Using external device as Thread border router

Configuration Matter/Thread
1

I need some advice/understanding of how to use an external Thread border router for my local Matter devices.

Previously I was using the SkyConnect with the multiprotocol firmware to handle my thread routing, but that feature no longer works and I’ve moved over to using it just as a Zigbee device. What I’d like to do instead is to use an Amazon Echo as my TBR, but not use it as a separate Matter controller. Is this possible? My Matter devices are already registered in my HA Matter Fabric, but are now showing as offline.

Thanks

2

I suspect you would need to reset them and commission them to the echo, since HA no longer has a way to directly communicate with them.

You could also buy a second zbt and set it up in thread mode, I have 2 zbt, one for zb other for thread.

Or if you didn’t want another zbt, you could get a different zb dongle and switch the zbt to thread.

3

But isn’t that the point of a TBR? The Echo is on the same network. Can’t HA use it to communicate? I assumed the connection would be from HA → IPV6 → Echo → Thread → Matter Device.

4

yes but the devices will need to be commissioned to the echo, because previously they were controlled by the skyconnect.

the only way the echo knows about them, was via skyconnect/ha

5

Yes, this is possible. Thread doesn’t work like Zigbee, it’s just a network for connectivity and has no control protocol, which is why it needs separate Matter or HomeKit protocols to provide the control (over the IP network). Border Routers are literally just routers, analogous to your WiFi router, that move packets back and forth between subnets.

Every device using the same dataset credentials can join the mesh, and any TBR on that mesh can route packets to the WiFi subnet.

Unfortunately Amazon does not provide a user interface to change the Echo’s Thread dataset credentials, so unless all of your devices are already using the same credentials as the Echo, you might need to change the devices to match the Echo. This is a limitation of Amazon’s implementation, not of Thread in general.

But if your Echo is on the same mesh as your devices, and the same WiFi as your HAOS, then it should already be border routing. You should see the Echo in the HA Thread integration settings. It should be “preferred” with an (i) icon and a key-in-box icon. Once your phone’s HA app syncs the credentials, assuming there are no other credentials on the phone, it can be used to commission devices to the preferred Thread mesh and to the HA Matter fabric.