Thread wireless protocol?

The new Apple TV 4K has a Thread implementation!

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I submitted a feature request for the Z-Stack-firmware we often use for Zigbee support:

ConBee support is also in the works:

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I saw in your link, that there is already Thread support for CC2652 sticks.
After more research i found that offer with preflashed Thread firmware!
According to the seller, the stick is still compatible with zigbee2mqtt. Now i‘m wondering, if thread devices work over the zigbee2mqtt interface in HA too.

The seller is from germany like me. I think, i will contact him for more information. Stay tuned

edit:
for all the developers beneath you. The openThread repo for CC sticks:

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Very interesting indeed!

After some research i found out, that zigbee2mqtt doesnt work with Thread firmware.
An alternative is „wpantund“ which is unforutnately no HA addon.
So there is no way to get a Threadborderrouter running in HA at the moment?

wpantund is a user-space network interface driver/daemon that provides a native IPv6 network interface to a low-power wireless Network Co-Processor (or NCP ). It was written and developed by Nest Labs to make supporting Thread connectivity on Unix-like operating systems more straightforward.

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sorry for double post.
Please help vote!

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It looks like project Connected Home over IP (CHIP) is now called “Matter” and the Zigbee Alliance is now called “Connectivity Standards Alliance” (CSA).

But I guess Thread as one of the underlying transport layers of Matter remains “Thread”.
At least for now.

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Good read on the current status of Matter:

…and the same blog did an interview with Paulus about a week ago. Matter/Thread was a central topic.

Paulus says that they already tried to integrate the Matter open source lib into HA. But it didn’t work out. They will definitely keep trying and Home Assistant / Nabu Casa even applied to become a member of the CSA (Connectivity Standards Alliance = former Zigbee Alliance)!

The interview with Paulus starts at 00:44:00 in the podcast:

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Thanks for the link, Paulus also said they’re planning a new home assistant product with zigbee and matter support out of the box, that’s quite nice!

Yes. The interviewer stressed multiple times that HA still requires a level of user nerdiness and is missing the plug and p(l)ay character of products like Hue. I guess the new HA hardware aims for a user experience more like a Hue or Smart Things hub and will contain a Matter (or at least Zigbee) RF component right from the start. So people can fire it up and pair their gadgets right away.

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Probably very interesting for us ESPhome users:

Announcing ESP32-H2, an IEEE 802.15.4 + Bluetooth 5.2 (LE) RISC-V SoC | Espressif Systems

"The combined availability of IEEE 802.15.4 and Bluetooth LE connectivity enables building devices for the upcoming Matter protocol that intends to bring interoperability for Smart-Home devices."

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That was to be expected as Espressif is an active member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance. That also means the Matter protocol will be supported. That is obviously an awesome news, thanks for sharing @Jpsy.

The future of IOT and home automation is exciting!

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So is it worth to wait for this?

Will we be able to control devices through zigbee the same way we do it now with wifi (f.i. control a temp sensor attached to a esp32 h2 using zigbee/matter)?

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Maybe, but I guess it’s more like you will have the ability to make whatever you want (like a sensor for example), so it can be a ZigBee end device (runs on battery) or a Zigbee Router (runs continuously on a outlet/USB for example).
The way you control it depends both on how you flash the ESP firmware obviously (using HomeAssistant or other).
Let’s hope the price will not be too high. There’s so much opportunities with that device!

How to build a openthread system:

How to install openthread on Raspberry:
https://openthread.io/guides/border-router/raspberry-pi

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Please vote for OpenThread integration here!!!

Is not usable on HA yet, vote for the integration request. OpenThread connectivity

Thread is a network protocol, that will be used by Matter (amongst other), unless I get that wrong.
Think of it of a kind of Wifi.

There is no integration for Wifi in HA, that’s an OS area of concern.
What kind of integration would you want to see for Thread in HA itself?

Thread will be launch in 2 months. It is used in home pod mini, google nest wifi and google nest hub max, amazon eero wifi, and some devices like bulbs from nanoleaf and plugs like eve. It is like zigbee or zwave with one usb stick HA will be abble to act as a router, the same as zigbee o zwave.

This one is the stick

I just one a feature for plug that stick and have a Thread border router, the same as zigbee o zwave
Probably with an addon.