W200 - Joining existing Thread network

Aqara Products
, , ,
1

Loving this new thermostat so far. This is a test replacement for a 3rd gen Nest - which basically cannot play nice with Home Assistant or Apple Home. I love that it can operate with or without cloud features and of course that with Matter I can share it across multiple ecosystems. Great stuff!

One question I have: Is there a way to have it join a non-Apple Thread network - i.e. one created by Home Assistant?

By default, if you bind using only Matter, the W200 sets up a standalone “Aqara” Thread network. If you then set it up in the Aqara app, it will automatically join an existing Apple Thread network.

There is an “import” UI in the settings to join another thread network, but the only option is to import the preferred Thread network from Apple Home. I have a lot of devices set up using Home Assistant’s OTBR, and I would like to have the W200 join that network.

(I have not had great luck using the Apple Thread network in the past. Sometimes HomeKit gets into weird states, which causes the Thread mesh to hang. This is why I set up the one in Home Assistant.)

Has anyone figured out a way to do this?

2

Hi. I don’t own a W200 myself, but since it acts as an Aqara hub with Matter over Thread support, you could try the following:

First, you need to transfer your Home Assistant Thread credentials to your iPhone’s Apple Keychain:

  • Open the Home Assistant Companion App on your iPhone.
  • Go to Settings > Companion App.
  • Scroll down to Troubleshooting and tap on Sync Thread credentials.

After that, check if you can assign the new network to your Aqara Hub:

  • Open the Aqara Home App on your iPhone.
  • Go to the settings of your Hub (tap the three dots in the top right corner).
  • Look for something like Network Information → Thread Network Management (this menu item on the W200 may have a different name).
  • See if you can select the Home Assistant Thread network to join the existing mesh.

I can say that Aqara hubs are known to be able to join Thread networks that are stored in the Apple Keychain and created by Apple (e.g. via Apple Home).

However, I don’t know if this also works with Thread networks created in Home Assistant. So while it may work, it’s not guaranteed — but syncing the credentials via the Companion App and checking in the Aqara app is probably worth a try.

2 Likes
3

Tried the same a while ago with the other hubs, seems that as long as the Apple thread network is in the keychain it is not possible to select another thread network even if it is in the keychain.