silent flume
Silly question. If I bought a new thread-only (no WiFi radio) matter device that occasionally appeared on HomeKit as available to pair, would that mean that somewhere in my house there is a Thread router? I cannot get it to pair with IOS, HA, or Alexa.
Here is what HA Thread shows me.
obsidian heart
it's seeing an Amazon Echo but i don't know if those can be imported into Home Assistant
slim hull
Also note that Matter/Thread devices when in pairing mode will do Bluetooth (BLE) broadcasts so they can be discovered - those can be picked up even if you don't have a thread border router.
with the Echo as a thread border router, you should be able to pair with Alexa to get the device onto thread, and then share the device from Alexa to Home Assistant (and later remove Alexa if you want)
silent flume
So how do I figure out which Amazon device this is? The Echo Show 10 I have reports 1st gen, and only 3rd gen has thread (allegedly). I also have a 5th gen Echo Dot but again, allegedly has no Thread routing capacity
The c16d suffix does not appear in any of my device MAC addresses or serial numbers
I hear you on the Bluetooth btw - that’s what I suspected because it was in and out
I’m wondering if it’s too far away
But I don’t know which one to move haha
silent flume
Does distance actually matter?
slim hull
it does - thread is a very low power wireless network, and on a decent sized home it probably will need to be close to the border router, or you need to have other devices to build a mesh that can relay messages.
silent flume
Good news: I’ve ID’d which echo device it was and it’s only 10 feet away. I got it connected and working with Alexa
Bad News: I still can’t get it paired with the Aqara app… it’s an Aqara device for goodness sake
It’s paired over Bluetooth to Aqara app, but not matter
I have a G3 hub matter controller that the U100 lock is connected to, but I cannot do the same thing with this U300 Thread Only lock
It keeps asking me to add a matter controller for it
slim hull
huh, i guess they didn't ever add matter controller functionality to the G3. That's one of the features that the M3 has.
silent flume
slim hull
the G3 supports being a matter bridge - i.e. it can expose connected zigbee devices for an external matter controller to use.
silent flume
OH. THAT was my assumption/confusion
Sigh. That means I would have no choice than to buy their proprietary, $150 M3 hub right? For all the functionality
slim hull
which device is this?
slim hull
I don't think the Aqara hub on that device adds any functionality over connecting it directly to Home Assistant.
but not totally sure on that (HA's Matter integration is still beta, and it's possible some features might not yet be accessible)
Their FAQ says that the M3 hub only adds "automations, remote lock/unlock"
silent flume
I got it into HA and HK no problems - once it was in Alexa
slim hull
which you should be able to do with HA.
silent flume
Ok then. Guess I won’t be missing much
THANK YOU
haha
I now know the nuances between a Matter bridge and controller
and that the U100 and U300 architecture are very different from each other
slim hull
fwiw, the U300 is apparently being tested for "Works with Home Assistant" certification, and will probably get it - since the U200, which is a similar architecture matter over thread device, did.
silent flume
Huh ok. Would that give HA more features for the lock?
slim hull
no - all the certification says is that the device has been tested to be compatible with HA, supporting local network control, when connected directly to HA. (in the case of thread devices, using a thread border router from any vendor)
silent flume
Ok got it. Before you go - would I be able to remove this lock from Alexa now that it’s in HA Matter? Or would that break because Alexa is the only controller with Thread? I’d rather serve a lock from HA than directly from Alexa
slim hull
you can safely remove it from Alexa now. The only reason you had to add it to Alexa in the first place was so it could get the credentials for the Thread network.
silent flume
It seems I can’t control Passage Mode remotely without the M3 hub. I can locally with Bluetooth but that’s not helpful if I’m away
Still, I can just automate unlocks if needed
slim hull
ah, that's kind of annoying. hopefully that is a feature exposed via Matter on the lock - if it is, the feature might become available via a future home assistant update.
silent flume
i just moved my U100 across the house and it's now out of range of the G3 hub. the U100 is a zigbee device with matter protocol, right? would adding additional zigbee devices to the rooms between these two things put it back in range (mesh)?