So i have been battling my Homey Thread devices for so long. I have just used the new Thread feature IN HA an found that i have 3 Thread networks on my netword.
Homey
Eero
Aqara
So no wonder i am having major issues as things seem to be competeing.
I have 3 x Eero Pro so these woud be the best board routers.
So has anyone got any ideas how i fix this mess. I am slightly technical but please bearwith me if we go back and forth.
Not to drive you away from homey and to Home Assistant but the Thread tool on that helped me see the networks and mamage them. I found i had multiple. I found one was totally locked but others could join it.
Make one “thread mesh”
If like me Its confusing, i used google And chat gpt and its been solid since - for the first time ever.
Are you in Homey or SHS?
The homey app (for pro) will show you your preferred network. I believe Aqara can be made to mirror/extend an existing thread network. But you WILL have to delete all devices on the aqara hub to do it. Its not a short process but its worth it
So from what i could see and looked on google. The eero is locked and also the Homey Pro… It sounds easier that it seems. One network i would hve hought would be the ogical way. But when i look the directions seem misleading. it sks for things that do not seem to exist…
Did you pair all your devices to the same thread border router ? - or did you pair them to different border routers ?
If you delete a device that is not in the HA network completely, do a factory reset (important) and join it to your HA border router, is it in the HA Thread network. It may be difficult to detect your device, so notifying the Mac Address may help. As a first test, you may simply note the number of devices per network and compare them after this test.
Note it is important to do a factory reset before joining to avoid that the device keeps old credentials for a network. Matter devices can be part of multiple Matter fabrics and maybe multiple Thread networks.
Thanks for the reply. So, the favored next work would be my Eero network. But since going through the process yesterday of pairing all to the network, found there is software incompatibility that once added they go offline quite quickly. I picked this as I do have four routers at the points in my house to distribute the network load. So, you would think this would be the best option. I also purchased an Ikea Digieria Hub.
The problem here is the fact I know have 3 possible Thread networks, Homey Pro, Eero and Ikea D. Seems the Eero and Homey are really closed off and cannot merge to others. The Ikea one can but not with what I have.
Also, the Myggspray sensors I want to use are battery operated so that is the issue as they cannot route.
Matter/Thread is new to me and thought since most devices are going this way, it was the way forward.
Any ideas on how I can easily extend the network. Is it as simple as adding some matter/Thread Bulbs or Plugs?
At this point any ideas, thoughts and comments are appreciated.
Ok so i know its not your favoured option but turn off eero thread - i believe this can be done in the advance network settings. Make Homey the preferred thread network and tell ikea to join that network.
You say you cant do that? Why sorry? From memory, the ikea app makes this really easy
Buy a few Thread plugs (i have onvis) and pair them first. They will help to create a better network. Then add your end devices.
Ikea devices paired to the ikea hub dont matter -they will bridge over when you add the ikea hub as a matter device.
Thread and matter are supposed to be a simple, solves everything, all smarthome type of language but as we can see its a bit more fussy than that.
To echo what @Pascal_Nohl says. The credentials is a big one. The device stores them as does your phone. Ive only got my head around this recently. Factory reset them and remove them from the matter menu on your device (ios) otherwise you could have more issues
Hopefully you can make one master thread network, that will give you stability
This is the tricky bit. Perhaps a pro use can add a bit more here but you cant “tell” Homey which thread network to join. It will decide. If your using a pro you can check this on settings, thread.
Firstly make sure you find your Homey threas network name and then using the ikea app, tell ikea to join that or use HA thread tool to unify the networks.
Remove all matter devices you have stored in your phone matter menu and turn off eero.factory reset those devices
Then use either home assistant or the thread tool for ios (in testpilot) to check how many thread networks are visible - you should see your main homey network and then ikea underneath which should be broadcasting the same name.
Homey will / should then auto join the only thread network available.
Then you can add devices to Homey using matter. Start with a few plugs to strengthen your network, then move onto any other devices you have.
You then add your ikea as a hub and any devices in ikea will bridge over.
That is generally correct, but only if the Ikea Network joined the Homey Thread Network. Pesonnally, I would pair the Ikea devices directly to Homey. If the Ikea hub works better for updates, I would just pair them to the Ikea hub with multi-admin, update them and unpair delete them again in the Ikea hub. As Ikea Hardware is cheap and not the most reliable I would even turn the hub of avoiding it gets part of the Border Routers (just my opinion). My network is meanwhile relatively stable and I started with daily problems. All my devices are paired to Homey and all my border routers (2 Apple TV, 2 HomePod, 1 HomePod Mini) are part of the Network, but with not a single device paired to them. Sometimes the key of success is simpliness.
Not all of them, and I am still not sure whether I would call the system completely stable.
I still have a few IKEA devices that occasionally disappear. Unfortunately, I cannot update their firmware, but when they become unavailable they are usually quite easy to recover.
I also had a Flow for my garden fountain that failed to run one morning. I cannot prove it, but my assumption is that the device was unavailable at the exact moment the Flow was triggered.
The difficulty is that many things changed more or less at the same time, so I cannot point to one specific action and say: this fixed it.
I replaced my complete network and Wi-Fi infrastructure, moving from a Fritz!Box and ASUS access points to TP-Link Omada. I changed the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi channel, adjusted several Wi-Fi parameters, and then there was also the latest Homey update.
Taken together, the system is now running relatively stable.
But I would still not describe it as rock solid in the way my old Hubitat system was.
And that is also why I remain cautious. @Rammstein had a stable system for quite a long time, and this morning he reported that it had suddenly become completely unstable again and that he was struggling to get it back into a working state.
So with Homey, I think it is sometimes difficult to know when “stable” really means stable.
I had this recurring issue until recently when I changed the 2.4Ghz channel in my router from auto to channel 11. I initially tried ch6 but still got unavailable devices. Since changing to channel 11 the issue has gone away. Even all my new IKEA devices are now working perfectly.
