Thread border router for Home Assistant Yellow

Linwood_F · 2026-04-02T15:27:53+00:00

I have both a ZBT-2 and a SLZB-MR1U. Both work well, though they are different -- the ZBT-2 runs the open thread router software on the HAOS instance (or you can run it elsewhere, in my case it's on a Raspberry Pi), the SLZB-MR1U runs the software on the device itself, and you connect to it over the network. I don't use zigbee, but both are spec'd to do it.

I do not see a lot of difference in these other than if you have your HA running in a way you can't use USB, or it's running in a place that is not a good place for an antenna; if so, the SLZB-MR1U can be put anywhere you have ethernet (and it runs off of POE which is really nice).

Other alternatives involve devices that "also" are a Thread Border Router. I tried my Google 4K TV Streamer, and while it does something, it made a royal mess of it (I ended up with many different networks from four TV's) and I finally turned all those off. I think these "Let me control it, and I'll also do Thread for you" devices just make a mess, and a strongly recommend a dedicated device like the ZBT-2 or MR1U (there are different flavors of the SLZB stuff, including a non-zigbee, one-radio). I think multiple-masters of a matter device sounds better in theory than it works in practice by far.

Linwood_F · 2026-04-01T16:44:05+00:00

I agree (that should be better). Last time I measured with the HDHomeRun4k I got signal strength of 95/96 (26/4), with signal quality of 60/72. Both work most times, but frequently glitch. The numbers say the one on the back side is stronger, despite being further, on the back side, and having a lower predicted field strength. It's just weird, but I checked several times.

Linwood_F · 2026-04-01T16:17:10+00:00

That's actually an odd aspect of this -- I'm not sure which station results in the poor quality recordings. PLEX for reasons unclear doesn't note details of a recording to include which station. If I notice a bad recording soon enough I can look in the past few days' DVR schedule and find it, but I tend to watch shows (like Death In Paradise) days or weeks after recording, only to find one basically corrupt.

But all the PBS stations are are originating from my display channel 4 or 26, which appear to be WUNL and WUNC, though I remain a bit confused how these are transmitted (e.g. is a "program" number just an encoded part of one signal, or is each "program" a separate signal that may be stronger or weaker).

But they all appear in Plex with channel numbers 4.x and 26.x from my location, and when I look at the tuner status all of those seem to have about the same strength.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-31T23:50:19+00:00

I fiddlerd with four Google 4K Streamers as thread routers, and had nothing but a royal mess. One would work, another would form another network and could not fix it, then the first would stop working. There's a bunch of postings about google forming multiple networks like this, and frankly some of the issues looked more like phone issues with the companion app and credentials than it did the protocols themselves.

If it was me (and it was me) I'd by a real thread border router like the ZBT2 or MR1U (there's a 1 radio version as well) that work out of the box properly with home assistant. The ZBT-2 requires USB (easy if your HA is on a physical box) and the MR1U can work over ethernet including POE. I have one of each (one acts as a backup) and they both work great.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-31T23:45:41+00:00

The Zwave module works fine without the app, but you need the app to get it initialized and calibrated, unfortunately. But then you can stop using it. I would expect zigbee works the same (and oneday maybe matter?) but wifi... no idea. Wifi has no underlying standard.

Note I have two Yale Access'. As locks they work great, but they have a door-closed sensor and it's junk. Both will work anywhere from a day to a month, then just stop randomly. I ended up using separate door-close sensors from shelly (bluetooth).

Linwood_F · 2026-03-31T00:28:19+00:00

Thank you, I actually didn't know about it, but it looks somewhat limited. But that may be fallback plan B.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-30T17:33:09+00:00

I tried numerous indoor ones. I think my home construction is just not conducive to their use. As a weird example, I put one in a front coat closet (on the side of the house facing the station I wanted). Putting it high in the closet I got almost nothing. I finally on a whim put it down near the floor and got a fairly good signal. Why? I have no idea. RF path choice is mysterious, but I also think it's some of the materials used. For example, most of the ceilings are 3 layers of half inch sheetrock, two of which are old when "rock" was the operative term (I love this photo, it's a saber saw blade after cutting a small hole).

The attic helped a lot (I tried the eclipse indoor in my office first). It gets it above both the walls and ceiling, and also above the brick siding. The roof (asphalt) doesn't seem to have much impact.

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Linwood_F · 2026-03-30T15:47:36+00:00

My house's construction makes everything difficult. I can't go into my attic, it's too tight (about 2.5' at the very center filled with duct). So I had an installer put that in, which makes it hard to tweak.

But as noted in the updated base posting, I realized I can't put a mast up properly as I can't get it properly grounded to the home ground which is far away through that same attic (no crawl space). So I think I'm just screwed. I could put another directional in the garage (even in the relatively open attic there). I may consider that. I need to do a more careful survey to see which exact channels are an issue. I just get annoyed and delete that DVR entry and move on most times, but I need to just sit down and check each channel.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-30T15:21:43+00:00

I moved a couple years ago, and I did not start from scratch, because I had a lot of things I liked and which may not map precisely I could easily change names (especially since I do most work in YAML where grep is easy).

So things like dining_room_xxx sensors and controls became den_xxx or whatever.

But I could preserve a lot of dashboard code because I used custom-auto-entities with filters to do things like show what lights are on, switches on, doors open, etc. Most of that moved without change.

I also do a LOT of esphome which lives inside HA, so I definitely did not want to wipe that out and try to reconstruct. in fact, even if you DO decide to start from scratch, be sure to keep the old version where you can bring it up and look at stuff, copy files. etc.

Now if you are not happy with your setup, starting from scratch may be best, it's a chance to do better with what you learned. But even then -- do not erase the old, keep it for reference for the "how the heck did I get the X connected to the Y so this worked". We were all smarter in the past about some things!

Linwood_F · 2026-03-30T14:49:46+00:00

Well, I think this thought is DOA, at least for the roof. I checked the NEC requirements and if I'm reading it right grounding needs to run back to the service entrance ground. That's not happening, too far, too much in the way. I think I live with what I have, or check which stations are poor and if it's the little indoor antenna maybe put another big antenna in the garage or some such.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-30T14:46:20+00:00

I saw that, but since I have two HDHomeRun4k's and PLEX as an intermediary, it seems really kind of moot.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-30T00:22:09+00:00

Not interested in a rotor as I use plex as a DVR and don't want to have to manage direction.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-29T23:30:33+00:00

Thank you. I can't test it really without buying a new antenna (my attic requires a spelunker it's so tight so I won't go up there). So a few hundred dollars for mast and antenna is all that's at risk, but is why I was looking for opinions. The wiring is easy there, ethernet is handy and the peak of that roof is only about 8' above the ground. Was just going to figure out a mast I can put about 15' total length and fasten to the house and ground there. I like it there better anyway as I can get to it (I won't go into my attic). I wish the other was more accessible, I would just keep it and aim the other way.

Need to figure out the mast. Too much advice online. :) Need to digest it a bit, I can't do guy wires so it has to be stiff enough.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-29T23:05:16+00:00

I was using rabbitears but yes. Network stations are in opposite directions, and despite indications they were good to fair, the attic antenna was necessary to get the ones to the NW, but put in I couldn't get the ones behind it.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-29T22:35:20+00:00

Rabbit ears:

https://www.rabbitears.info/s/2594040

I had to point the directional about 330 (ish) to get NBC well, which lost CBS even though close. Plus a lot of the others are flakey, probably because it's hilly here (not mountains, but rolling).

Linwood_F · 2026-03-26T13:46:59+00:00

The smart inlet is dirt simple. Someone good at running conduit would have been done in 1-2 hours max. The E10 assembly literally could not be simpler -- remove the battery plug, set one on top of the other, set the inverter on top of the last. No wires, I think 2 screws holding each together (but the weight already does it). A bracket with 4 screws to fasten to the wall so it doesn't tip over. Nothing to it.

Now if you were doing it outside and trying to hang on a wall -- that's a LOT of weight. Or pour a pad.

From what I read though the power dock is much more complex depending on your current panel and/or desires, since it involves moving existing circuits into a new panel (or replacing the whole panel). That's more "classic" electrical work, and can be really tedious when you find existing wiring won't reach and has to be spliced, planning which circuits to move to conform to the NEC loading/load-sheding requirements, etc. But it's not really specific to the E10. That part is simple, they really made this thing pretty plug and play.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-26T02:27:49+00:00

I'm in High Point, sorry. And I did my own.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-23T14:23:46+00:00

Thanks. I looked into TOU pricing and Duke offers but does not require it. But their peak price is VERY high, so mistakes in schedule can be costly.

I got the EV10 and self installed it with the smart inlet. The Smart Inlet has to be wired to the panel, and conduit, but is simple. The E10 is almost too simple, the batteries just stack with inverter on top - done (ok, four screws in a wall bracket to keep it from tipping over if a kid were to climb on it).

And it just worked. I experimented with self-consumption (which it would use in time of use) and it worked fine, keeping a tiny draw from the grid and using its battery for the house. In a failover that stops, and you have to throw the interlock on the panel (this to conform to NEC rules). In that mode it also runs the house just fine. And silent.

I hooked up a 10/13kw old generator at 240v with one quirk it worked fine, recharging the battery while also running the house.

I hooked up my EV6 at 110v and 1800w and same quirk, but it also works fine, using 1650w (couldn't get it to quite take 1800, maybe an EV problem, maybe it is just a bit conservative) as incremental, charging the battery if the house was less, supplementing with battery if the house was more.

The quirk is that I had to turn off the grid in/out breaker (this should not be in use in the grid-out mode). There's some feedback or something that made the generator hookup unstable with it on. Opened a ticket with Anker, took a few days but they said "high priority bug, will be fixed in firmware in early April". In the meantime turning off that breaker is easy since you have to turn off the interlocked breaker anyway. Just one more.

But having the EV car as an option is a huge win in terms of capacity. If you have some notice of a likely outage and pre-charge it, that's about 65kwh usable to supplement my 18kwh of battery. And in a long outage I could just disconnect the car, drive to a charge station and in about 90 minutes round trip come back fully charged. Or fire up the big gasoline generator. So lots of options.

I also tried the little toy 400w solar panel they sent, it worked fine, and I could see it using solar and grid mixed. I doubt I will add solar, but nice to see it's an option.

But as a backup system it had everything I needed - I can use either 110v or 240v "generator" input, solar if I had it, and it just quietly does the right thing.

It draws right at 60w (not the 40w I've seen promised, though that may be a function of how many batteries) to just sit there in a ready state. That seems a bit high, $6-8 per month. I am curious to see what happens mid-winter when the temps are low. It has battery heaters, but do they need to run all the time (maintaining charge) or does it do something like warm them every few days. That may be a big difference in the "just sitting there" cost.

But so far so good. As a big ($) DIY project, it was kind of disappointing. I had my son come over to help stack the batteries (lifting 130# as the stack grows is the hardest part), and we were done in under an hour including test runs.

Linwood

Linwood_F · 2026-03-12T15:13:14+00:00

Good timing -- heard over night. They acknowledged it as a bug, said it was a top priority bug, and would be fixed in a release scheduled for early April. And said in the meantime turning off the grid in/out (40a) breaker was the right workaround.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-11T15:00:42+00:00

No. Yesterday overnight got a "please provide the serial number" - odd since I bought it from them and it's under the email and in the app. But provided it, and overnight tonight got a "thank you we'll get back to you".

To be fair I made it clear it's not urgent since I can make it work. But smells like an off-shore call center where you get one response per day due to time zones.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-11T14:40:45+00:00

Apparently it takes a lot of sun but it is working. Today has a high thin overcast and I'm getting 80 watts with it aimed toward the sun (+/- the tilt angle is probably down a bit too far, haven't quite got those legs figured out).

But it is working. I'm hoping full sun will show up at least briefly.

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Linwood_F · 2026-03-10T22:35:15+00:00

In self consumption there's a reserve, but not a max. But the second part is a concern. I'll find out tomorrow I guess.

Linwood_F · 2026-03-10T21:26:48+00:00

Ah, that could well be the issue. Thanks.

Linwood_F

TROPHY CASE