Home Assistant + SkyConnect USB stick with Zigbee, Thread, Matter support

hardware production

SkyConnect  USB stick （with support for Zigbee, Matter, and Thread

Protocols – Zigbee, Matter, Thread

priced：$29.99


Hardware Requirement

.Server  hardware
光猫
└── .router wifi
    │   ├── 吸顶灯
    │   │   ├── turn_light_off_bedroom.yaml
    │   │   ├── turn_light_off_lounge.yaml
    │   │   ├── turn_light_on_bedroom.yaml
    │   │   └── home-assistant_v2.db
    │   ├── 灯泡
    │   └── 灯泡
    │       └── Yeelight color 1S
    ├── Aqara M1s gateway （zigbee 3.0）
    │   ├── montion sensors
    │   │   ├── Aqara人体传感器E1
    │   │   ├── turn_light_off_lounge.yaml
    │   │   ├── turn_light_on_bedroom.yaml
    │   │   └── home-assistant_v2.db
    │   ├── say_hello.yaml
    │   └── blubs
    │       └── Aqara智能灯泡T1
    ├── 米家中枢网关gateway （ble mesh ）
    │   ├── motion sensors
    │   │   ├── turn_light_off_bedroom.yaml
    │   │   ├── turn_light_off_lounge.yaml
    │   │   ├── turn_light_on_bedroom.yaml
    │   │   └── home-assistant_v2.db
    │   ├── say_hello.yaml
    │   └── sensors
    │       └── react.yaml
    ├── Raspberry Pi 3B  - Home Assistant Core 2022.3.0
    │   ├── SkyConnect  USB stick  -->a Matter server (also known as a Matter Hub)
    │   │   ├── Matter-ready end devices 
    │   │   ├── turn_light_off_lounge.yaml
    │   │   ├── turn_light_on_bedroom.yaml
    │   │   └── home-assistant_v2.db
    │   ├── say_hello.yaml
    │   └── sensors
    │       └── react.yaml
    ├── frp 
    └── git

Make Python virtual environment + Home Assistant Core run automatically

other matter hub


https://www.seeedstudio.com/ReTerminal-with-CM4-p-4904.html

https://www.seeedstudio.com/Odyssey-Blue-J4125-128GB-p-4921.html


I just bought another 3 orvibo switches from BangGood. ~$22AUD each. I tested the earth pin and it is connected.

Home Assistant Yellow and Home Assistant Skyconnect will be both Matter ready because of the Thread hardware inside them. 

Also, you will be able to turn any Home Assistant server running on a Raspberry Pi, X86 machine into a Matter server by just using a Bluetooth module and WiFi/ Ethernet support. 

However, in this case, only Matter devices with WiFi support will be able to connect to them.

To build a Matter server (also known as a Matter Hub), you can use a Home Assistant Skyconnect USB stick and connect it to your Home Assistant Server.

However, this is not supported yet. According to SkyConnect product page, Home Assistant is already working on the Matter implementation but more information will come after November.

Once Skyconnect releases the Matter support, reTerminal and ODYSSEY-X86 will be able to serve as Matter Hubs so that you will be able to connect other Matter-ready end devices to them.

pair matter devices

Let me walk through what a simple setup process of a Matter device with Wi-Fi will look like.

Turn on the Matter device
Connect the mobile phone to the home Wi-Fi network and turn on Bluetooth
Scan the QR code on the Matter device
The phone will send the device credentials over to the Matter server on the same network
The matter device will connect with the Matter server

1

Home Assistant OS + Skyconnect + Aqara Door and Window Sensor P2

I installed the Matter (Beta) Add On and as I am using the Skyconnect Multipan, I think I have all the correct dependencies installed in my Home Assistant OS installation on an Intel Nuc.

The pairing was a charm with the iOS Companion App and I got my first Matter Device paired in my Home Assistant.


Updating the Matter Server to 4.8.3 solved the issue for me.


https://community.home-assistant.io/t/aqara-door-and-window-sensor-p2-with-thread-and-matter-becomes-unavailable-and-comes-back-als-the-time/590222/14

Have Matter server setup, have the SL Multiprotocol addon enabled with the SkyConnect firmware :Silicon Labs Multiprotocol addon failing intermittently causing HAP, Thread and Zigbee issues #3192 (comment)

https://github.com/home-assistant/addons/issues/3192#issuecomment-1856354160

https://github.com/home-assistant/addons/issues/3359

HAOS on RPi

I’ve set up the OTBR add-on (along with the Matter server), and on the surface things look as expected - both the Thread and OTBR integrations were auto-added to HA, and homeassistant.local shows up as the preferred (and only) network in the Thread integration.

OTBR add on version 2.4.5
System: Home Assistant OS 11.4 (aarch64 / raspberrypi3-64)
Home Assistant Core: 2024.1.6
Home Assistant Supervisor: 2023.12.1

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/solved-broken-haos-thread-border-router-setup-with-skyconnect/683707

I run it with just a SkyConnect.

There are a few tricks you need to know.
Firstly you need a iPhone or Android to commission a device to Home Assistant.
I only have an Android, so these steps are for this OS.

On the Android Companion App open Settings → Companion App → Troubleshooting (I think that is what it is called in english, but it list logfiles and other tools to diagnostics as description of the item).
In this next window click the Sync Thread Login Credentials (Again it might not be named exactly that, but close to and there should not be that many options and it should be in the bottom)

It should say either something with “Added …” or “Already using the same credentials”.
The trick here is to run it again and make sure that it does not say “Added …” the second time.

If it does then you need to clear the Google Play Services Cache, which might clear a lot of other stuff, like login to services and credit card informations for Google Play and websites and so on, so make sure you know you informations before hand.

The way to clear the cache is Settings → Apps → See All Apps → Google Play Services → Storage and Cache → Manage Storage → Clear All Cache
Now repeat the syncing of the thread credentials above.

Anotehr thing is you need IPv6 enabled and if you are on VLANs, then you HA and mobile phone need to be on the same VLAN. The iphone will disconnect from WiFi and reconnnect again, so make sure that it choose to connect to the right network when doing this (disable auto-reconnect to the other networks you might have available at home).

Make sure that ipv6 is activated in your network and the HA Server has a static ipv4 and also a static ipv6 address
Flash the stick with Thread firmware and plug it in.

https://community.home-assistant.io/t/unable-to-add-devices-to-home-assistant-with-matter-via-thread/660341/19

Install OpenThread Border Router addOn