ZBT1 Can’t Add Devices | Home Assistant | Page 1

daring hornet Aug 9, 2025, 11:09 PM

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I have a zbt being passed through to a proxmox HA vm. The integrations appear to be added correctly, I have Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1, Open Thread Border Router, Matter, and Thread. I can access the OTBR web app on 8080. When I try to add the Aqara T2 bulbs by scanning the QR code or entering the ID number it fails to pair. The bulb is screwed in and turned on.

ZBT1 is connected with the provided extension and the bulb within 10 feet.

Is there some other process? I don’t have an Aqara hub as I thought the zbt1 was sufficient for connecting with matter over thread.

Any suggestions?

fierce cloak Aug 9, 2025, 11:12 PM

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Is the ZBT-1 flashed with Thread firmware?

daring hornet Aug 9, 2025, 11:18 PM

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Yup, Firmware: OpenThread RCP 2.4.4.0

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I tried a second bulb to make sure the first wasn't a dud, no luck

grizzled sundial Aug 9, 2025, 11:28 PM

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daring hornet I have a zbt being passed through to a proxmox HA vm. The integrations appear t...

acording to the aqara website the bulbs have 2 modes "zigbee" and "thread" they are supposed to default to using thread. however maybe they are not for some reason?

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you can factory default the bulb by switching it off/on with the switch 10 times in a row

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I don't know if it will help but its something to try

daring hornet Aug 9, 2025, 11:29 PM

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That was my understanding as well. I think you need an aqara hub to change that mode? I do have a hubitat in case that might help? I'll give the factory reset a try.

grizzled sundial Aug 9, 2025, 11:30 PM

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after 5 times it does a basic reset and after 10 times its a full factory default it looks like

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manual seems to imply it has bluetooth too. perhaps you can use their app to connect via BT and help provision it?

daring hornet Aug 9, 2025, 11:34 PM

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So interestingly, after a factory reset when I try to pair it, it fails after about 15 seconds. Subsequent pairing attempts seem to just hang for about a minute before failing.

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Hmm will check out BT

grizzled sundial Aug 9, 2025, 11:36 PM

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it does seem to also imply that you shouldnt have to do anything via BT but maybe its worth a shot for troubleshooting.

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do you have any other matter over thread devices that do work or are these the first?

daring hornet Aug 9, 2025, 11:38 PM

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These were the first, I thought my shlage encode plus were supposed to work but i see too much conflicting info so got these to justify getting the zbt1 😄

grizzled sundial Aug 9, 2025, 11:42 PM

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daring hornet These were the first, I thought my shlage encode plus were supposed to work but ...

other thoughts:
how far is the bulb from the zbt-1?

is the zbt-1 getting enough power from the usb port? do you have an externally powered usb hub you can test with?

is the zbt-1 plugged directly into your server without an extension? its generally recommended to have an extension as having it directly plugged into devices can cause issues with signal

daring hornet Aug 9, 2025, 11:44 PM

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I'm using the provided extension, it is about 10 feet from the light. I assume it is getting enough power but I should be able to try an external hub. It seemed to add the HA without any issue. It is a USB port on a dell r720xd so is 2.0, which I assume is ok? I know there is an interference issue with 3.0 but I didn't see anything saying you have to use 3.0.

grizzled sundial Aug 9, 2025, 11:46 PM

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I think the zbt-1 is usb2 anyway

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if you have an external hub when its worth giving that a go. just to rule it out if nothing else

daring hornet Aug 9, 2025, 11:50 PM

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Cool will take a look for one. Not sure if I have one that takes a separate power supply though, I think just standard hubs that split the port.

daring hornet Aug 10, 2025, 4:21 PM

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Hmm, so I tried to remove all the ZBT1 and thread/matter/OTRP integrations and set things up from scratch. Seems I cannot enable the zbt1, it says disabled in config, went through and readded things but now it seems the zbt config is stuck in a disabled state.

grizzled sundial Aug 10, 2025, 4:25 PM

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daring hornet Hmm, so I tried to remove all the ZBT1 and thread/matter/OTRP integrations and s...

no idea if it will help but you could try removing it then reflashing the firmware on the zbt-1 on pc using the web flasher then try setting up again?

daring hornet Aug 10, 2025, 4:27 PM

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Cool thanks, appreciate your help.

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Is there a more appropriate way to 'start from scratch' than to simply remove teh integrations?

grizzled sundial Aug 10, 2025, 4:29 PM

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dont think so

daring hornet Aug 10, 2025, 4:59 PM

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Ok, I was able to enable it by disabling it again (even though it was disabled already) it then allowed me to enable it. Had to click show disabled on the main integration page. Should I have the matter integration added? I noticed it isn't specifically listed, just thread and the OTRP integrations on the instructions - https://support.nabucasa.com/hc/en-us/articles/26124710072861-Enabling-Thread-support. The goal is to add the devices using matter over thread so I assumed it should be added.

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I assume so but wanted to check since it asks if I'm running another matter server in another addon - not sure if this is handled by OTRP for example, sorry for all the questions, I'm asking as I search.

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chat gpt says add it as the others don't handle the matter server portion.

daring hornet Aug 10, 2025, 5:28 PM

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heeey got it. Not sure which piece of the puzzle did it. I manually set the baud rate in the add ons sections to 460800 and then i noticed under the thread integration there was now an option to use it for android + ios credentials.

#ZBT1 Can’t Add Devices