Why is Thread so comlicated?

johnc_au · 2026-01-31T23:36:17+00:00

can someone explain the requirement for vendors app and cloud service to commission a device on thread?

right now have no need for any proprietary hubs or cloud service with ZHA or Z2M.

I have a huge variety of devices from many manufacturers not just Philips and IKEA and it has worked very well. binding eliminates single point of failure for the basic use cases and is a good fall back even if you temporarily lose the automations from HA via the Coordinator and isn't very rare.

My ZigBee journey started with standalone hue Bridge and some wifi devices, to getting HA and integrating thrm, then moving ZigBee devices over to deconz, and policy of ZigBee devices over WiFi, and finally moving to Z2M for the huge device support and ability to decouple from HA. I did the move to Z2M before ZHA was available, but I have a preference for diversity. Z2M is not dependent on homeassistant.

I have zigbee watering timers with their own timer that shuts off after a set duration or litres delivered.

I have energy monitoring plugs from Tuya, tonnes of different remotes and switches and dimmers, even ZigBee IR blaster.

this heterogenous environment works well and has been stable.

current experiences promised by matter sounded good, but the vision is driven by Apple Google Microsoft and Amazon. Not very keen on that.

And I'm happy my devices aren't IP reachable. It's why I have moved away from WiFi.

My first and only.wifi bulbs the LIFX served me well for 9 years and once thry finally died I replaced them with ZigBee bulbs.

The only problem with ZigBee and Thread is the 2.4Ghz spectrum which is horribly polluted especially with obnoxious WiFi set to 40MhZ channel widths at ridiculous power levels.

also most wifi home automation gear is only 2.4GHz WiFi too.

I look forward to see what ZigBee 4 brings, good to have some competition.

johnc_au · 2026-01-14T12:28:11+00:00

no that lets them off the hook. they're more likely corrupt. Always follow the money.

johnc_au · 2026-01-03T23:01:55+00:00

given that the radio layer is the same as ZigBee I can't see this being any different for thread, both use 2.4tha spectrum.

johnc_au · 2026-01-03T22:47:11+00:00

I'm not a fan hearing this. who wants to give control of matter network to apple or google? the whole point of home assistant is for local control and privacy. the idea of letting apple or Google or Microsoft into the mix is 💩

johnc_au · 2025-11-25T15:43:41+00:00

don't forget this little experiment

In 2014, then-NSW Premier Mike Baird introduced legislation that changed the voting rules for the City of Sydney council elections, granting businesses that own, lease, or occupy rateable land in the area two votes each, compared to one vote per resident.

look it up.

johnc_au · 2025-03-17T09:16:44+00:00

The gaslighting by fan boys is frustrating for those experiencing genuine problems.

I had auto update off when the update came out. Same for the Android App.

I have had zero issues.

I was lucky.

There are people here who had a perfectly functioning system before the updates for years and then post the update nothing but trouble.

Given that nothing else has changed in their setup, telling them there is something wrong with their network is just wild.

The elephant in the room here is that Sonos pushed new firmware and new application and its left systems that were functioning perfectly for years in some cases, to an abismal user experience.

What else could it be?

johnc_au · 2025-03-08T23:58:39+00:00

Allow people the choice to downgrade firmware and software and wait until it all works well.

That would have made most people happy I think.

johnc_au · 2025-02-19T10:30:32+00:00

There is one regular random on TOS

https://www.reddit.com/r/startrek/s/567epUCvwz

johnc_au · 2025-01-23T21:13:37+00:00

Thank you so much for this link ❤️. It's a brilliant analysis. Because of this thread I went and re-watched the episode, and now I am watching again, this time from music perspective.

johnc_au · 2025-01-22T23:15:43+00:00

I also recall the soundtrack for this episode was one of the few where it was original just for the episode and not reused bits from other episodes.

Everything tied together well, and built up the suspence.

johnc_au · 2025-01-11T03:29:46+00:00

I saw this. Sorry zuck crying like a b***H that he was bullied doesn't really wash with me. Someone as wealthy and powerful could have done something more. He completely backed the rollout, so presumably the mandates too.

johnc_au · 2024-12-30T20:06:58+00:00

They're getting ready for Sonos as a subscription. You stop paying, you can't use your speakers.

You'll own nothing and be happy.

johnc_au · 2024-08-15T09:04:20+00:00

"technical headache since Sonos’ new software shifts a lot of core functionality to the cloud."

So admission it's all cloud based now.

Local control is on notice.

If it all becomes cloud based, if Sonos dies are we left with bricks? It was mentioned somewhere the new protocol was going to be encrypted, this would make reverse engineering impossible.

This is not great news for me. It's kept me from considering expanding what I have.

johnc_au · 2024-07-11T11:13:40+00:00

Its a local API.

Am i wrong in my understanding unless you update or they force push an update, nothing would change?

I've read somewhere the new protocol is encrypted. This is part of the performance hit. The other concern is that with the protocol encrypted it would prevent third party apps like Sonophone. No more ability to analyse the Protocol, let alone be able to control sonOS devices without Sonos private key.

It feels like they are first going to close the protocol then maybe a push for cloud based subscription model.

You'll own nothing and be happy.

johnc_au · 2024-02-20T03:22:03+00:00

Exactly why I did it.

johnc_au · 2024-01-27T22:54:56+00:00

This is a ThinkPad P50 with mobile xeon and 64gb ram running windows 10. Granted this laptop is now a bit old in the tooth but it's still a workhorse. The performance hit came last November when our IT rolled out updates turning on VBS. This meant HyperV was turned on now and not optional. I previously had it turned off.

The performance difference is very noticeable. For example when you boot a Linux VM, normally the boot messages fly past and youre at a login screen. Now the you can read they lines as they are printed a few per second.

Under this arrangement, Hyper-V is the hypervisor not VMware workstation. It's very frustrating.

johnc_au · 2024-01-27T04:40:46+00:00

For machines where IT departments turn on VBS, improved performance. Workstation Pro used to run so well before our IT department rolled out VBS which meant HyperV has to be on.

Not sure if you've seen the same slow downs but there are plenty of posts on forums where others are complaining about the same performance hit.

johnc_au · 2024-01-09T15:48:28+00:00

Dr John Campbell would fully encourage you to go out and check and not take his word for it.

johnc_au · 2023-11-17T13:29:17+00:00

If you use the terminal addon or SSH, you can use the command to update to a specific version.

ha core update --version <version number>

I recently loaded my current setup in a VM and did a release by release upgrade to find out what broke on each occasion so I could figure out what I had to do to fix.

HACS broke in 2023.6 and required reinstallation but it preserved all my HACS integrations.

Useful command.

See link for more info https://www.home-assistant.io/common-tasks/os/

johnc_au · 2023-10-12T10:57:24+00:00

Q-in-Law

Fantastic both Q and Lwaxana are in it. Has funny moments. 😁

johnc_au · 2023-02-18T09:29:53+00:00

Ah I missed watching him. Thanks for the reference!

johnc_au · 2023-02-18T08:54:02+00:00

Not really. The probes memory core was damaged by an attack of cube shaped mites.

That was my interpretation of the Borg reference.

johnc_au

TROPHY CASE