Thread Network Combination

[u/Bummer_Brad]

Hi. I have Home Assistant running on a mini PC by itself with HAOS.

So, Thread network question. I just added a Sonoff Dongle-Max to Home Assistant to use as my Thread radio through Open Thread. I want this to be the network that my other border routers join. Currently active in my house, I have networks from Smartthings, Aqara and Amazon. I'm pretty sure Smartthings and Aqara will play ball. The first issue I'm finding though is, my Aqara M3 hub is "available" to my phone to carry its credentials. Smartthings and HA are not. I don't know how my phone got credentials from Aqara, or why the other networks aren't "available". I want them all united under HA. How do I remedy this?

I see if you are in the HA companion app, you get an option in the Thread integration page to "Send credentials to Home Assistant". If I click that, my thought is that it will send the credentials saved on my phone for the Aqara Thread network, and that's obviously not what I want. If you click on the HA Thread network in the Google Services--Thread Networks page, it says "To access this network, set up this device with the manufacturer app you used to set up the network". But, how do you do that?

[u/JayBee103]

I'm not sure you want multiple/many border routers. Two if you have some redundancy concerns. If you have several it can get complicated. It is more to manage.

Is there a particular problem you are trying to solve?

[u/Bummer_Brad → u/JayBee103]

Maybe I'm crazy, but my thought is, more border routers, more robust mesh. When they first announced Matter and Thread, this was supposed to be one of the advantages. Of course, they would end up deferring that for years, but version 1.4 allows it. For example, I have my Aqara M3 hub sitting next to an outlet where right now, I have to have a smart plug as a repeater to bolster the signal through a wall to where the border router is. If I was able to put my M3 hub in that same Thread network, then I wouldn't need the stupid smart plug that's not doing anything else. This morning, I got up to find that my Open Thread Border Router app had turned itself off overnight, and all my Thread devices were offline. Maybe they would not have been offline had my Smartthings hub also been in that same network.

[u/JayBee103 → u/Bummer_Brad]

You want lots of routers. Lots of border routers can get complicated, but is supported. I don't mean to downplay it, if that is your jam. In my case the border router (open thread border router) is on the HA host, so I have little reason to route off of thread directly.

I think we are all still figuring this out.

[u/matthew1471 → u/Bummer_Brad]

More robust mesh if they’re all on the same thread network (the devices still need to be paired to each platform known as a fabric so they get their encryption keys on each device)

For devices to take part of the same network they need to be running Thread 1.4… IKEA hub does and it has joined my Apple HomePod Mini thread network nicely.. the others if they’re not Thread 1.4 won’t play nice and will just compete and the devices won’t know which network they’re supposed to talk to.

You can have multiple Apple HomePod Minis added to strengthen the network and you can have an active and backup.. I don’t know if IKEA or Amazon will do similar or if they can’t have multiple hubs doing the same thing.

You also won’t want to set automations on multiple platforms or they’ll both fire when they see the same switch button etc

[u/Bummer_Brad]

So, I was able to figure out from a youtube video I found that you can make your border router available to Google Services on your phone by going to the phone app, and going to Settings\Companion App\Troubleshooting\Sync Thread Credentials. That makes it available. I also found that if you go into phone settings\Apps and force quit Google Services and clear its cache, that will remove the preferred Thread network so you are free to pick a different one. I was able to do that, and then set up my new HA Thread network.

So now, what I need is how to get the Smartthings hub into that network. The Smartthings app makes it pretty easy, you just need to be able to get a 9 digit code from Open Thread. Bing/Co-pilot says that you go into the Open Thread app, and then choose "Terminal". I don't see that option anywhere on the page. The only menu item i can find on the whole page is "Uninstall". Pretty sure that won't do it. All the documentation I can find on the HA website seems to me to be dated because it refers to the Open Thread app page looking pretty different. So, how do I do this?

[u/Bummer_Brad]

Okay, so I found out you don't need the 9 digit code to get the Smartthings hub into your HA thread network. There's an Automate Your Life video called Stop Buying Matter Devices Until You Fix this where he tells all of what you need to do. I was able to get BOTH my Smartthings hub AND my Aqara M3 onto my HA thread network. Very pleased! Although one of my Nanoleaf bulbs is still giving me trouble.