a decorative cover. If people are interested, I’ll likely upload the file later.</p> <p>Thanks to Domadoo for sending the product — links are in the description. And with Thread becoming more relevant (especially with new devices like IKEA’s), this is a great time to upgrade.</p> <p>Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and comment. Thanks to everyone in the Discord community — and see you next time!</p> </section>