Building an Open-Source THREAD Network for the Internet of Things

To try everything Brilliant has to offer—free—for a full 30 days, visit https://brilliant.org/apalrdsadventures/ . You’ll also get 20% off an annual premium subscription. Today I'm taking a deep dive into the Thread protocol! Based on IEEE 802.15.4, Thread is a mesh networking protocol designed to balance the needs of small, battery powered Internet-of-Things devices with the ability to communicate directly on The Internet. By leveraging IPv6 and 6LoWPAN, Thread is able to finally bring these automation networks into the land of the Internet Protocol, where interoperability thrives. I walk through the setup of an OpenThread Border Router, OpenThread daemon for end devices, and compile the OpenThread Radio Co-Processor for a Nordic Semiconductor NRF52840 dongle, one of the cheapest ways to get started with Thread. Blog Post with full setup commands: https://www.apalrd.net/posts/2025/ha_thread/ Support me on Ko-Fi if you enjoy my content and find it useful: https://ko-fi.com/apalrd Feel free to chat about my upcoming projects on Discord! https://discord.gg/xJsaEukAr4 Follow me on Mastodon: https://hachyderm.io/@apalrd Timestamps: 00:00 - Introduction 07:31 - Theory 19:58 - Radio Co-Processor 26:21 - Border Router 31:19 - Client Router 34:31 - Routed Example 38:16 - Conclusion Amazon links to products are affiliate links, which may earn a commission for me. This video was sponsored by Brilliant