Matter over thread open thread border with Dirigera

[Gokalp]

Hello

I have SLZB-MR1 as open thread border router configured in HA. I have thread sensors in a long range and I can’t install 2nd SLZB-MR1 as OTBR. Does Ikea Dirigera work as OTBR such that I can see it as 2nd OTBR in HA and connect some thread devices to Dirigera? I think Homepod mini works this way and I can see it as a OTBR in HA.

Regards

Gokalp

[wmaker (Tommy Long)]

The issue is getting HA/Dirigera Thread credentials to the Diregera/HA TBR … at the moment some have had success, others not.

Joining DIRIGERA existing Thread network to HA Thread network

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 …

[Gokalp]

Thks Tommy for reply. Sorry I couldnt understand the link you shared. I will appreciate if you quote what should I try to enable dirigera as 2nd OTBR connected to HA. SLZB- MR1 has some thread devices connected. I want to use Dirigera as 2nd OTBR assigned to HA to connect some thread devices at a long range.

If I use Homepod Mini, can I use in HA paralel to SLZB- MR1. Or does it have the same problem like drigera?

Regards

Gokalp

[wmaker (Tommy Long)]

There are perhaps two parts to this:

• Backhauling a long distance node(s). Take a look at TREL in this thread. This involves a TBR far away (in your case Homepod mini, or Dirigera and another TBR close by (i.e. HA) with both TBRs supporting TREL.
• Dirigera. To use it for backhauling, you would need it and HA to be on the same Thread network. This is not so easy which was what the link I shared earlier was about. The same is true for the Homepod mini.

[peterxian]

The DRIGERA previously supported the OTBR REST API for credentials management, but unfortunately IKEA recently “patched” that, making it substantially more difficult to join a new DRIGERA to an existing HAOS+OTBR mesh.

The DRIGERA now supports the new Thread v1.4 credential sharing feature, but unfortunately HAOS+OTBR does not — yet. (if you’re running OTBR in your own docker container then you have more flexibility to update for this feature). I believe, but haven’t confirmed, it uses the ot-ctl ba ephemeralkey command to activate a one-time passcode for DRIGERA to join your mesh.

HomePod does not support either management feature, so most Apple Home users end up configuring their HAOS+OTBR to use the credentials from Apple Home, rather than the other way around. I’ve read reports that if you use the iPhone Home Assistant companion app to “Send credentials to phone” before you setup HomePod, that it will grab those credentials from your iOS keychain when you do the HomePod setup. But if you’ve already setup HomePod, you probably want to avoid adding a second credentials dataset to your iOS keychain because that tends to complicate (break?) commissioning new devices.