Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2

HA Connect ZBT-2 is a great Matter over Thread, or a Zigbee controller.

Just replaced using my Aqara M3 hub as a matter or thread contoller with the new Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 in Home Assistant, and I couldn't be more happier. Installation and setup was very easy, my Mater devices connected to the HA Connect ZBT-2 without any issues. This is my second Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2, my other one is running my Zigbee (Z2mqtt) network.

I wanted to like it

I got this device because I hoped it would provide a nice, stable platform for interoperating with a bunch of thread devices. Initially, nothing was stable. One of the more recent HomeAssistant releases fixed the stability issues. However, I'm now stuck in integration hell where my Android phone has decided that my (now deleted) Ikea Dirigera-based thread network is its "preferred" network, and it's not possible to change the preferred network without resetting the data on Google Play Services (which is basically a "factory reset" of my phone, and I'm unwilling to do that for such a trivial "delete" operation). The official/supported mechanism to add devices to the thread network? The smartphone apps! Want to do it directly from your HomeAssistant device? Hope you have a Bluetooth adapter, because without one you won't be able to commission anything. And of course HA Green doesn't come with Bluetooth for inexplicable reasons. What a terrible ecosystem. I had such high hopes :'( Maybe the hardware is even good, but without a good software ecosystem it's a piece of junk.

It just worked like it was supposed to

Followed the directions. It was easy to setup and worked just like it was supposed to first time. Range is excellent. Even looks pretty. Recommended.