#Failure adding Matter devices

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

inland needle
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I am running HAOS on a Pi.
I have an existing set of Matter switches that I manage through HomeKit (Tapo S505s mostly)

I have a multi-VLAN setup. The relevant LANs are IOT-Home(the switches) and HA-Hub(My existing Matter hub and Home Assistant). HA-Hub has access to IOT-Home. IOT-Home does not have internet access.

When I attempt to commission one of the Tapo switches, it fails to do so without any useful information "Error commissioning node: Commission with code failed for node 5." (note the 5 is incrementing with each attempt) . In at least one case HomeKit recognized that the device was added to HA.

Suggestions for how to determine the fix are welcome

primal mesa
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home assistant needs to resolve mdns queries answered by the matter devices, which usually means it needs to be on the same vlan as the matter devices

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using mdns relays between vlans may or may not work with wifi matter devices (apparently unifi equipment is problematic and not recommended), but will definitely not work with thread

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since with thread home assistant also needs to be able to route ipv6 traffic two-way between itself and the thread network, which means it needs to receive the ipv6 router announcements from the thread border router.

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anyways, get home assistant into the same vlan as the matter devices and see if that fixes it.

marble kindle
primal mesa
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it is apparently easy to configure unifi equipment into a state where matter will not work, judging by the number of support requests that have come in from people having issues commissioning matter devices who were using unifi equipment

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to be honest, this is most likely simply because it's a brand of semi-pro equipment that enthusiasts are likely to use in their house, rather than something specific about unifi equipment

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i haven't seen many people coming in with matter issues using cisco routers for example :)

marble kindle
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Yeah, that is what I wanted to write.

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😉

primal mesa
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oh, reading back

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my original comment was specifically about the mdns relay as implemented in unifi equipment

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that, specifically, is known to cause issues with matter

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iirc something about some things failing to resolve, or some corruption of the mdns packets :/

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i can't remember any specific examples of this happening tho

marble kindle
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Yeah, but it’s a fact, that you shouldn’t use such mDNS relays with Matter. At least you should build your setup with all Matter related devices in one VLAN. When you got that working you can try to separate, if you like to waste your time with solving issues you can’t fix, except by bringing all devices into one VLAN.

primal mesa
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mdns relays might work for wifi matter devices, depending on how the network is set up. very unlikely to be usable for thread devices since it's unlikely that routes will be set up correctly (you'll be able to resolve the mdns, but won't be able to route packets to the device).

marble kindle
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Yeah, but when the user successfully separates Matter over WiFi devices, he also wants to separate his TBRs after buying his first MoT devices.

inland needle
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Moving HAOS to the same VLAN as my devices did not solve my problem

marble kindle
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Are all Matter-related devices (HA, Matter over WiFi device, phone) in the same VLAN?

inland needle
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The phone is not involved. The HA and all devices are on one VLAN. I access HA via the web from another VLAN, but that's working fine.

inland needle
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Does the matter device (or HAOS) need internet access for this to work?

marble kindle
inland needle
primal mesa
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if you've added matter devices to apple home and are sharing them from apple home to home assistant, that can be done without the use of a phone (provided you have a way to manually copy the codes provided by apple home into the home assistant web ui)

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for this to work, the only network requirements are that home assistant is on the same network/vlan as the apple thread border router (for thread devices) or the same wifi network as the devices (for wifi devices), with an additional note that some people have reported an issue where if they have multiple network interfaces, the matter integration sometimes uses the wrong one.

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I don't think the two matter controllers need to be able to talk directly with each-other.

marble kindle
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kepstin said everything else.

primal mesa
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Note that you do not need to use the qr codes on the device when sharing from one matter controller to another - indeed you can't use them (they won't work again unless the device is factory reset)