brians Posted December 27, 2022 Posted December 27, 2022 This article gives some insight into how matter devices "will" interoperate among different systems simultaneously. https://www.theverge.com/23513535/matter-smart-home-device-testing-eve-google-apple-samsung Seems like a lot of bugs to iron out and interesting how ISY will work with this in future.
elvisimprsntr Posted December 28, 2022 Posted December 28, 2022 Glad someone else is blazing the trail. Myself, I spun up a Homebridge instance while on vacation and had it up and running in a few hours. I can control everything using my computer, phone, watch, and TV while on my local LAN and remotely from the pub. I only had to set it up once and it was immediately on all devices. Also shared my home with another HA DIYer. It is all done without any port forwarding, VPN, credential sharing, or recurring extortion fee. It just worked! Of course I stood on the shoulders of the Homebridge community to get there, but it is encouraging to see how it all comes together and works. HomeKit seems to be much further along in device type support than Matter and will likely be for a very long time if you look at the Matter spec road map. From what I understand HomeKit is the foundation for Matter after Apple open sourced it in 2019. Some vendors will likely hang on to some more advanced “proprietary” features in order to separate consumers from their coins.
brians Posted December 30, 2022 Author Posted December 30, 2022 (edited) On 12/27/2022 at 6:16 PM, elvisimprsntr said: Glad someone else is blazing the trail. Myself, I spun up a Homebridge instance while on vacation and had it up and running in a few hours. I can control everything using my computer, phone, watch, and TV while on my local LAN and remotely from the pub. I only had to set it up once and it was immediately on all devices. Also shared my home with another HA DIYer. It is all done without any port forwarding, VPN, credential sharing, or recurring extortion fee. It just worked! Of course I stood on the shoulders of the Homebridge community to get there, but it is encouraging to see how it all comes together and works. HomeKit seems to be much further along in device type support than Matter and will likely be for a very long time if you look at the Matter spec road map. From what I understand HomeKit is the foundation for Matter after Apple open sourced it in 2019. Some vendors will likely hang on to some more advanced “proprietary” features in order to separate consumers from their coins. Matter won't replace HK, I understand that it is a protocol that allows you to run Matter devices on various system eg. Apple HK, or any other system like Google, Amazon etc. Can I ask what you are using for ISY Homebridge plugin? I am using this one, have been using HB and ISY for years now. https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-isy-njs Just wondering if there is a newer/better one. Edited December 30, 2022 by brians
elvisimprsntr Posted December 31, 2022 Posted December 31, 2022 These are the plug-ins I am using. Unfortunately ISY-NJS does not expose all the features of the Elk, but will not run with Elk disabled. ELKM1 does not support “stay instant” mode, so I run into conflicts between my existing Elk/ISY automations and homebridge, but that may be a limitation of HK only supporting 4 states.
upstatemike Posted December 31, 2022 Posted December 31, 2022 Now that Hubitat supports Homekit I have seen speculation that it will be a better integration tool than HomeBridge. Curious how that will play out.
elvisimprsntr Posted December 31, 2022 Posted December 31, 2022 I didn’t see Thread or Matter listed as supported. Is Hubitat first party only apps/integration? I think I saw some forum posts indicating it’s not likely Insteon will ever be supported directly, which means we will still need a bridge of some sort. I noticed there is an Alexa Homebridge skill, but I have not tested it. Regardless, I’m not planning to invest in any new HA hardware/platforms anytime soon. There are just too many existing players scrambling to stay relevant and new players entering the space who will undoubtedly have some missteps along the way. Matter 1.0 spec was just released with support for a subset of devices. It will be years before next revision of Matter and even longer to see which companies actually survive. Even then, unless it’s a high end home with a high end system, any DIY or cobbled together solution will not add value to a home. In fact, it will likely deter a large segment of buyers who are not technically savvy, or just do not want to inherit someone else’s finicky system.
Dean Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 I'm a little unclear about the information on the Eve devices and if they will incorporate into our UDI network. From the Eve website, there is this information nugget. (https://www.evehome.com/en-us/matter) "Make sure a Thread Border Router capable Home Hub like a HomePod mini or Apple TV 4K (2nd gen. / 3rd gen. 128 GB) is connected to your network, updated to version 16.2 (or later)." I understand the "Thread" concept, but will it be integrated? Is this what Eisy will do? These Eve devices are already compatible with Apple Home, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings. Is this a question for @Michel Kohanim?
asbril Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 12 minutes ago, Dean said: I'm a little unclear about the information on the Eve devices and if they will incorporate into our UDI network. From the Eve website, there is this information nugget. (https://www.evehome.com/en-us/matter) "Make sure a Thread Border Router capable Home Hub like a HomePod mini or Apple TV 4K (2nd gen. / 3rd gen. 128 GB) is connected to your network, updated to version 16.2 (or later)." I understand the "Thread" concept, but will it be integrated? Is this what Eisy will do? These Eve devices are already compatible with Apple Home, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings. Is this a question for @Michel Kohanim? To the best of my understanding, eisy WILL be compatible with Matter but not yet. How exactly it will work is not yet exactly clear to me. ETA of Matter on eisy is not firm yet, though I believe that at some time "early 2023" was mentioned. Knowing that matter is still at its early beginnings, I would not be surprised if the Matter implementation may take longer than initially expected. 1
Bumbershoot Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 50 minutes ago, asbril said: ETA of Matter on eisy is not firm yet, though I believe that at some time "early 2023" was mentioned. From the sales page: Zigbee / Matter Support – Requires our ZMatter USB dongle (not included). Zigbee and Matter support will not be available till 03/2023 https://www.universal-devices.com/product/eisy-home/ 1
xlurkr Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 On 12/31/2022 at 9:16 AM, upstatemike said: Now that Hubitat supports Homekit I have seen speculation that it will be a better integration tool than HomeBridge. Curious how that will play out. I've been using the Homekit support in Hubitat for a while now. So far, so good. -Tom
upstatemike Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 One thing that caught my ear in the Home Assistant January Release Party was the fact that Matter devices require you to scan a bar code to add them to a system. There is no manual alternative to this and if you lose the code your device is basically a brick (if you ever need to re-add them to your system). I'm not sure how much I would want to invest in Matter hardware with a risk like that hanging over my head. I would gladly accept a little less security in exchange for a more forgiving enrollment process. Is Homekit that strict on enrollment? Or is there a way to recover the address if you lose the barcode?
xlurkr Posted January 5, 2023 Posted January 5, 2023 The HK "devices" I have are a mix of Lutron devices: some from the RA2 bridge and some from the Hubitat support, both of which I registered with a QR code (physical sticker on the former, screen image on the latter). I've never enrolled an individual stand-alone HK-supported device in HK. -Tom
upstatemike Posted January 5, 2023 Posted January 5, 2023 QR codes are fine as a quick way to enroll things, they just need a physical alternative in case the sticker becomes illegible or gets lost or whatever. Expecting consumers to keep copies of QR codes in case they might be needed again years down the line does not seem very practical.
elvisimprsntr Posted January 5, 2023 Posted January 5, 2023 I have one Wemo HK plug. The QR code is laser etched on the back of the device. Although that prevents loosing a card or sticker falling off, it makes it impossible to scan the code since it needs to be plugged in to actually add the device.
Geddy Posted January 5, 2023 Posted January 5, 2023 4 hours ago, upstatemike said: Expecting consumers to keep copies of QR codes in case they might be needed again years down the line does not seem very practical. Sounds like the perfect time to take a picture and create an album on your phone or in a cloud photo storage system for "Matter QR Codes". Then you could open the image on a monitor and scan it with your phone should you ever need to scan it again (and not be able to remove the device from the wall/socket, or if the sticker falls off or fades). PITA possibility for sure! Hopefully there's an automated process that the QR code isn't fully required. Thank goodness we don't have to only rely on entering the Insteon address to link it to the ISY/IoX! Reading those "B/8" and "D/0" is torture!
xlurkr Posted January 6, 2023 Posted January 6, 2023 2 hours ago, Geddy said: Reading those "B/8" and "D/0" is torture! True. And my eyesight is headed one way. Hint - not better. -Tom 1
upstatemike Posted January 6, 2023 Posted January 6, 2023 Maybe they could just put a button on Matter devices to put them into pairing mode? No security risk because you have to have physical acess to the device.
brians Posted January 6, 2023 Author Posted January 6, 2023 HK can either use manual code entry or a scanned QR code. If lose the code from device it may not be recoverable. Zwave also has codes for s2 security and same thing if you lose those can’t include with S2 authenticated but in most cases you can just include using S2 unauthenticated except probably door locks etc. so make sure keep a record of those - usually physically on device or a card or on box.
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