Joining DIRIGERA existing Thread network to HA Thread network

[cputoaster (Andres Meyer)]

I have a DIRIGERA with its own Thread network set up, probably because I was playing with it some time ago in it’s beta phase. There are no Thread devices connected to it. When trying to join any Matter devices (e.g. a Nanoleaf bulb) that is already joined to my HA Thread network through the Home Smart app, the bulb just joins the Home Smart Matter controller via LAN / the HA Thread network, not making the DIRIGERA border router join the HA Thread network. Is there any way I could force that? A DIRIGERA reset would be possible but not nice with having to re-pair all ZigBee devices. Is HA trying to develop something that would allow to generate the 9-digit joining code that can be entered in the Home Smart app?

I did see this:

Please add support for Matter 1.4 network sharing done with 9 digit code ·...

and

How to merge Thread from HomeAssistant and HomeKit networks?

I have also 2 Networks. [IMG_0550] Years ago I merged my Home Assistant Thread Network with AppleTV-Thread. Now there is the new Ikea Thread-Network after the Dirigera-Hub got its firmware update last year. But I found no way to merge these 2 networks. The Ikea app doesn’t even show that there is a Thread network, let alone an option to switch networks. Did anybody know how to add IKEA’s OpenThread network to the HomeAssistant one?

But they are both not solving the problem atm.

[wmaker (Tommy Long)]

@cputoaster

Is there any way I could force that?

Looks like you were close. This user says if you take a device and commission it to the DIRIGERA for the first time (as I understand the DIRIGERA is both a Matter Controller and TBR), that the DIRIGERA will take the Thread credentials stored on your mobile device (the same mobile device that you used with the HA Companion App to commission devices on your HA Matter/OTBR). To be clear, I believe this would be a newly commissioned device (not one already on your HA Thread network). In other words, I don’t believe using a Matter “sharing” code will do the job.

[mocelet]

@wmaker

I don’t believe using a Matter “sharing” code will do the job

There are reports of users that had the network joined by sharing from other platforms. I believe it doesn’t matter how you do it, what triggers IKEA app to read the credentials is adding a device.

[cputoaster (Andres Meyer)]

Thanks for that, I did try syncing a freshly reset bulb now, but it did again add it to the DIRIGERA gw2-… Thread network, not the ha-… one. I checked in the Thread part in my Android Settings and found that only the gw2-… is actually there. In HA I see both, with HA as the preferred network.

I guess this could in this case be related to this:

Android Phone Can't See HA Thread Network

I have Thread network running on HA using the OpenThread Border Router add-on with a ZBT-1. I am able to add matter over Thread devices to HA using my android phone (Pixel 10 pro xl) without any issues, but then when I try to see said Thread network on the same phone (through the phone’s settings nothing shows up). Should I be concerned? I’ll give some context / more info. I used to have a Homey Pro with it’s own Thread network which I eventually factory reset and sold it. At first I could…

Any more ideas?

[wmaker (Tommy Long)]

@cputoaster

I checked in the Thread part in my Android Settings and found that only the gw2-… is actually there.

The Android Thread “syncing” is something I haven’t completely figured out in terms of directionality, but I suspect that if HA has Thread credentials-A and Android has Thread credentials-gw2, that the “syncing” (done by the HA Android Companion App) will prefer gw2 and write Thread credentials-gw2 to HA, and if this correct, then after syncing, you should see a (i) icon for your DIRIGERA Thread network. Once there is an (i) icon for an entry, it means that HA has the DIRIGERA Thread credentials, and you can then choose it as preferred and HA will migrate the HA-Thread network to match the DIRIGERA Thread network.

[cputoaster (Andres Meyer)]

Yeah, that’s the strange thing, I don’t get any (i) icon or lock icon (like I have for the HA thread network) for the DIRIGERA one, so I can’t even merge everything to that network.

[durd]

I’m very much in the same situation.
The DIRIGERA will just not join my ha- network using ZBT-2. Not once have I gotten an (i) icon in HA to make gw2 the preferred network.

I’ve tried pretty much everything. What actually made it worse was resetting the HA border router. The HA companion app would never sync the new credentials, even though it claimed to have updated the credentials, and the matter device tried to join a non-existant network.
I had to clear the storage of Play Store Services, which resets Google Pay among other things, and reinstall Google Home as it never announced to the companion app that Matter was available (perhaps clearing storage on Home is enough?).

After clearing Play Store Services etc, I removed DIRIGERA from the IKEA app, turned off the DIRIGERA, and resynced the HA credentails using the companion apps troubleshooting feature. It said to have added the credentials.
Then I was able to add a device to the ha-network.
I turned DIRIGERA back on. Factory reset it, and re-added it to the IKEA app.

Using the HA app I can now still add devices to the ha-network and not the gw2-network. But gw2- will not join the ha-network as another thread here said it would.

The closest I got was sharing the device using Matter from HA and adding it to DIRIGERA that way. There is still two thread networks though.

Just now adding the device (a new IKEA KAJPLATS light) using IKEAs app adds its networks credentials to Android and starts using that instead. I removed the device and added it again using the HA companion app to verify this.
When using the HA companion app to add the device, it was never added to the IKEA app even though Android uses the gw2 network. Not sure if that is a feature or not.

It seems like DIRIGERA won’t add its network/credentials to Android until it’s created its gw2-network, which happens when adding a Matter device using the IKEA app. I then assume that Android prefers Thread v1.4 over v1.3 which HA/ZBT-2 uses. The lack of the ha-network in Androids “Thread networks” menu would somewhat confirm that. Although Android has never shown the ha-network in this list regardless of if gw2 existed or not.

Although I’ve been testing with one Matter-device, re-adding 12 lights, 13 remotes/shortcuts, 3 plugs and recreating 7 scenes - not counting fixing the HA automations - isn’t that fun. So I might just use the gw2-network until HA/ZBT-2 catches up with Thread v1.4 and I can join gw2 to the ha-network.
I’ll Matter-share the devices that HA uses for automations.

Edit:
As @cputoast mentioned in a different thread, turning off the DIRIGERA hub will let Android add the matter device to the ha-network. That’s one way of doing this, not the greatest way…