SmartThings Hub as Thread Border Router?

[weak sand]

Hm just plugged in the Smartthings hub and updated it

I see the Matter logo in the smartthings app which makes me pretty confident that I’m on the latest version

Buuuut when I try to start the Thread integration, it just shows an empty dialog

Maybe it’s because the SmartThings hub doesn’t create a Thread network until the first device is added?

[jaunty path]

The thread integration in HA in 2023.2 is non functional

It’s a stub integration, the devs have been building it this month

[granite python]

@weak sand if you run a multicast-dns browser you can see if the smartthings hub is advertising a thread border router. but i think a lot of these products are currently "we're doing thread but we're not gonna shout about it until some actual real-world debug is done"

dns-sd -B _meshcop._udp local seems to show any devices I have that are being thread border routers

[weak sand]

Nice I’ll give that a try!

I also saw that the new HA doc’s mention that you can blend together your thread networks if you give them the same credentials…

any idea how that works in practice if you have like an Apple TV, Nest Hub Max, Echo, SmartThings? I don’t really see options to configure the thread network settings

[granite python]

Nope. I think we’ll only figure that stuff out when people have actual thread/matter devices and alllll this interop gets ironed out

[weak sand]

Haha sounds like we’re in for a fun time

[weak sand]

Awesome, dns-sd -B _meshcop._udp local pops up my SmartThings hub

[granite python]

Just found this doing some digging about something else, but if you have a special entitlement on iOS, you get to ask what the thread credentials are... so in time, the companion app could ask what the homekit provisioned thread is... https://developer.apple.com/documentation/threadnetwork/

[jaunty path]

exactly this. the next release of HA will add a thread network store to the thread integration so the companion apps will be able to sync these to HA

[swift juniper]

wait soo, is it possible to use my smartthings hub as a thread border router and forgo buying something separate

[granite python]

I think it will probably be possible, that's the whole promise of Matter/Thread - but until we've got actual devices around to test, and we've seen how the reality matches the promise, it'll remain at 'probably'

[weak sand]

I’m on the 2023.3.b1 and can’t seem to get my SmartThings thread network shown by the HA Thread integration…

dns-sd does show it though

Do I need OTBR + skyconnect for it to get detected?

[weak sand]

Just for folks following along, turns out I didn’t need to go to Add Integration -> Thread.

Smart things hub is showing up in Integrations -> Thread under “Other Networks”

Doesn’t look like I have a way to add the network credentials to HA or iOS yet, but they’re visible in the SmartThings app: https://www.reddit.com/r/SmartThings/comments/y928ma/thread_enabled/

here’s a thread to follow for being able to manually add thread creds to HA #thread-archived message