I have just added my first matter device. I have Leviosa shades which I have been controlling with a Bond hub. It works really well, but there is no feedback from the shades to the hub. So I use virtual shades and then send commands to the bond hub to set the actual shade. This works great, but can get out of sync but hardly ever does.
I got an email from Leviosa offering a matter motor replacement. You know the ole saying if ain't broke you should try and make it better, So I purchased one motor just to see how it goes. The setup was pretty straight forward and everything seemed to work great.
I have a echo Show that is a thread router but the shade keeps going offline. The show is in my kitchen and it's probably 30' or 40' and several walls away from the shade I setup in my office. From my reading it looks like this needs a good mesh as well? I have a Echo plus in my shop that according to my research is a also a thread capable device. So I am going to swap it with an another echo I have in a bathroom that is about halfway between the show and the shade.
Yes. There is some good information in this thread. I tried using four IKEA [insert Swedish word for mosquito spray here] motion sensors, and only the one that is in the same room with my Apple TV TBR works reliably. I'm putting thread on hold until IKEA makes available their [insert the Swedish word for BBQ grill here] smart plugs in order to build out some powered repeaters. Also, I eagerly await the next gen of Apple TV to be released soon to be able to use my eero router in the same mesh as the Apple TV.
It should help, assuming the two Amazon Echo devices are both part of the same Thread mesh network. I would think this would be the case, but I only have one Amazon Echo (4th gen) that has a Thread radio in it, and Amazon has decided to leave it at Thread v1.1 for some reason - Grrr!
There is a very useful smartphone app called "Discovery" which I use on my iPhone to discover all of my Thread Border Router devices on my home network. In the Apple AppStore, it is listed as "Discovery DNS- SD Browser".
Once you install the app, simply click on "local", then scroll down to "_meshcop._udp." and it will show you the TBRs it has discovered. Click on each one and you'll see fields like "nn = AMZN-Thread-xxxx" which is the name of the Thread mesh network that the radio belongs to. The entry for "tv = n.n.n" is the version of Thread that is running on that device.
Hopefully, your two Echo devices with Thread radios will both be part of the same "nn" Thread network, so that they will work together to strengthen the mesh.
I have one Amazon Echo gen 4 that has its own Thread network. Then I have 2 AppleTV 4Ks, an Apple HomePod Mini, and an Aqara M3 hub that are all part of the same Thread network. My guess is that the Aqara M3 hub joined the existing Apple Thread network as I used my iPhone to add the M3 Hub to my home network, thus sharing the Thread credentials automatically.
It seems to be helping. The device was offline this morning and I brought up the Echo Plus from my shop and swapped it with the echo in the bathroom. Within a few minutes the device came back online.
@ogiewon thanks for the info on the app. Loaded it and it shows both echo devices and they are listed on the same network, and both running thread 1.3.0.
Something else and wondered if anyone has any ideas about it. When I look at the shade settings in the Alexa app it shows the device is connected via the North Garage. I have a echo device called North Garage, but it is a 2nd Gen Dot and does not have a TBR.
Some searching on the internet and asking AI says it is a known issue and that removing the device and pairing again may fix it. It seems to be working and I wonder if it really matters.
I’d leave well enough alone for a while. Each Echo can probably act as a Matter Controller (integrating Matter over WiFi & Matter over Thread devices into a unified Matter system.)
