Understanding Thread/Zigbee and Wi-Fi Channels and How to Avoid Common Mistakes

That would be great, but Homey currently does not even allow the user to select the Thread channel during setup.

Even afterwards, the channel cannot simply be chosen in the normal interface. In Developer Tools you can reset the Thread channel, but you do not select a specific value. Homey chooses another channel, so if the result is unsuitable you have to repeat the process until you eventually get one that works well with your Wi-Fi environment. That can become quite a guessing game.

Your idea would therefore be very useful in principle.

During setup, Homey could ask which 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi channel or channels are being used and then suggest or select the Thread channel with the least expected overlap.

However, I also see some practical problems for average users.

Many consumer routers are configured to use automatic channel selection, and additional access points often use Auto as well. The user may therefore not even know which channels are currently in use, and different APs may use different channels.

Homey could select the best Thread channel at the time of setup, but that would not necessarily produce an optimal result without also changing the Wi-Fi channel plan. Even if the initial configuration were perfect, an access point using automatic channel selection could later move to another Wi-Fi channel and create interference that did not exist during setup.

So I am not sure that fully automatic Thread channel selection based on the current Wi-Fi environment would be the best long-term solution.

What I would really like to see is a simple choice during setup:

  • Auto

  • or Manual, allowing the user to select the desired Thread channel directly.

That would keep the setup simple for normal users while giving advanced users control over their RF design.