Newbie here and having some issues. I recently started setting up my smart home through HA. I bought Smartwings roller blinds to install in all my windows (new home). I also purchased the Nest X Yale lock, with the Nest Connect Hub. I also have a ZBT-2 which I thought I would need for my Thread Border Router.
When I went to setup my blinds in HA, it told me to use the companion app. Through some trial and error, I realized that the Nest Connect Hub appears to be a TBR as well and Google insisted that I use that as my router. So, that’s what I did and everything worked swimmingly! Until now…
I hooked up and powered on a Google Streamer 4K and began to set it up. Shortly after that I realized that all of my blinds are offline. After some Google research, it appears that the streamer might be the culprit, as others have had issues with it as well. So, I disabled the Thread connection on the streamer. But, my blinds still won’t come back online and when I look at the Thread networks in HA, it shows the Google network, but shows that there’s no border router found. I’ve attached a photo for clarity. I’ve tried restarting the Nest Connect Hub, but haven’t had much luck. When I search for Thread networks on my Android device, it finds none.
That’s very strange and no idea what happened, but I can at least point a few things out…
The “Google-AB44” was at one point known by HA and somehow it got the thread credentials (shown by the (i)), but now it does not see any mDNS advertisements from the router (that’s why is shows “No border routers found”). Was this the Nest Connect Hub or is this the Google Stream 4K
HA not seeing the Nest Hub’s advertisements may mean that its Thread functions got disabled somehow. Maybe see if there are any settings to enable it.
Using either Nest Hub or Google Stream as a TBR means you don’t need HA’s OTBR.
I have a similar setup and let HA join the network set up by my Nest hub gen 2 devices. I since added several streamers without problems. So something is amiss, but it is not per se the streamers joining.
What I do experience somethes is my Nest Hub dropping of Thread, what you seem to experience. Did you try taking them off power for a minute? That helps in the rare cases it happens to me.
The other thing that strikes me is that the nest network seems to be considered considered another network. Did you ever import the credentials from Google? Is it possible your HA border router somehow reset its credentials and left the Google based network?
Because if the devices were never on the Nest Thread network, a streamer could never have kicked them off HA.
Sorry for the delayed response! Moving into a new house AND trying to get HA up and running has been time consuming, to say the least. I seem to have figure out (most) of my issue. I used the wife’s iPad to connect the Matter devices and it worked perfectly! All Matter devices are now using the ZBT-2 instead of the random “Google-AB44” TBR. I still have no clue what the “Google-AB44” was, or is, and I guess I never will! lol. Thanks for the help! I’m sure I’ll be back for more advice!
