How to connect OpenThread Border Router to Matter Home?

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Created Oct ’22

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Does anyone know if this is even supported at the moment? I've tried pairing a sample light application based on Silicon Lab's EFR32 but it's unable to find the OTBR on the network. [module](GitHub - SiliconLabs/matter: Matter is creating more connections between more objects, simplifying development for manufacturers and increasing compatibility for consumers, guided by the Connectivity Standards Alliance.) I'm also using the RaspberryPi 4/RCP combination as directed by Silicon Lab's documentation. I have no problems pairing the devices to the OTBR directly through its chiptool interface but Home isn't discovering the Thread network or showing me options to add the OTBR devices.

I'm currently running iOS 16.1 beta on my iPhone and I'm using a HomePod Mini which is on version 16.0 and has the HomeKit Matter Support profile installed.

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Answer 1

nicolaswehmeyer OP

Nov ’23

Having a similar issues here!

I am currently using Home Assistant in version 2023.11.0 (latest) as my main smart home system and also connected a SkyConnect dongle to it in order to be able to operate ZigBee as well as Thread/Matter devices with it.

I just purchased a Nanoleaf Essential Lightstrip that uses Matter and whenever I try connecting the lightstrip to Home Assistant using my iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 17.0.3 (latest) the Apple Home dialog pops up from within the Home Assistant app and allows me to select the Nanoleaf Lightstrip. Once I click to add it to home, I receive the message that a Thread Border Router is required. Also if I try adding the Lightstrip directly from within the Apple Home app, I get the same warning.

In my case, Home Assistant is providing the Thread Border Router capability, since I don’t own a HomePod or Apple TV. To do that, Home Assistant uses the Open Threat Border Router that should play nicely with the SkyConnect stick mentioned above.

I‘ve done a lot of debugging and the Threat Border Router is definitely announcing its services which I confirmed on my iPhone using an app called Flame, but also using the CLI tool dns-sd on my Mac.

It seems to me, that iOS for some reason ignores the OTBR and thus doesn’t let us pair matter devices and I would need to purchase an HomePod or Apple TV to make it work, whicj would totally differ from Matters purposes.

Any idea how this could be fixed?

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Answer 2

yocaminobien OP

May ’24

I set up the ESP Thread Border Router , one from the OpenThread site. And it does not work with apple home. Or at least I have no Idea how to make Apple iPhone recognize that my wifi network has a border router. https://openthread.io/guides/border-router/espressif-esp32 We got an open standard that still required proprietary devices to run it. (Apple TV, HomePod) Could it be fixed?

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