#Matter over Thread window covers randomly unavailable

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

broken path
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I need to state up front that I am a complete tech newbie but am trying to set up some home automation, so please bear with me.

I purchased a Home Assistant Green, along with a Connect ZBT-2. I have 44 Matter over Thread smart shades (by Smartwings). I have successfully connected them all to Home Assistant and am able to control them, as well as set up automations (open and close at sunrise and sunset).

Here is the problem. Although things work most of the time, on a fairly frequent basis, a number of shades will report as “unavailable”. It seems to be fairly random - different shades, different times. It does not show any obvious pattern such as time of day or proximity to the ZBT-2. If the shades are unavailable during an automation trigger or if I try to control them manually via HA, they do not respond. Eventually, if I wait long enough, they become available again. But inevitably this occurs again, and to a different shade(s). This is obviously a significant inconvenience.

Can anyone help me to troubleshoot and find a solution to make my devices connect and behave more consistently?

jaunty kiln
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it's possible this could just be wireless interference. are these the battery powered shades? If so, what other hardwired thread devices do you have?

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thread as a mesh network depends on having permanently powered devices available to act as routers, which battery-powered devices connect to. Adding more permanently powered devices can improve availability of battery powered devices.

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also, check which channel your thread network and 2.4ghz wifi network are on. there can be interference between the two depending on the selected channels.

broken path
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Thank you for the reply. These are indeed battery powered shades and I have no hardwired thread devices. Do you think installing some hardwired devices (like some Philips Hue bulbs) would help?

jaunty kiln
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yes, i would expect it to make a big difference. Having a single device (in this case the zbt-2) manage all of the battery powered devices directly might be the cause of the problem.

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having other permanently powered devices will also make the system recover a bit faster if you have to restart home assistant, since the blinds will stay connected to their "parent" device rather than have to try to reconnect to something after home assistant restarts.

broken path
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Ok, thanks! Also, my thread network is on channel 15. I don't know what channel my WiFi is on - not sure how to determine that.

jaunty kiln
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this is for zigbee, but thread uses the same channels: https://support.metageek.com/hc/en-us/articles/203845040-ZigBee-and-Wi-Fi-Coexistence - thread channel 15 is between and overlaps slightly with wifi channels 1 and 6, thread channel 20 is between and overlaps slightly with wifi channels 6 and 11, thread channel 25 is just past the end of wifi channel 11.

MetaGeek Support
ZigBee and Wi-Fi Coexistence

ZigBee and Wi-Fi channels both exist in the 2.4 GHz band, existing in the exact same frequency space. When deploying both Wi-Fi and ZigBee in the same environments, careful planning must be perform...

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the normal recommendation is to set your 2.4ghz wifi to channel 1, then thread network to channel 25, so they're as far apart as possible.

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if you have both zigbee and thread, make sure they're on different channels.

broken path
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I changed my Thread channel to 25. I have found that my router (Eero 6) does not allow manual setting of the 1.4ghz wifi channel - it is automatic based on lowest traffic. That said, hopefully 25 for Thread improves the possible interference over 15. That said, none of the unavailable shades have come back online. I will wait a day or two to see if things improve. I will also purchase a couple smart plugs to act as hubs and see if that helps. I will update. Thank you again.

broken path
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I wanted to follow up on this. Several of the window covers that became unavailable yesterday are still showing as unvailable. Usually they reconnect automatically but this time they have not. When I looked at Device Info, I see that the Network Name for the unresponsive shades is now the thread network on my Eero wifi routers. I don't know why these few window coverings migrated themselves to a different, unpreferred Thread network. How do I force them back on to the HA Thread network where I originally paired them? It is set as my preferred network and all the responsive shades are on this network.

idle aurora
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The eero6 also has a border router built-in. did you join the networks or do they exist separately? in that case you might experience interference from the eero TBR.

broken path
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I think you might be right. They existed separately. Yesterday, I deleted the ZBT-2 network and joined the ZBT-2 to the Eero network. So far (knock on wood), things are stable.

broken path
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Ugh, new problems.

I mentioned that yesterday, I deleted the separate ZBT-2 network and joined the ZBT-2 to the existing Eero Thread network. The shades that were showing up as unavailable were pointing to the old network. Thus, to test things, I deleted a few (about 10) shades from HA and re-paired them. The re-pairing went very smoothly. They re-paired immediately and joined the new combined ZBT-2/Eero Thread network (the only one I have now). Everything seemed to be working great and, as of today, all those shades are showing up as available and are functional.

HOWEVER - since things seem to be working well, I decided to start re-pairing the rest of my unavailable shades that are pointing to the old network. Unfortunately, today, I cannot pair them at all. After I put the shade in pairing mode and go through the steps in my companion app to add to HA (scanning QR code, etc), my companion app shows immediate connection to the shade but then stalls on the "setting up" screen. It circles and circles and eventually times out, giving me a message that adding the device was unsuccessful. I have tried multiple times, with multiple shades. I have tried factory resetting the shade and the same thing happens. I don't think it is the shade that is the problem. However, I have done nothing to HA between yesterday's successful pairings and today. I rebooted both HA Green and my ZBT-2. Nothing helps. I am at my wits end and feel like I now have a bunch of bricked shades that I cannot add to HA. Any advice or help would be greatlly appreciated.

One more thing to note. In the activity log for the ZBT-2, over the last hour, there are 4 instances of "ZBT-2 Firmware Became Unavailable" followed immediately by "ZBT-2 Firmware Turned Off". I don't know if this has anything to do with my problems or is just coincidence but I thought I would mention it.

idle aurora
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have you tried toggling Bluetooth on your phone and rebooting it?

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and: after joining the thread networks: have you set the channel back to where it was on your zbt-only network?

broken path
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Affirmative on both. Seems to be an issue with ZBT-2 and/or OTBR. OTBR failed setup, unable to connect. Now no devices work, the entire system is nonfunctional.

pale bolt
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yikes.

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I'm reading up on the issues with Matter/Thread. Looks like there is a beta firmware a few report have fixed errors popping up

jaunty kiln
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yes, a beta firmware for the zbt-2 is available that might help some problems with thread network instability, and a beta version of the OTBR add-on which might help with issues that android users are hitting pairing devices.

broken path
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Thank you both. I enabled beta firmware updates, which showed that 2.7.2.0 was available. However, when I tried to update, I received “Failed to perform the update/install. Failed to flash firmware.”

The OTBR cannot connect, the firmware won’t update. It seems like something is wrong with the ZBT-2, hardware-wise. I have emailed Nabu Casa. Looking online, I have seen a lot of very good reviews of SMLIGHT SLZB-MR as a Thread network coordinator. I wonder if this would be a better hardware option than the ZBT-2. Does anyone have any experience with it?

flint grove
pale bolt
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Still need a week to confirm, but from the logs I'm definitely seeing an improvement with beta in nodes recovering after failing

broken path
flint grove
broken path
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I finally was able to get the ZBT-2 firmware updated to the Beta, 2.7.2.0, by starting HA in safe mode. Now, everything seemed to be working - the ZBT-2 was again part of my Thread network (and used for iOS credentials), the OTBR was setup and all my previously-paired devices were available and functional. Great news. However, despite this, I am STILL unable to pair any new device. This includes different devices of the same type as well as different types (including at least one brand-new, out-of-the-box device). When trying to pair, I am able to connect immediately but then the pairing gets stuck on the setting-up screen, eventually timing out and returning a "pairing unsuccessful" message.

pale bolt
broken path
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I have selected the "send credentials to phone" (under Thread) multiple times. Let me know if there is anything else that I have overlooked. I am running the latest version of the OTBR add-on (2.16.1) and have Beta turned on (confirmed I am running Thread version 1.4.0). Still same issues. BTW, whenever I reload ZBT-2 device, the Activity log shows "Firmware became unavailable" and "Firmware turned off".

broken path
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Today, inexplicably and without changing anything since yesterday, my devices are pairing. I wonder if, after successfully updating the ZBT-2 and OTBR firmware, the Thread network just needed time to repair itself?

broken path
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I thought everything was good. Yesterday, I successfully paired a few devices and then had to attend to some other commitments. Today I came back to pair some more and I once again can no longer pair anything. It is exhibiting the same behavior as the day prior. I did not change a single thing between yesterday and today – it just randomly has stopped allowing me to pair again. I am ready to tear my hair out. So frustrating. Once again, ZBT-2 is showing “Firmware became unavailable” and “Firmware turned off”.

wispy finch
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Maybe it's a faulty zbt2, reach to their support.