Hey!
I bought the zbt-2 antenna as my first thread border router and have some matter lights and thermostats (all via thread). The setup worked but from time to time individual devices are unavailable. In my OTBR add-on log I found the following (see attachment). I passthrough the usb device via proxmox usb feature and am wondering what the issue is.
Is proxmox causing some latency issues?
Is usb 3.0 still an issue (I use the antenna with the delivered usb extension cable on an usb 3.0 port)?
Is something else the issue (ipv6 setup; ha network settings display a local ipv6: fe80::a904:935d:780f:d5f)?
Any help would be great as I dont know what the issue could be exactly and I have no further clue how to debug this
#ZBT-2 usb instability issues using proxmox
austere rampart
sleek leaf
getting a few errors reported by OTBR now and then is normal - unless it's a lot continuously, it might not be a problem. The matter controller ("Matter Server" add-on) logs might have more information to investigate.
Is this HAOS in a virtual machine?
austere rampart
getting a few errors reported by OTBR now and then is normal - unless it's a lot...
I would have no problem with that but currently 5 devices are unavailable and only come back after some hours or after a restart of otbr addon
austere rampart
Is this HAOS in a virtual machine?
yess
sleek leaf
what kind of a mix of matter devices do you have? are the ones that go unavailable battery powered?
austere rampart
These are my matter server addon logs
austere rampart
what kind of a mix of matter devices do you have? are the ones that go unavailab...
Yess battery powered devices. I setup a few minutes ago 4 new devices that are not battery powered so will also look into if they also become unavailable
sleek leaf
if so, you might need more permanently powered routing capable devices for the battery powered devices to connect via (smart bulbs, outlets)
austere rampart
if so, you might need more permanently powered routing capable devices for the b...
A battery powered device being not a meter away from the antenna also goes into unavailable from time to time
sleek leaf
oddly enough, too close to the antenna can also be a problem :)
(with the ZBT-2, other radio devices - zigbee, thread, bluetooth, 2.4ghz wifi - should be at least 25cm away if possible)
austere rampart
unfortunate but 5 meters away (no wall) should work fine right?
also goes unavailable
sleek leaf
yeah, should be fine. do you have a large number of battery powered devices close to the zbt-2? are there nearby permanently powered devices too?
austere rampart
I interpreted my errors as maybe being related to usb connection issues between vm and zbt-2 as I also got buffer issues
sleek leaf
each powered device can only handle connections for a limited number of battery powered devices.
austere rampart
yeah, should be fine. do you have a large number of battery powered devices clos...
About 50cm (through a wall) is my nearest thread device (battery powered) to my antenna
After that comes the 3 to 5 meter away batter powered device
sleek leaf
the otbr logs you pasted don't have any indications of usb connection issues. there are some indications of radio interference which could cause problems, e.g. "ChannelAccessFailure" means that it wanted to transmit something, but it couldn't find any time where the radio channel was clear to do that.
austere rampart
I thought errors on devices far away could be related to network issues but also these technicaly nearby devices also have the same issues unfortunately
sleek leaf
what channels are you using for thread and 2.4ghz wifi?
austere rampart
02:12:53.128 [N] MeshForwarder-: Evicting IPv6 UDP msg, len:282, chksum:2a1a, ecn:no, sec:yes, error:NoBufs, prio:low, radio:all
02:12:53.128 [N] MeshForwarder-: src:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:5b37:5823:f9fa:2893]:57529
02:12:53.128 [N] MeshForwarder-: dst:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:60d7:364a:1b68:4ac4]:5540
02:13:00.354 [N] MeshForwarder-: Evicting IPv6 UDP msg, len:282, chksum:51c3, ecn:no, sec:yes, error:NoBufs, prio:low, radio:all
02:13:00.354 [N] MeshForwarder-: src:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:5b37:5823:f9fa:2893]:57529
02:13:00.354 [N] MeshForwarder-: dst:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:d14d:599d:b19d:28e1]:5540
02:23:09.738 [N] MeshForwarder-: Evicting IPv6 UDP msg, len:282, chksum:f081, ecn:no, sec:yes, error:NoBufs, prio:low, radio:all
02:23:09.738 [N] MeshForwarder-: src:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:5b37:5823:f9fa:2893]:57529
02:23:09.738 [N] MeshForwarder-: dst:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:74b2:c5d3:6b98:ad9a]:5540
02:23:11.640 [N] MeshForwarder-: Evicting IPv6 UDP msg, len:282, chksum:2a1a, ecn:no, sec:yes, error:NoBufs, prio:low, radio:all
02:23:11.640 [N] MeshForwarder-: src:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:5b37:5823:f9fa:2893]:57529
02:23:11.640 [N] MeshForwarder-: dst:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:60d7:364a:1b68:4ac4]:5540
02:23:17.369 [N] MeshForwarder-: Evicting IPv6 UDP msg, len:282, chksum:e91b, ecn:no, sec:yes, error:NoBufs, prio:low, radio:all
02:23:17.369 [N] MeshForwarder-: src:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:5b37:5823:f9fa:2893]:57529
02:23:17.369 [N] MeshForwarder-: dst:[fdbd:d1c8:f2a0:1:46f0:7ad:b7c5:8725]:5540
Could these buffr issues be related to usb?
austere rampart
what channels are you using for thread and 2.4ghz wifi?
How can I look into what channels thread is using?
sleek leaf
no. those mean that it's trying to send a lot of traffic to thread, but it can't send all the traffic because the thread network isn't fast enough. (either more traffic is being sent than thread can handle, or there's network interference making thread slow)
austere rampart
This is a graph of my fritzbox. Does this help?
sleek leaf
the home assistant "Thread" integration will show it - find your thread network, then click the ℹ️ icon in the top right
austere rampart
Thread uses channel 15 (thx for your help!!!)
sleek leaf
if your wifi is on channel 11, you usually want your thread to be channel 15 (in the gap between between wifi 1 and 6)
but according to that survey, that gap (right around wifi channels 3/4) has a lot of noise :/
consider moving your wifi to channel 6 and your thread to channel 25.
austere rampart
I initiated the changes. I have some devices still maintaining a local ap (wallboxes and inverter). Should I disable them for less noise?
sleek leaf
if you want, but if there's nothing connected it shouldn't be a major issue, they just send out beacons occasionally which isn't much traffic.
austere rampart
okay I was just wondering on how to reduce noise. I changed wifi (2.4) to channel 6 and thread to channel 25. What about wifi (5Ghz)? Can I still let this be on "automatic"
sleek leaf
if you do the thread channel change while some devices aren't connected, it's possible that those devices might not realize the channel has changed and you'll have to re-pair the device. But most devices will follow automatically.
5ghz wifi is so far away that it's not relevant to thread. Automatic is fine.
regarding usb interference - i find it very strange that the cable included with the ZBT-2 says it's "USB 2.0/3.0". I would have expected them to include a USB 2.0-only cable to isolate it from USB 3.0 radio noise
if you are able to use a USB-2 port, please do, it might help.
austere rampart
5ghz wifi is so far away that it's not relevant to thread. Automatic is fine.
okay good
austere rampart
if you are able to use a USB-2 port, please do, it might help.
I only have usb 3.0 ports but thought that the included cable would also be only 2.0
sleek leaf
yeah, surprised me when I looked at the specs. I personally have an old USB2-only hub that I connect my zigbee, bluetooth, and thread radios to in order to separate them from USB3.
austere rampart
oh I think I also have one of these. Are you also running your haos inside a proxmox vm?
sleek leaf
not proxmox, but inside a VM on my NAS, yes.
you often can't pass through an entire usb hub, it's more reliable to pass through the individual usb devices.
austere rampart
I'll look into this
Probably tomorrow (next year haha) because now all my thread devices are offline
sleek leaf
yeah, it'll be a few minutes for them to sort everything out again after a channel change :)
austere rampart
Thanks for your help I will probably come back to this channel tomorrow :))
sleek leaf
the way thread channel changes work is that a message is sent out saying "the channel's going to change, here's the new net info, but wait for a while before actually changing", with the idea that it waits until every device knows about the new network info in advance, even battery powered devices that don't check in very often.
austere rampart
I also get btw a login issue like that
Login attempt or request with invalid authentication from fe80::495:c46d:5233:d557 (fe80::495:c46d:5233:d557). See the log for details.
Normally everything uses ipv4 so I thought this could also be related to thread/matter?
Thats a ha web notification
sleek leaf
that's pretty strange, since that's a link-local ipv6 address. so it could only be done by something on the same local network as home assistant. are you using the homeassistant.local address, mDNS?
thread is actually a different ipv6 subnet, so it can't talk to home assistant on a link-local address like that.