#Can the ZBT-2 be used remotely - i.e. with Home Assistant running as a VM?

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hushed scroll
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TL;DR: Can I use the ZBT-2 device (or even multiple) remotely via Ser2Net running on a remote Raspberry Pi?

Today, I use HA on Docker on a Synology NAS, although I will be moving to a new home in 2026 and likely move back to a full VM (either way, HA will be virtual). It was impractical for me to add the current ZigBee controllers directly to the host, so I currently run a couple of standalone Raspberry Pis that have SONOFF ZigBee controllers attached, and the Pi OS runs Ser2Net. This allows the controller to be connected to a unique instance of ZigBee2MQTT (I need 2 ZigBee2MQTT instances with 2 remote controllers because there is significant overlap in the other locations where I run various ZigBee devices, yet I wanted them all in a single HA instance).

In the new house, I want to switch primarily to Thread + Matter. I was interested in the new ZBT-2. I know this is just a USB device, but I wanted to see if I could attach it to Home Assistant in a similar way by connecting it via Ser2Net, then have Home Assistant recognise the ZBT-2 device. Further, can I have multiple ZBT-2 devices on the same HA instance, as I do with the current ZigBee controllers? In the new house, there will still be a significant distance between my primary and secondary locations.

cosmic elbow
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ser2net should work fine with the zbt-2 for use with zigbee. (it might be possible in the future to do this without an external computer, but using the builtin esp32-s3 instead). But running the radio protocol for thread over the network is not recommended - it's very timing sensitive, and has caused issues for people in the past.

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If you have a raspberry pi that can run haos, one thing you can do is install haos and the openthread border router add-on on the pi, and hook up the zbt-2 to the pi over usb. Then the raspberry pi will be, essentially, a "standalone" thread border router that your main home assistant installation on another machine (and any other matter controllers on your lan) can use.

hushed scroll
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Interesting. I was going to get a HA Green to play with (as a secondary device, not for the central system), so this might do. It's a few quid more expensive than a Pi 5 plus all the bits, but not much

wind grove
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I ordered two ZBT-2; one to replace my existing Zigbee installation (based on a noname Zigbee adapter and ZigBee2MQTT over ser2net). The other I want to use it as Matter.

But I also face the issue that my HA installation is a VM down in the cellar - my ZigBee and Matter Devices are on the 2nd floor; so no chance to reach the devices from my cellar. This was the reason why I used ser2net - this worked fine.

Would be nice if ZBT-2 could also be used as "Remote" antennas (even when a Raspberry Pi has to be used for that). I also tried to use ZBT-2 with ser2net directly with the ZHA integration - but this seem not to work (eventhough I see packets going back and forth over ethernert).

If I understood correctly the Matter part consist of a "server" software which has to be installed as a dedicated docker image (if HA is running as docker container). Could this be used as "remote" Matter box which delivers signals to HA?

To summary up: ZigBee with (remote) ZBT-2 currently only supported with ZigBee2MQTT and ser2net where ZBT-2 is attached. ZBT-2 as "remote" Matter currently no solution available, right?

cosmic elbow
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the "matter" and "thread" parts are separate. matter server talks to matter devices over ip on your lan. it can talk to wifi devices via your wifi router. to reach thread devices, there has to be a router - a "thread border router" - that routes between your lan and the thread network.

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you can connect the zbt-2 (or any other thread-compatible radio) to a system running the openthread border router software to get a thread border router that you can place anywhere.

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I recommend using HAOS for that, because HAOS and the openthread border router add-on for HAOS do the network setup for you to make sure the thread border router works correctly. You can run the openthread border router manually, but it's harder to set up and you won't be able to get as much help.

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there's no reason to run the matter server remotely. (you can if you want, but there's no reason to)

wind grove
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HAOS = Home Assistant OS? So that means that I would install HAOS on a dedicated Raspberry Pi. This gives me a Matter Server and the URL of that server I specify then in my HA instance, right?

cosmic elbow
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no, you run the matter server on your main home assistant machine

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on the rpi, you can run haos and the otbr (openthread border router) add-on

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no need to specify any urls for that - the thread border router will automatically be discovered and used by your main home assistant machine

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(i mean, you can run the matter server on the rpi if you want, it would work that way too)

wind grove
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Ah okey... this corresponds more the things documented in the Matter integration manual

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cosmic elbow
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remember that thread is completely separate from matter. you can use matter without thread - there are matter devices that connect to wifi (and i've heard of one on wired ethernet even)

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you can also use thread without matter - for example, there are homekit devices that use thread, and you can build esphome devices using thread now too.

wind grove
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Many options as it looks like. But my goal was to have just a "standard" Matter setup with HA (except that the Thread antenna ZBT-2) is placed at a different location than my HA docker image. The same is true for ZigBee; I hoped to get rid of ZigBee2MQTT with the direct ZHA functionality of HA. So I see I have some topics to play around with...

cosmic elbow
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yeah, if you want to have the radio in a different location, then you should also run the openthread border router software at the same location as the radio, because the openthread border router software works best when talking directly to the radio over usb

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physical location doesn't matter for anything else

broken stump
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I didn't read all of it so I might have missed it but why didn't you consider the Ethernet/PoE devices from SMLIGHT?

cosmic elbow
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the smlight devices do serial over network, which causes issues since it means added latency in the communication between the openthread border router software and the thread radio.

wind grove
cosmic elbow
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it's usually ok for zigbee, but has caused problems with thread. So i recommend using thread with a direct usb connection.

broken stump
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That would apply to Ser2Net too, no?

cosmic elbow
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yes, don't use ser2net either

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if you have a zbt-2 connected to a raspberry pi, then what you want to do is run the openthread border router itself on the raspberry pi

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and the easiest way to do that is to install haos on the rpi, and use the openthread border router addon for haos.

wind grove
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so then I know what I have to do 😆

cosmic elbow
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(something interesting is that the esp32-s3 chip used for serial in the zbt-2 and in the smlight slzb-06 series devices is powerful enough to run the openthread border router software itself; there's still some work needed to get all the pieces hooked up, but maybe in the future you won't need a raspberry pi…)

hushed scroll
hushed scroll
cosmic elbow
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Otbr is possible because it's pretty simple, needs very little ram and no knowledge of specific device types. It's just a router. I don't think z2m will fit.