Thread - You don't have a preferred network yet | Home Assistant | Page 1

magic topaz Mar 3, 2025, 3:54 PM

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I'm trying to set up a thread/matter network for the first time, and it's not quite working. I've installed the matter server via a docker image, HA seems to detect it just fine.
I've installed the OpenThread Border Router along with the OpenThread RCP on an ESP32-C6 dev board. That also seems to be running ok, it's communicating with the RCP.

When I go to homeassistant, it detected the Thread integration automatically, but when I go to configure it, there's no preferred network set. The guide seems to indicate that it'd either automatically be set as such, or there'd be an "Add an OpenThread border router" button.

I tried to form a new thread network from the border router webUI - That seems to have worked, the name TheThreadNetwork that I assigned is visible when homeassistant detects the router, but it didn't change anything.

My guess is it's something to do with the border router's REST interface? I could add the OpenThread Border Router integration, but I haven't managed to make that work - The REST api should be on port 8081, but that won't connect. As far as I can tell with netstat, otbr-agent isn't listening on any tcp ports.

Attempting to send credentials in the HA app gives me the message "You don't have any credentials to import".

What am I missing?

fierce pond Mar 3, 2025, 11:39 PM

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I have no idea what's missing here - you'll probably have to be more specific of exactly which code (what repo/commit) you build the esp otbr from.

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I'm using a similar setup using the code from https://github.com/espressif/esp-thread-br/ and that implements enough of the otbr web api for home assistant to be able to talk to it and get the thread credentials.

magic topaz Mar 4, 2025, 5:54 AM

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Ah, sorry I guess I wasn't clear with my system layout - The border router is OTBR running on linux, the thing described here - https://openthread.io/guides/border-router. It's just the radio co-processor that's on the ESP32.

I figured it out! The REST interface wasn't enabled during compilation of OTBR. These are the commands I used to install OTBR:
WEB_GUI=1 REST_API=1 ./script/bootstrap
INFRA_IF_NAME=enp8s0 WEB_GUI=1 REST_API=1 ./script/setup # Make sure interface is correct
(I had the same problem where the web gui wasn't installed by default as well)

fierce pond Mar 5, 2025, 1:15 AM

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ah. I highly recommend using the HAOS add-on OTBR instead of rolling your own whenever possible, in part because HAOS ships with some network configuration/patches that make it work better - and there's more folks here who will be able to help you if you have problems.

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(fwiw, the HAOS add-on works fine with an ESP32 thread rcp, I have it set up with an ESP32-H2)

#Thread - You don't have a preferred network yet