Connecting Nanoleaf matter bulb to HA thread network

Hi,

I was hoping for a little help connecting my Nanoleaf matter bulb to my home assistant thread network. This is my first matter over thread device and I’ve tried connecting it to HA through the companion app by scanning the code, but it just gets stuck in a loop connecting to a network and then fails. I then tried connecting it first in the Nanoleaf app but when I get the option to connect to a Thread network HA doesn’t show up, only my Google hub.

I have configured my SkyConnect with HA and as far as I can see it is correct.

I have attached a couple screenshots of the Thread and Open Thread Border Router.

Any idea why it might not be working?

Cheers

Dan


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In general, the HA OTBR is not recommended yet (instead Apple TBRs, and Google TBRs are), but nevertheless, I and others do use the HA OTBR.

Here is a thread if interested:

Hi Tommy

Thanks for the reply.

After restarting everything adding the bulb in the Nanoleaf app automatically now adds the bulb to the Google nest thread network, but despite now also seeing the home assistant thread network in the Nanoleaf app it does not give me the choice to choose that network (see attached). Can I change the network the button connects to to the home assistant network and also is it possible to have the nest hub border router in the same network as home assistant?

Thanks
Dan

This is a scenario I’m less familiar with, but once you have a device (NanoLeaf bulb) commissioned on a Thread network, and consequently on a Matter Fabric, one is suppose to be able to have that device open up a commissioning window so that the device can join another Matter Fabric, in this case HA Matter (not via HA Thread). How to open up this commissioning window with NanoLeaf on Google Nest, I don’t know.

I suppose the other alternative would be to remove the NanoLeaf from the Google Nest Matter/Thread, and factory reset the bulb, and try again to see if it can join the HA Thread network

I can add it from the Nanoleaf app to HA Matter (see images below) but still can’t combine the two border routers on the same network (silicon labs multiprotocol with the Google Nest Hub). Hopefully somebody may know how this is possible.

If you can make the Google Nest the “preferred” network, I think you can next add the HA Thread network to this preferred list and HA will migrate the HA Thread to match the channels, credentials, etc. of the Google Nest Thread network and thus make them one Thread network.

Ah ok I hadn’t tried switching the preferred networks around and looking for extra options, thanks for the suggestion

Before I do this do you know if my ZigBee channel from the skyconnect will change as well, I heard somewhere that the channel for skyconnect thread and ZigBee should be the same or it can cause issues.

Yes, if Zigbee and Thread are both using the SkyConnect (via Multiprotocol AddOn), they have to be on the same channel.
and Yes, if you migrate HA Thread to have the same “Dataset” as Google Nest, then HA Thread will change the Thread channel as well to that of Google Nest, and so it means you will need to migrate your Zigbee to that new channel as well.

Ok perfect thanks for the advice

Hi my Nest is in channel 17 but I often see it drop of the home assistant thread integration and from the thread options in the Nanoleaf app, I am slightly reluctant to change the silicon labs to channel 17 as well as it looks to be unstable. Silicon labs is currently in channel 20, is there any way to check stability of channels and move the Nest channel somehow?

I don’t know about Google Nest products regarding how they determine what channel to use, nor how to change a channel. I suspect Channel 17 is dropping out due to WiFi interference, but its just a guess. I tend to use the higher channels, like 25.

Ok I think I’ll keep two networks until there is way of changing the nest network, I guess it’s still early days for Thread. Thanks for your help

So I managed to get this working!

I definitely tried a lot of things, but this worked for me (Just now, while I was on this post looking for help)

  1. Reset bulb (Off/On 5 times)
  2. Link to Nanoleaf app.
  3. When it comes to linking to Matter - I was unable to link directly to HASS, So I linked to Google home in a last ditch effort, which worked.
  4. Linked to HASS from Google Home.

Came up straight away, I will test again with the other bulbs I have here.

Some background on my system.
HASS running on a little PC with Skyconnect
All my Aqara hubs were able to be hooked into HASS using matter without hassle (4 in total)
My Skyconnect and Nest Hub seem to be in the same Thread Group, which is what the bulb connected to, but I also have 4 Apple home pod minis in another group, and my TV in a 3rd group.

It did originally try to connect to the home pod minis (which are connected to HASS too) originally, but after a few resets it connected to the skyconnect.

I was about to give up, and just box them up until Matter was further developed, but here we are!

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I documented my issue here I can’t add my Nanoleaf essential matter smart bulb in any way · Issue #103257 · home-assistant/core · GitHub

I successfully paired my bulb with an android phone. No external hardware required (except for my sonoff dongle and HASS of course)

iPhone did not work in any way I tried

I have finally had success with adding these bulbs to home assistant. I initially failed trying to add them through HA, so I used the Nanoleaf app. I paired them in Nanoleaf, it found my HA Yellow border router and added the bulbs to the network. I was then able use the Nanoleaf app to add the bulbs to a Matter hub, and HA came up as an option.

Now if only they would re-connect after powering on vial the wall switch …

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