HA OS 2026.4.4 on a Nuc. Sonoff Zigbee Dongle-Max and it is working fine. Then bought some Matter devices and what a nightmare I’m having. First of all Sonoff gives instructions for running Zigbee and Thread on the same antenna, That didn’t work and I lost everything configured. So then tried a second Sonoff and that wanted to migrate my Zigbee and I lost everything so I thought to try a ZBT-2 as a Thread Antenna. So set that up and it is installed but unlike the Sonoff I can’t find out how to add Matter devices without a phone. I can understand using a phone for convenience but to not allow an alternative is just crazy. Going Settings, Matter, Options and add does nothing. No error message. I set the thread and WiFi credentials manually but I’m sure I shouldn’t have.
I keep reading how easy matter is and maybe if I used a mobile it would be but I can’t get it to work at all. Any ideas what I am missing?
I guess you need to do some research abou Matter-over-Thread.
In short: Matter/Thread devices NEED a Bluetooth device for the “onboarding” process: the thread credentials can only be sent to the device by BT.
Once a matter/thread device is added (commisioned), Bluetooth is no longer needed. Then all data is getting exchanged via Thread-Network.
There are two ways for the oboarding process:
a simple USB-Bluetooth Dongle ( e.g. an ASUS BT500 ~ 8€) physically connected to HA without integrating it!
a phone and the HA Companion App which uses the phones BT to send the Thread cerdentials to the device.
I would recommend option 1) which is the more hasslefree way and way cheaper if you dont have a phone (you really dont?)
Do some reading/searching the web for matter over thread and home assistant beforehand. Your WiFi-Router has to be set to IPv6/mDNS enabled as well.
DocMark, There is a Bluetooth device that was used and integrated into HA and I do have WiFi IPv6 set up. Thread is set up and reporting it is working OK. I just can’t add any devices.
I have a phone, just not a SMART phone.
Matter looked so good on paper but is working out to be really a lot of hassle and Zigbee just powers up and pairs without issue. The matter devices may be cheaper but is it worth the hassle. In fact I spent money on them that is wasted atm. Someone must have an interface that can add them via a GUI.
Well that happend when you apply to be a beta tester.
Zigbee and matter / thread will not work over the same antenna. I mean it will on paper but not in real life.
Stick with things that are working like zigbee. Leave matter / thread alone. It will take time till this mature.
You don’t need a smartphone when you have a bluetooth connection that is NOT used/ integrated in HA. It doesn’t work with the built in BT from a RasPi ( what hardware is your HA running on?).
So you have Zigbee running on a sonoff stick and a ZBT-2 for Thread, right?
If it’s running on a RasPi, you’ll need an extra dongle for BT.
Here is a good explanation:
At the moment zigbee seems more hasslefree in regards to adding new devices but matter has a lot more options in regards to sharing devices between different ecosystems and is easier to maintain e.g. when you have to change the radio channel and so on.
It might be challenging to setup at first but in my opinion it is worth the effort. And the ZBT-2 stick is a great piece of hardware for setting up a Thread network.
Another frequently overseen detail:
You HAVE to enable ipv6 manually in the Terminal!
So put in: ha docker options --enable-ipv6=true
And then restart HA.
You have to set ipv6 to “auto” under System/network as well.
DocMarc, Thank you for that. II had a quick look at it appears that although everything says it is OK it does not look configured correctly. I’ll check the IPV6 as well. I just realised I have IPV6 on all my systems but HA is installed with the HA OS image. Perhaps it isn’t set up.
I realise that we are at the early stage of Home Automation and Matter especially but there are many things that a beginner, like me, assumes that would be set up that you have to do manually. Zigbee is an example of a mature installation. Matter is, well, another matter. Pun intended.
I’ll get it working and thank you all for you help and input.
No. It is a Mini Nuc. 16Gb, 1Tb and a good processor. I’m intending to run Frigate and a small LLM on it alongside HA. If it won’t handle the LLM I’m get another Nuc just for that.
So what is the Bluetooth device you want to use? Does it have some built in BT? I’m asking because the matter server app needs a completely unused BT device that hasn’t bee integrated/added to HA. Sounds funny but it’s the only way it works without phone.
The Bluetooth device I have is the one built into the Nuc. It is allocated in HA so I’m guesssing from what you say it can’t be used by Matter. I don’t have any devices on it as it is 0 used out of 5. I may try removing it and see if that works but I’m concerned about screwing up everything I have set up.
I think I’ll be waiting till Matter gets a bit more mature and becomes easier. Zigbee, a couple of click and done, Matter, a long winded and complex process.
No! Don’t give up, after all you have already achieved! You’re just a tiny, final step away from success and the ZBT-2 is the best piece of hardware for setting up a solid Thread network.
!-)
Of course it is your decision if you want to stick to zigbee. It’s just my personal opinion because I’m withdrawing from zigbee in favor of Matter.
And all you need is a simple Bluetooth Dongle for about 5-8€\$ to add devices.
Idk if you can “uninstall” the built in BT-Chip in HA and use it for onboarding of Matter devices, but it guess it’s worth a try after storing a backup of the current system. One big advantage of HA is the ability to experiment around almost riskfree because you can always skip back with backups.
DocMarc, Well I did carry on to see how it would go because I certainly see Matter and Thread as part of my setup. Especially now that several low cost Matter devices are coming out from various sources. I couldn’t disconnect the inbuilt Bluetooth from HA so I have ordered a new one from Amazon today. Big annoying but such is life.
Just a quick sidenote: after i got me some new Ikea devices to play around with, i gave the phone method (android) another try and once of a sudden it worked again. Might have been the deleting of the play services data in Android, which i tried during my attempts and never touched again. Whatever, the direct approach is more reliable and i'm glad to have both ways working.
I find it technically extremely interesting how Matter over Thread is evolving and my system is pretty rockstable at the moment.
