Differences between SMLight SLZB-MR* versions?

[crisp lichen]

Are there any practical differences between the 5 different SLZB-MR[1-5] models, especially when in terms of functionality or reliability? The table on their website lists their differing technical specifications but they're not that useful. Apparently there's a difference in terms of the maximum number of devices they support however they're all measured in the hundreds which is all the same to me.

Should any of them be avoided for whatever reason? I'd like to avoid buying something that I'll discover has annoying reliability issues a month down the line.

[olive badger]

As far as I understand it it's just different chipsets. Which really is better is hard to say. The EFR32MG24 is what the ZBT-2 is using so that should be well supported by HA. The table you shared has some errors the SLZB-MR5U has two of those radios, one for zigbee one for thread, the others use one Texas Instuments chip for zigbee instead.

[crisp lichen]

oh. Thanks for pointing that out, though I've purchased SLZB-MR3U in the meantime because HomeAssistant documentation only listed compatibility for MR1-MR3 so I wanted to be sure

I'm running Zigbee on the CC... chip and Thread on the EFR chip (as recommended in their docs). Zigbee has worked fine so far but Matter/Thread has been a huge pain in the ass. I think that has more to do with Matter itself rather than this particular hardware. I'm new to both.

[olive badger]

I've been told in another post here that Thread is not really supporting those PoE dongles as they introduce too much latency to a very time sensitive protocol. You might have more success using it via usb instead of PoE but yeah that kind of defeats the purpose.

Here's the link to the other post https://discord.com/channels/330944238910963714/1470136769499500716

In general after watching a bunch of videos on devices that use Matter over Thread it just doesn't feel ready for prime time. The pairing takes minutes ... just imagining setting up a whole house that way sound like torture to me.

I've ordered the SLZB-MR5U when I still didn't know all this ... I'll see how it works out for me.

Also have a Sonoff Dongle Max I'm returning that one tries to do zigbee and thread over the same radio and is doubly not recommended by others.

[crisp lichen]

Ugh... that's annoying, but thanks. I'll read through that and see if I can find any workarounds. I'm surprised that it would have issues on my network, everything is as low latency as you can get. If it doesn't work here because of latency I don't see how it could work anywhere

[olive badger]

Yeah it sounds to me like the openthread borderrouter developers aren't happy these exist at all and they do not recommend using them.

[crisp lichen]

It's even more confusing because SMLight product pages say that the device is a "Thread Border Router", that's the only reasonable way to interpret this

but really it's just a "dumb" radio that Thread Border Router software (HA add-on) communicates with?

ended up here fwiw, I think the issue might have something to do with networking in general:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/unable-to-commission-matter-over-thread-device-with-zbt-2/973260

[olive badger]

Yeah from the instructions on how to set it up it sure sounds that way. I also expected it to just be a border router by itself.

I'll get my stick in a few days so I'll test how well it works for me, though I only have one matter over thread device I bought by mistake so not much to test with.

[crisp lichen]

For what it's worth I connected it over USB, reconfigured the OTBR add-on and I'm seeing the same exact errors I did before. So that's not it

[frosty bluff]

what errors are you seeing?

errors in matter over thread device commissioning usually have more do to with the network environment of your lan/wifi than with the thread border router itself.

the issues with having the thread radio connected over lan are that the OTBR app might sometimes fail and restart giving you instability in the long term, but it usually doesn't affect commissioning.

[crisp lichen]

trying to pair the device from Android it goes Connecting ... Generating Credentials ... Checking connectivity to Thread network ha-thread-something ... and then it always fails with "Can't reach device" - "Make sure your phone is connected to Wi-Fi"

which is cryptic in itself because I'm connected to WiFi but I don't understand why I even need to be, it's Thread device not a WiFi device

I'm running HomeAssistant OS inside a Proxmox VM and for testing purposes it's all on the same subnet & VLAN for now

I've tried pairing the device using the Matter Server add-on webui but that fails too: "Error commissioning node: Commission with code failed for node 11."

I turned up the log level on OTBR and Matter Server add-ons to get more detail but those aren't very helpful either

I've tried changing OTBR add-on settings, disabling OTBR firewall (on by default) and trying OTBR beta mode

I've done this and get the expected message:

In app, go to Settings – Companion app -> Click Troubleshooting and click Sync Thread Credentials.
Wait until message Home Assistant and this device use the same network.

[frosty bluff]

during commissioning, the phone first talks to the matter device over bluetooth to provide the thread credentials. then the phone tries to talk to the device via the thread connection to finish the initial setup, which it does via wifi through the thread border router. Only after that is done, it generates a matter sharing code and sends it to home assistant, which actually adds the device.

so it sounds like your phone isn't able to talk to the otbr over wifi correctly right now

[frosty bluff]

in general, you need to ensure you're not using multiple subnets/vlans; because of how mdns and ipv6 router announcements work the phone must be on a wifi which connected to the same network link as the thread border router.

[crisp lichen]

yeah I thought that would be one possible cause of problems but it's all on the same VLAN and subnet for now

[crisp lichen]

Continued here: #1471064102821695548 message

[wintry osprey]

Let us know how do you feel about the SLZB-MR5U..., I've been looking to buy a SLZBx, but there are so many options..

[olive badger]

Just received it today probably have the same issue with my home network causing issues that recursiveGecko had with his VM I'll see tomorrow if I can fix it and how the rest works out.

[wintry osprey]

Did you evaluate the SMHUB nano? That can run the openthread border software in the stick? That should eliminate the problem of running the radio rcp over ip right?

[olive badger]

No, haven't tried it.

Hmm the nano seem uninteresting to me as it only has one radio but the essential or professional might have been good options.

Only thing about it I really don't like is the design. Front USB why ...

[wintry osprey]

yes, I dont' like the desingn neither.. Now I'm debating between having multiple radios vs having OBTR running in the same device as the radio...
I already have zigbee running on a usb stick.., Going with the SMHUB for thread and I could migrate zigbee to a SLZB-06 in the future as the zigbee radio seems to works fine over tcp. 🤔

[olive badger]

I don't know what causes my current thread issues but I'm growing more and more frustrated with it. Just a stick probably the ZBT-2 directly on the server should hopefully be easier. If that also causes frustration then sorry but this is just not ready for prime time yet.

[olive badger]

My issues seem to be old thread credentials being stored by the phone and syncing did not update them so I had to clear all data stored by Google Play Services which also clears a bunch of other things like gpay and passkeys etc.

Tried it via USB for now but will switch back to PoE soon probably after some sleep.

OK no sleep yet it's working fine now even via PoE no network settings needed just those pesky old credentials it had stored.