Has anyone successfully created a Thread network using a Raspberry Pi 4B running OpenHabian

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Hey all, I’m looking into expanding my smart home, specifically lighting. Right now I have:

  • A no-name smart outlet that just powers a lamp. I would like to get rid of this sooner than later
  • Two TP-Link Kasa KL50s
  • Ecobee

Versions:

  • OpenHabian 2.5.11-1
  • OpenHab 3.0.0

I want to grow the smart lighting section of the house and am willing to commit to a tech stack to do so. I was thinking about three different companies to do it with; Philips Hue, LIFX, or Nanoleaf

  • Philips Hue is the most well-known, most expensive, and runs on a bridge leveraging Zigbee.
  • LIFX runs on your wifi and according to posts here and on Reddit, is known to have connectivity issues. It’s also not that much cheaper than Hue.
  • Nanoleaf bulbs are the cheapest and use either Bluetooth or Thread to connect to the bulbs. I’m pretty bought into Apple already (OpenHAB is exposed as a HomeKit bridge), but don’t have an Apple HomePod Mini, so I don’t actively have a Thread-enabled hub.

I’m leaning toward Nanoleaf right now, but I believe I need more infrastructure in order for OpenHAB to support it. I’m asking here to see if anyone has experience setting up a Thread network and implementing it with OpenHAB. I would imagine it’s similar to Zigbee because you’d need to buy a dongle, like NXP KW41Z, and then create the binding for it.

I don’t know Java very well but would be happy to work with somebody to build a binding for Thread, with the hopes that it could be useful to others down the road.

Please let me know if my understanding of how this works is totally incorrect, I’m still relatively new to this. Thanks in advance!

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Not that this helps with your main question just wanted to provide some input on the LIFX bulbs.
I have 4 of them and don’t have any issues with connectivity an OH, I do not have them linked to any kind of cloud access and this might explain some of the Reddit posts. I mainly use three for wake up alarms in rooms vs a traditional alarm clock, so not like a have a full house of them.

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That’s actually good to known - you can get a 4 pack of color ones at Costco for $100 which is pretty reasonable.

When you say you don’t have them set up with cloud access, what do you mean? Are they on their own VLAN? I thought that the OpenHAB binding for LIFX used the LIFX open API, and would subsequently use LIFX’s cloud service.

Thanks for the input!

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I do have VLANs in play and the bulbs are in the same VLAN as OH, all I did when I powered them on is to put my phone in that VLAN open the LIFX app and join them to my network info and firmware updates (which I think happen automatically on joining). After its setup and phone control works in that subnet, go to OH and you should see it auto discovered the bulb(s) on its own; add them in and away you go.

I would have to look, but I think I also gave the bulbs static DHCP leases so they wouldn’t go all over the subnet range forcing OH to keep finding them any time they reboot. I have 2 mini whites and 2 mini dusk/dawn.

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