I'm running into an issue when using the ESP Thread Border Router. I have it set up in HA but when I go to add the credentials it says there are none to add in Thread. When I go to add the matter device it says that there is no border router.... Do I need IPv6 enabled on my network?
#Thread / Matter Issues
dusty heath
civic tusk
the thread border router will set up an ipv6 ula prefix on your network once it's running, there shouldn't be any need to set up ipv6 yourself.
To allow home assistant to control the esp-thread-br, you'll want to add the "Open Thread Border Router" integration, and provide the hostname of the esp-thread-br. With the default config, the hostname esp-ot-br.local should work.
make sure the esp-thread-br is actually connected to your network. You might have to do something extra to get it to auto-connect to wifi. There's also a bug in the 1.3 release where if you are running it off a usb power supply (rather than connect it to a computer to use the debug serial port) it will fail to start up.
dusty heath
Yeah I've covered all those bases. I've discovered a step in the setup that I'd missed where you need to add the config in the Companion app, but it still fails on adding the device
civic tusk
hm. well, something quick you can do to check if it's set up properly is to open http://esp-ot-br.local/index.html in a browser, scroll down to "Thread Network Status", and click the "Overview" tab once (even tho it's already selected). That'll cause it to load information about the current status, you should check that it matches what home assistant thinks your thread network is.
dusty heath
So it turns out you do need IPv6 enabled on your network and in HA. Now one done that everything is up and running
civic tusk
what network hardware are you using? I've only heard of people needing to enable ipv6 in their network with unifi hardware.
dusty heath
Yeah I have Unifi equipment
civic tusk
yeah, seems like unifi equipment must be actively blocking other network equipment from using ipv6 when ipv6 is disabled in unifi :(
fresh wharf
interesting, I have ipv6 turned off in my unifi setup.
off, as in not configured at all, not
off, as in blocked by firewall...
dusty heath
Setting it up made everything work 🤷🏼♂️. I had no firewall rules or anything else.