Possible to use Silicon Labs Flasher Add-on for ZB-GW03?

[ElVit]

Hi,

I don't know if this question was already asked, but I didn't found it here. Is it possible to use a Silicon Labs Flasher Add-on to flash ZB-GW03?

As far as I know there are 3 Add-ons available:

1. Official Silicon Labs Flasher
2. TubesZB Silicon Labs FW Flasher
3. ZigStar Silicon Labs FW Flasher

Option 1 will probably not work because as far as I can see it supports only usb devices. Option 2 and 3 are quite similar. Both supporting also network devices.

All 3 options requiring a GBL file. But if I understand it correct (from the other issues here) an OTA file is actually the same as a GBL file, with the only difference being that the OTA file is signed.

I use the ZB-GW03 with ESPHome. Setup was made with the flashing instructions from syssi:

• https://github.com/syssi/esphome-zb-gw03/blob/main/docs/flashing.md

If I start flashing with the ZigStar addon I see the follwing output:

[14:11:09] INFO: Starting universal-silabs-flasher with socket://192.168.178.25:6638 (bootloader baudrate 115200)
2025-03-03 14:11:12 193f5383-zigstar-silabs-flasher universal_silabs_flasher.flasher[148] INFO Probing ApplicationType.GECKO_BOOTLOADER at 115200 baud
2025-03-03 14:11:12 193f5383-zigstar-silabs-flasher universal_silabs_flasher.flasher[148] WARNING No application can be launched
2025-03-03 14:11:12 193f5383-zigstar-silabs-flasher universal_silabs_flasher.flasher[148] INFO Detected bootloader version '1.9.1.4'
2025-03-03 14:11:12 193f5383-zigstar-silabs-flasher universal_silabs_flasher.flasher[148] INFO Detected ApplicationType.GECKO_BOOTLOADER, version '1.9.1.4' at 115200 baudrate (bootloader baudrate 115200)
firmware.gbl

Then nothing is happening anymore. Can you tell me if it is simply not possible to flash an OTA file this way? Or am I doing something wrong?

[xsp1989]

ZB-GW03 can only use signed firmware, unless you use jlink V9 to refresh the bootloader

[ElVit]

If I follow the instruction of syssi (see my comment above) I can flash the ota file (ncp-uart-sw_7.4.3.0_115200.ota) from your repo successfully. So do I understand you correct that it is simply not possible with the add-on?

Syssi's manual is using the tool lrzsz which uses the XMODEM protocol to flash the zigbee module. The addons using the NabuCasa's Universal Silicon Labs Flasher which is also using the XMODEM protocol. I'm not familiar with the XMODEM protocol, but shouldn't the flash process be similar if they use the same protocol?

[xsp1989]

The ZB-GW03 bootloader has been slightly modified, I don't know if it is compatible with other flash tools, but it does use the xmodel protocol, which has not been modified. But in any case, only the signed firmware I released can be used.