I have some Nanoleaf lights that are connected to my Apple TV’s thread network. Ideally, I’d like HA to handle all my lights and I have a Yellow. Should I create a new Thread network and move the lights to it or set it as a Border Router to Apple TV’s Thread Network?
Ideally, you create one Thread network with 2 border routers, one from the yellow and one from the Apple TV
You can have HA control the lights though your Apple TV network. At least, I had HA join my Google Nest Hub thread network, so I expect it to be the same for Apple.
You can have the skyconnect from yellow join the same thread network, but you shouldn’t need to. I have no thread dongle attached to HA right now for my Thread network. Seeing that multiprotocol isn’t living up to expectations and seems to be advised against, I would use the Skyconnect for Zigbee and have HA control your lights through the thread network of your Apple TV. If you are not intending on using the Skyconnect for Zigbee, you can add it to the Thread network to strengthen that.
Ok- so looks like letting HA handle Zigbee and use my Apple TV’s thread network as the main one is what both the answers above recommend. Will do that. Thanks!
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So according to this guide, if I enable OpenThread Border Router, I will lose access to Zigbee???
I have no Yellow so I could be wrong. But the purpose of this guide as I see it is to decouple skyconnect from zigbee, remove multiprotocol support and use the Skyconnect for Thread only. With a $20 zigbee dongle you can then reanable Zigbee, just not using the skyconnect in Yellow.
And as said, you can enable Thread on Yelllow while keeping the Skyconnect for Zigbee, but that is not what that guide is for. You don’t need the Open Thread Border router integration if HA is not the border router, just the Thread integration.
I would expect you need to do something similar to switch from multiprotocol to Zigbee only for best Zigbee performance. Be sure to backup Zigbee settings first though before you try anything.
This tells you how to use AppleTV as a thread border router. You need to have the Thread integration running, and use the IOS companion app to import the credentials from the Apple TV. Then set that as your preferred Thread network.
If you have the thread integration running, the.n you need a thread network adapter, like the one in Yellow already.
It can run either thread-only firmware or multiprotocol firmware.
The integration will then be as thread border router, either on an existing network or as a new network.
In order to actually use your thread network you will need another integration that use it, like the Matter integration and addon.
If you just want to use the Apple device as a thread border router, then you just need the an intehration that connect to the Apple device directly, like the Matter integration and addon.
I’m not sure if I have the terminology right. I’m happy to let Apple handle the thread network but I’d like to be able to automate lights using the HA Yellow. I’ve followed the guides above- the companion app got the details from Apple Router but I’m still not sure how to move my Nanoleaf bulbs to HA
Well, the terminology is important, especially because Thread is a transport protocol, so talking about Thread is not that informative.
It tells us how they are communicating, but not what.
It like saying you are using the internet, but not what on the internet.
I hinted to a Matter (over Thread) setup, but I was not really sure.
Matter is a protocol that can be built on top of Thread to make Smart Home devices work together, but there is also HomeKit from Apple.