ETH-MG21 / ETH-MG24
ETH-MG21 and ETH-MG24 are Ethernet gateways with a Silicon Labs EFR32 chip and an ESP32-V3 host. Reach Home Assistant over Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or USB. The stack is EmberZNet (EZSP). Newer Zigbee2MQTT uses adapter: ember and tcp://dongle.local:6638 on the network. ZHA uses socket://dongle.local:6638. Setup: Zigbee2MQTT with an Inswift coordinator and Add a coordinator with ZHA. Host firmware: Flash ETH dongle firmware. To copy IEEE from another Silabs coordinator: ETH-MG web change IEEE (coordinator migration).
Firmware
| Firmware | MG21 | MG24 |
|---|---|---|
| Zigbee coordinator | Yes | Yes |
| Zigbee router | Yes | Yes |
| Thread | Yes | Yes |
| MultiPAN (Zigbee + Thread together) | No | Yes |
Matter over Thread uses the Thread image; pick MG24 if you need Zigbee and Thread together.
Silicon
Chip comparison:
| Item | EFR32MG21 | EFR32MG24 |
|---|---|---|
| Core | ARM Cortex-M33, up to 80 MHz | ARM Cortex-M33, up to 78 MHz |
| Flash | up to 1024 kB | up to 1536 kB |
| RAM | up to 96 kB | up to 256 kB |
| Radio | 2.4 GHz, TX up to about 20 dBm | 2.4 GHz, TX up to about 19.5 dBm |
MG24 has clearly more flash and RAM, which helps larger meshes and MultiPAN.
Which to pick
- ETH-MG21: everyday Zigbee, or Thread on its own
- ETH-MG24: more memory headroom, or MultiPAN (Zigbee + Thread together)
Power
These models are powered from USB or an adapter. For power over the Ethernet cable, see ETH-MG21 POE / ETH-MG24 POE.