Cheapest Thread Border router available for HA

[high oar]

So after buying a bunch of IKEA matter devices and realisng they are matter-over-thread only ... I find myself looking for a thread device for HA integration.

I am looking for the cheapest solution that is known to work. I know there is great support for ZB-1 and the Sonoff dongles, but looking for something even cheaper - maybe something like:

1. Cheap zigbee dongle flashed with thread firmware (all the cheap ones I see are pre-flashed with zstack, etc.. ) so would also need some post/wiki/instructions to reflash thread.

OR

2. Some esp32 with radio.. Again would need instructions...

I am a software dev so not intimidated by building/flashing.. but don't want to spend days trying to figure it all out either. Just looking for a setup that is known to work for at least someone.

[pine dragon]

the cheapest option is to get lucky and have an existing device which is a thread border router; e.g. some google and apple hardware has that functionality. Other than that, one of the zigbee dongles that has firmware available on this page: https://darkxst.github.io/silabs-firmware-builder/ will work, and is easy to flash to thread.

If you're ok with spending a bunch of your own time poking around with building the firmware using esp-idf, the espressif thread border router devkit seen in https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-thread-br/en/latest/hardware_platforms.html can be found for quite cheap (I've seen it for $10). I have one of these, it works fine.

[high oar]

I have an onn streamer (4k pro) and chromecast for GoogleTV.. let me check if that supports it.. do these integrate well with HA ?

I don't want to add my google creds to HA though

[pine dragon]

neither of those devices are thread border routers, so you'll have to pick up something new

if you pick up a usb radio stick, make sure to flash the "openthread rcp" firmware.

[high oar]

I think the onn streamer 4k pro can do it according to Gemini. But this forces me to use google home I think.

[pine dragon]

i can't find anything on the web that indicates the onn streamer 4k pro does thread.

[high oar]

Maybe I will order one of those esp boards

[pine dragon]

thread border router is separate from google home - it just provides a connection between your lan and the thread network which can be used by any thread device and matter controller.

[high oar]

https://share.google/aimode/nbdy2H2uSZMeunPUD

[pine dragon]

maybe don't believe ai slop.

onn streamer 4k pro uses a realtek wireless chip that only does wifi and bluetooth, there is no thread radio present and therefore no thread border router functionality. It's not mentioned on any of the product pages, and a physical examination of the device reveals that there is no radio capable of 802.15.4 protocol for use with thread. Here's a teardown that identifies the 6252B-SRB radio module: https://www.edn.com/perusing-walmarts-onn-4k-pro-streaming-device-with-google-tv-storage-aplenty/ and here's the specs of that module: https://www.fn-link.com/6252B-SRB-Wi-Fi-6-Module-pd47285492.html

[high oar]

Ok thanks for verifying

[pine dragon]

anyways, keep in mind that large language model "ai" works by making up answers that reflect the keywords used in the question, so it's often misleading and it will often claim to "verify" things that aren't true without doing any checking.

[high oar]

Sure.. I will try to be less gullable

[pine dragon]

the response you shared claims to use android authority as a source, and provides a link, but if you open that link and search for "thread" you can see that what the source actually says is this: "Of course the Google TV Streamer exists now so it’s important to note it is not only faster and more polished than the Onn 4K, it also has a better remote with the same star button and includes a baked-in Thread/Matter smart home hub system."

i.e. the Google TV Streamer does have thread, the Onn 4k does not.

[high oar]

For building flashing the esp board, is there a post/how-to anywhere I can look at ?

[pine dragon]

not really, unfortunately. https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-thread-br/en/latest/codelab/index.html has some partial guides. But it's intended to be used as a hardware platform for people building thread border router products so it's not very user friendly.

maybe start with https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-thread-br/en/latest/dev-guide/build_and_run.html and simultaneously follow along with https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-thread-br/en/latest/codelab/home_assistant.html (note that it requires enabling an additional option in the build to get the web ui, which provides the api that home assistant uses to talk to it).

[high oar]

Thanks

So lets say I go with a cheap Zb-gw04 and flash using the silabs site... is there a thread2mqtt container I need to run or something (like z2m) ?

i.e. how does HA interact with it ?

[pine dragon]

recommended and supported method is to run the "openthread border router" add-on on haos

if you're not using haos, you're kind of on your own. the network setup is tricky to get right. I have heard of people successfully running the openthread border router ("ot-br-posix") in docker. https://openthread.io/guides/border-router/build-docker might be helpful.

Matter is a separate thing, it's available either as the "Matter Server" add-on for HAOS (gets auto-installed when you set up the Matter integration), or you can run it separately, see https://github.com/matter-js/python-matter-server/blob/main/docs/docker.md

I personally use HAOS (in a virtual machine) so i can't help with other installation methods.

[high oar]

Ok thanks for all this info. Really appreciate the help