Thread Border Router

Homey Self-Hosted Server
1

Hello everyone,

I am currently testing Homey as replacement for Home Assistant and I like the idea to run the homey server in my TrueNas. I was also able to easily integrate the Philips hue hub or my shelly devices, this ist really great, very easy and especially important for me, reliable.

But now I am struggling with integrating my Thread devices, something which is very important for me for the future if I want to switch to Homey. What ist the best way?

Currently I see only the solution to buy an Homey Pro, or Homey Mini with the drawback that these devices have much less power and storage than my NAS (which means it will be slower) and I like the idea that all important stuff for my home runs on my reliable TrueNas. Buying the Homey bridge does not help me because the bridge does not support thread (as far as I know). Another disadvantage is, that none of the Homey diverse supports PoE, what I personally prefer. For the mini and the bridge this can be solved by using an PoE to USB-C Adapter but for the Pro I would need an additional adapter which does not look quite good.

Are there other methods to integrate Thread, especially a Thread Border Router into Homey that it acts as on Homey Pro or Homey Mini?

  • Apple HomePod?
  • Aquara M3 Bridge (does support thread an matters)
  • Ikea Dirigera Bridge (also support matters and thread)
  • …?

Another reason why I would prefer a dedicated separation between Hardware (Bridge, Thread Border Router) and the homey software ist, that my house has multiple floors and thick brick walls, therefore I will need at least one border Router per floor to have a reliable network.

Currently I use multiple Eve and Ikea devices which all support and rely on Thread.

I hope someone can help me on this topic or has found a good working solution.

Thanks,

Florian

2

That would mean creating a separate Thread network per floor, which doesn’t sound right. You ideally want one Thread network, and in that network have enough Thread router devices (not border routers) to span all your floors. Similar to how Zigbee works.

From what I’ve read, if you have a Thread border router (of any kind), Homey-SHS should be able to pick it up and use it, provided that SHS is set up correctly (in terms of IPv6 requirements).

Homey Self-Hosted Matter-over-Thread - Matter pairing 404 error: "PairSession with ID ... Not Found"
3

The Bridge uses WiFi, not your Ethernet connection. So you can only power with PoE, network is still via WiFi. The Pro Mini has both an Ethernet and a USB-C port, so it should be possible with a converter. The regular Pro also has WiFi, so you don’t need the Ethernet adapter (it’s optional)

4

Thank you for your response. Yes I have currently an Aquara M3 as Thread router and I it find the thread devices an integrate it. But forwarding this devices to Home Assistant does nor work very well (not stable). On Homey I currently did not find a possibility to integrate the Aquara M3 that it is “used” as Thread Border router for Homey. I have added the M3 and Homey recognized it as root_node and aggregator but that was it. It is nor used as “replacement”. If the homey bridge would support thread, than it would be a completely different thing.

Florian

5

You don’t add the M3 to Homey in order to have Homey use it’s Thread border router. Where did you find this info?

When you add your first Matter-over-Thread device, you’d be able to select the Aqara as TBR, or any other device with a TBR function you own and which is in reach.
Please read this article on how to select a “foreign” TBR
https://support.homey.app/hc/en-us/articles/12010766903580-Thread-for-Homey-Pro-and-Homey-Pro-mini