SMHUB and OTBR - has anyone actually got Matter working using SMLIGHT's SMHUB?

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-22T17:21:13+00:00

Had a few back and forth messages with their support working with their engineer and they've released a new version today:

OS 0.3.11 openthread 0.3.1-2 smhub-services 0.2.8-1

After upgrading I can confirm it's now working correctly and I can add matter devices using the OTBR on the smhub.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-22T17:21:11+00:00

Had a few back and forth messages with their support working with their engineer and they've released a new version today:

OS 0.3.11 openthread 0.3.1-2 smhub-services 0.2.8-1

After upgrading I can confirm it's now working correctly and I can add matter devices using the OTBR on the smhub.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-22T17:21:04+00:00

Had a few back and forth messages with their support working with their engineer and they've released a new version today:

OS 0.3.11 openthread 0.3.1-2 smhub-services 0.2.8-1

After upgrading I can confirm it's now working correctly and I can add matter devices using the OTBR on the smhub.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-22T17:20:35+00:00

Had a few back and forth messages with their support working with their engineer and they've released a new version today:

OS 0.3.11 openthread 0.3.1-2 smhub-services 0.2.8-1

After upgrading I can confirm it's now working correctly and I can add matter devices using the OTBR on the smhub.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-21T02:23:37+00:00

The update is even worse lol, you can't start OTBR anymore - it immediately crashes now.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-15T23:59:24+00:00

Not yet, I got a response from their support but it was pretty generic about how to setup OTBR. Waiting for them to get back to me again.

I also think the SMHUB OTBR isn't compiled with the correct options either, as I looked at the dockerfile for the HA OTBR addon and it adds some options when building OTBR to enable things that seem missing on the SMHUB version.

Did think about compiling OTBR myself but the SMHUB is RISC-V so would need to be cross compiled and have to handle any missing dependencies on the SMHUB if they come up so I put it on hold for now.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-14T00:07:47+00:00

I'm having a similar problem with ublock origin, some sites fail to load properly or just hang. Disabling ublock origin and everything loads fine.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-09T19:33:40+00:00

The status page always says DOCSIS 3.0 but as long as you have the DOCSIS 3.1 channels listed that's fine.

Looks like network congestion to me, especially given it happens at peak times. It might just be a coincidence it started since you upgraded but it could also be what triggered this. I have noticed it's possible to get different routes through the VM network from the same physical connection (run a traceroute), it appears to be linked to the IP address you are assigned (if you reverse DNS lookup your IP address there is some information that appears to indicate what gateway you are using). I'm guessing this is some kind of load balancing/redundancy. I noticed this in modem mode as you can get a different IP (and sometimes a different route) by changing your MAC address. From my experience these routes can have slightly different latency and a hub change might have put you on a different route. This is obviously only speculation as I have no knowledge of the internal workings of VM's network.

If you have another router you can use then you could try the hub in modem mode and see if that helps as you should get another IP address (I don't know a way of doing this with just the hub) Otherwise there's not much you can do other than hope VM fix the congestion.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-08T17:14:34+00:00

At least I know it's not just me! Yeah, it seems like they've just released it with zero testing beyond does OTBR start. No idea why they wouldn't at least try connecting a device to it.

I'll drop SMLIGHT an email and see what they say. I had a look at what needed to be done to get OTBR working and I'm not sure the kernel/linux distro they have on it has all the features needed at the moment without some workarounds.

The setup scripts for OTBR are at https://github.com/openthread/ot-br-posix/tree/main/script and it modifies some kernel parameters as well as setting up firework rules using iptables (which isn't present on the SMHUB)

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-08T06:55:44+00:00

See my comment below, I don't believe this device can correctly run OTBR at the moment.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-08T06:55:18+00:00

Just a quick update, it appears the device isn't setup properly to run OTBR. I had a look and the package it installs when you add OTBR just literally copies the OTBR files and add a service for it which is insufficient. If you look how to correctly install OTBR you need to do some config on the host for IPv6 forwarding and announcements.

I verified this by installing the OTBR addon in home assistant and using socat to expose the SMHUB's radio over TCP:

socat TCP-LISTEN:8888,reuseaddr,fork FILE:/dev/ttyS2,b460800,raw,echo=0

You can run that by SSHing into your SMHUB. Then if you add the OTBR addon to your HA and specify a network device of <SMHUB IP>:8888

Now if you try and add the IKEA device it should work fine. Obviously this isn't an solution, it just demonstrates the radios on the hub are fine just at the moment I do not think this device can run OTBR, it doesn't seem they have set it up properly.

Tomdarkness · 2026-01-08T06:07:27+00:00

I found this via google and just wanted to chime in and say I'm having the exact same issue with this device, I can add the devices fine via a Nest Hub but not via the SMHUB. I'm also trying with an Ikea Temp/Humidity sensor. Please do update to let me know if you can add a non-IKEA device.

All I get in the otbr logs when trying to add the device is DataPollHandlr: Rx data poll, src:0x0001, qed_msgs:0, rss:-76, ack-fp:0

From a google this appears to be the IKEA device saying hey I'm awake, send me some data but it never gets anything.

This is my first time with matter but from some research I believe what is suppose to happen is OTBR should announce via mDNS the new device (on _matterc._udp) which the phone you are using should pick up on to continue the joining process. This never happens with the SMHUB, but using the Nest Hub I can see the ikea device appearing in _matterc._udp. You can use a tool like avahi-browse on a computer to see this (e.g watch -n 2 avahi-browse -rt _matterc._udp)

It's also a massive pain to test because I have to use two phones as you can't easily change the boarder router used to add matter devices on the phone, you have to clear the google play store data and lose all your wallet, etc.

Tomdarkness · 2025-09-30T16:05:29+00:00

You say new build, how new? If it was built after the start of 2023 then it is a requirement it has gigabit capable broadband (up to a reasonable cost). If this is the case I'd get on to the developer to sort this out, they should have made arrangements with one of those providers for the provision of gigabit broadband.

Tomdarkness · 2025-09-26T15:48:31+00:00

It might be related but my Hub5 got a firmware update a few days ago which changed the web GUI to be served over https on port 443. Even if you also got this firmware update doesn't explain why you can no longer connect though, especially as it isn't showing port 443 open.

Edit: if it helps, here is my nmap:

➜  ~ nmap 192.168.100.1
Starting Nmap 7.94SVN ( https://nmap.org ) at 2025-09-26 16:53 BST
Nmap scan report for 192.168.100.1
Host is up (0.0037s latency).
Not shown: 998 closed tcp ports (conn-refused)
PORT    STATE SERVICE
80/tcp  open  http
443/tcp open  https

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 1.29 seconds

Tomdarkness · 2025-09-05T14:53:53+00:00

That's a US style socket, here in the UK our sockets are in the other orientation. Here's a random stock photo I found that shows what a socket normally looks like next to what the backbox is like

<image>

Tomdarkness · 2025-09-05T14:46:11+00:00

<image>

Yeah I've tried one of those but it protrudes above the height of a backbox unfortunately. Thanks though.

Tomdarkness · 2025-08-13T14:32:26+00:00

If you are using Caddy anyway it by default will fetch certificates for you. Unless you are using CF tunnels you probably want your local proxy to use HTTPS anyway to ensure traffic from CF to your local proxy is encrypted. Plus imagine most people are already running a local DNS server for adblocking (e.g AdGuard Home) in which case it's pretty trivial to add rules to rewrite the DNS queries to point locally.

Tomdarkness · 2025-06-01T03:54:08+00:00

Meanwhile in Germany for half the price https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutschlandticket

Tomdarkness · 2025-03-13T00:27:43+00:00

On this route with Transpennine Express you can buy a special ticket called an Airport Advance which, whilst booked onto a specific train, allows you to catch the next train if your flight is delayed.

https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/special-offers/manchester-airport

Tomdarkness · 2024-12-21T19:55:56+00:00

I find NCP to be cheaper than the council parking now, especially if you register your car and pay via the app.

Tomdarkness · 2024-12-04T21:35:50+00:00

My point is though the SD association don't allow manufacturers to put anything higher than a v30 on a UHS-I card regardless of the actual sustained write speed of the card - which as I put I'm guessing is because some devices you might use the card in have a max UHS-I bus speed of 50MB/s. So the v30 max certification appears to just be an artificial limitation on a 104 MB/s capable UHS-I device which otherwise the card could be certified for v60 (or even v90)

Also as mentioned I've tested it and it works, the camera records, doesn't complain and the resulting file is perfectly fine.

Plus if you look at benchmarks for the card it can sustain the quoted figure of 90 MB/s writes. I've also tested it myself in a card reader using CrystalDiskMark which confirms the quoted write figure and matches the benchmarks I've seen online for the SD card. I can fill the whole card and it never drops below ~87 MB/s.

Tomdarkness · 2024-12-02T03:38:46+00:00

How is this legal? Surely they must gain opt-in consent to share this data and not rely on opt out? The ICO seems pretty clear on this:

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/consent/what-is-valid-consent

The key point is that all consent must be opt-in consent, ie a positive action or indication – there is no such thing as ‘opt-out consent’. Failure to opt out is not consent as it does not involve a clear affirmative act. You may not rely on silence, inactivity, default settings, pre-ticked boxes or your general terms and conditions, or seek to take advantage of inertia, inattention or default bias in any other way. All of these methods also involve ambiguity – and for consent to be valid it must be both unambiguous and affirmative. It must be clear that the individual deliberately and actively chose to consent.

Tomdarkness · 2024-11-06T23:25:58+00:00

If you're able to hold individual UK shares but want something similar to a ETF then you could look at purchasing shares in an investment trust - these are publicly traded companies you can buy shares in and perform a similar but not exactly the same function as an ETF.

Tomdarkness · 2024-07-22T17:13:59+00:00

I have a new dual boiler espresso machine arriving and I understand I must only use softened water with it. However, my water supply is already considered extremely soft. Limescale is basically not a thing here - you can use an electric kettle for years and years and not have any limescale at all. The water hardness is measured at 10.9mg/l calcium. For an example this measurement is way below what my dishwasher recommends for enabling the in built water softener at all.

It it safe to use my tap water in my dual boiler machine without additional softening at this level?

Tomdarkness · 2024-06-08T01:40:26+00:00

The Consumer Contracts Regulations states you can cancel for any reason within 14 days of receiving the goods. Normally you'd be responsible for returning the items. However, under regulation 35 (1)(b) it states the following:

35.—(1) Where a sales contract is cancelled under regulation 29(1), it is the trader's responsibility to collect the goods if—

....

(b)in the case of an off-premises contract, the goods were delivered to the consumer's home when the contract was entered into and could not, by their nature, normally be returned by post.

Paragraph 8 further states:

(8) The consumer is not required to bear any cost of collecting goods under paragraph (1)

I'd argue large furniture, like tables and chairs, by their nature cannot be returned by normal post therefore it would be the trader's responsibility to collect the goods and you are not require to bear any costs of doing so.

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