#Help with adding Matter-over-Thread devices to Home Assistant

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

fast cloak
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Setup: Home assistant OS

Situation: I can't add my thread devices to home assistant, even though I have the Aqara M200 as Thread edge router. I can add these devices to aqara home however, and yes, every time I tried to pair my devices to home assistant I did a factory reset on my devices.

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python-matter-server logs:

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Help with adding Matter-over-Thread devices

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Help with adding Matter-over-Thread devices to Home Assistant

silent oar
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please clearly explain how you're trying to add the devices to HA and at which point it fails (and with what error message)

fast cloak
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Translated it means: Device could not be added, you might need to restart your device before you can add it to your home

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Also, I can add the device to aqara home directly, but again not to home assistant. The aqara hub is already connected via matter so i know that matter over wifi works.

silent oar
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have you tried sharing the device from aqara home to home assistant? aqara should have an option to generate a code to allow adding a matter device to another controller.

fast cloak
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what I belive might be the cause:

silent oar
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how is your home network set up?

fast cloak
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IPv6 might not be supported by my ISP

image.png
silent oar
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there might be something in the network which is preventing home assistant from being able to talk to the thread border router

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ipv6 does not need to be supported by the isp. ipv6 is only used locally within the lan

fast cloak
fast cloak
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well only thing might be

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the pi is connected over ethernet

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while the aquara hub is using wifi.

silent oar
fast cloak
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it starts with fe

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not with fd

silent oar
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fe won't work, there needs to be one with fd. Hmm. Something else to check: on that same page, scroll down to the bottom and open the zeroconf browser.

fast cloak
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in it

silent oar
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do you see an entry for _meshcop._udp.local?

fast cloak
silent oar
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ok. So home assistant can see the thread border router via mdns, but it is not receiving the ipv6 "router announcement" packets from the thread border router, which are what let it talk to thread devices

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it's possible that those are being blocked by your router :(

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are you able to switch the aqara hub to wired ethernet? that might help, since sometimes wifi routers block multicast from wifi devices

fast cloak
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under what category would I find the option to disable the blocking?

fast cloak
silent oar
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also check if you have any wifi multicast related settings in the router that you could toggle

fast cloak
silent oar
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ok, try turning it off. sometime there are multicast enhancement options that stop this from working.

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after you turn the wifi multicast related option off (or after you switch the aqara hub to ethernet) wait a few minutes then check if home assistant has received a new ipv6 address that starts with fd.

fast cloak
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okay, i think going with the ethernet option makes more sense?

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im gonna try both anyways

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but i'll just start with ethernet

silent oar
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I always prefer ethernet when it is available :)

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Also, check the home assistant network settings in the "configure network interfaces" panel to make sure that both "ipv4" and "ipv6" are set to "automatic".

fast cloak
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yeah they are

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ethernet is plugged in now

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should I restart to trigger new leases?

silent oar
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you just need to wait for a bit, home assistant should automatically add the new ipv6 address when it receives the router announcement from the thread border router.

fast cloak
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oh I might to chnage the hubs setting

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the hub already recognises the wired connection

silent oar
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alright, then refresh the home assistant network page and see if it has gained a new ipv6 address starting with fd.

fast cloak
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but why would home assistant gain addresses when it was already plugged in with Ethernet from the start?

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ohhhhh

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yeah

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there is a new one

silent oar
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the thread border router tells it a new address to use when it sends the router announcement

fast cloak
silent oar
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now that home assistant has that address, it can talk to thread devices. You should be all set.

fast cloak
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well the only Ethernet cable at home right now is my 30m cable and it is kind of a hassle

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sorry, but could you guide me trough the wireless setup aswell?

silent oar
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you can also try turning off that wifi multicast option you found on wifi router and switching back to wifi

fast cloak
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i am gonna switch to the ethernet setup later this week

silent oar
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it may or may not work, i don't know :(

fast cloak
silent oar
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try just the hub first, i guess?

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since the hub is what is sending multicast packets, so it's more likely to be affected.

fast cloak
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okay, hub is not plugged in anymore and multicast is off

silent oar
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unfortunately, home assistant will probably remember the ipv6 address for a while

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so things might work right after you switch but break later, or you might have issues right away

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you can try rebooting the machine that HA is running on to get a fresh network config for testing.

fast cloak
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or do I have to use the terminal addon to run sudo reboot

silent oar
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settings -> system, then the power icon in the top right is the normal way

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open advanced options at the bottom of the dialog and it'll have a reboot option

fast cloak
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ahhh thanks

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I was using home assistant container + python-matter-server before

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so I did not know about these options lol

silent oar
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yeah, with HAOS they add additional system management options into the home assistant user interface so you can manage the whole system with a browser.

fast cloak
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but they also take away way to much control

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like i cant even install HACS rn

silent oar
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you can install HACS on HAOS, works fine (I have it)

fast cloak
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because the addon install link does not work

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and yeah

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the fd adress is gone

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so I might need to do both over WIFI?

silent oar
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you could try toggling the multicast option you found on both devices to see if that helps

fast cloak
silent oar
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ok, if toggling that didn't help on wifi then I guess your router simply doesn't like router announcements from wifi devices :(

fast cloak
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:( rip

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anyways, so should I keep it on or off?

silent oar
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probably best to use the default setting if it had no effect on this

fast cloak
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also

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I might buy the Dream Machine Router one day

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wait lol

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I have a subnet option

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I could make a subnet with my smart home devices

silent oar
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unifi equipment is sometimes tricky to get working with matter stuff, since it has a lot of enterprise features.

fast cloak
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you think that would help?

silent oar
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also do not use subnet or vlan features - if you have stuff on a different subnet, then that will definitely prevent home assistant from being able to talk to matter devices correctly.

fast cloak
silent oar
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if your wifi and wired lan are on different subnets, that would prevent it from working.

fast cloak
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no way

silent oar
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to add matter devices, your phone, the thread border router, and home assistant all need to be on the same subnet

fast cloak
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is the max ap thing maybe the issue?

silent oar
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no, that all seems fine

fast cloak
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anyways, thanks for your help

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now we know

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ethernet all the way

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I will try wireless home assistant rn too, just so I have tried everything

silent oar
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what wifi router are you using? it might be good to know in case other people have the same problem

fast cloak
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Cisco NE1611B

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i think

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nope

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SDMC NE1611B

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the ai really is great at marketing bad things

image.png
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anyways, luckily it is a router just for bosnia

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so not manny people will have this issue

silent oar
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Anyways, not sure what is up with the HACS install. It can be done semi-manually. Go to Settings -> Apps (aka Add-ons) then "Install App" in the bottom right. On the screen that opens, click the dotsvertical menu in the top right, then "Repositories". Paste https://github.com/hacs/addons in the text field, then click Add.

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After that, the "Get HACS" app will appear in the list when you scroll down

fast cloak
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hey @silent oar now that I have found two ethernet cables, one for each, ive noticed that the process of adding a device does not even get past connecting

fast cloak
silent oar
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oh... then maybe your router is isolating the wifi from the ethernet. So now your phone can't talk to the thread border router :(

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it's possible it might work when everything is on wifi?

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not sure if there is any good solution to this other than getting your own wifi router (and setting the isp-provided one to "bridge" mode and disabling wifi on it, if possible)

fast cloak
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I mean

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I do have a spare tp link repeater lying around

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also

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update

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now all the errors are gone

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(I swiched to full wifi)

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but I get a discovery timed out

fast cloak
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I can only add devices to aqara home

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if the hub is on a 5ghz network

silent oar
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that's probably because your phone is on the 5ghz network

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so i guess not only is ipv6 router announcements between ethernet and wifi blocked, but also between 2.4ghz wifi and 5ghz wifi blocked too

fast cloak
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yep

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ur right

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now that everything is on 2.4Ghz

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I could add all of the devices

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Thanks, and I think I can mark this as closed.

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One last question though

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If I moved everything to 5Ghz, would matter wifi devices still work?

silent oar
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there's a lot of matter wifi devices that are 2.4ghz-only

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but they don't require the ipv6 router announcements, so they might still work even when the matter controller is on ethernet or 5ghz