Matter for EISY - ETA?

[nadler]

Here's the back story.  You can skip it if you want and go to paragraph 4.

I've been spending a lot of time with ZWave and eisy trying to do things with Zwave that Insteon could do with little problem.  The zwave devices from ZOOZ have been a bit of a challenge and I was waiting for firmware updates for fix some of the issues I've had.   In order to do OTA firmware update on ZooZ sensors and devices I've had to remove the devices from IoX and add them back.  When they're added back they get a new ZY number and all programs which reference the device have to be changed.  It's only when the old zwave devices are added back with a new device number that  the OTA update option appears in the IoX device menu..  The actual updating of the firmware for each device using eisy takes a least 30 minutes.  So it can take many hours to update even a moderate zwave installation. It then takes many more hours to update the related programs and test them.

Well, I've done that, but just to give one example, the firmware update to Zooz Zen72 dimmer made the dimmer worse in the dimming department.  For some reason the brightness cannot to be dimmed past 40%(subjective - could be a lower).  Although I am dimming the device to 1% the lower brightness is still very bright and significantly brighter that it was with the original firmware version (Version 1.0 and 1.1 vs version 1.4).  When I contacted Zooz about this, they basically said that's the way it has to be.  I postulate that they changed it to stop the buzzing or flickering from some bulbs at the lower dim level.  I tried this on numerous ZEN 72 dimmers and numerous bulbs in different locations.

Because for my applications I need lower dim level I decided to try other dimmers and I came across the Leviton decora smart dimmer 2nd generation (D26HD) (wifi) which has a early access beta download for matter.  I just installed it and it easily dims to 1%.  BTY the wifi firmware update for the Leviton took about a minute.  

I have a new Samsung TV with a Smarthings Hub built in which is matter enabled as well.  It was a simple task to get the TV to find the matter dimmer.  It also asked if I wanted Alexa to control the dimmer.  It hooked that up as well, WITHOUT having to ask Alexa to discover devices.  It worked instantly and automatically.  The downside is that athough you can do some schedules and routines with this dimmer using Smartthings or Alexa it does not enable the type of sophisticated programming that we could always do with ISY, Polisy and EISY.  For example, it doesn't do double tap of the on or off switch (it does have a limited form of double tap but not what I need).  

Right now, in addition to eisy and UDImobile for zwave devices and smartthings for matter. I am using the August app for locks (since the August node server doesn't work for me), the powerview for my Hunter Douglas shades, ring app  for my doorbell, nest app for my camera, ev juicenet app for my ev car charger, alladdin connect app for my garage door opener, total connect app for home security.  Of those I use the Total Connect node server and also Ecobee node server both of which work well.

Previously, I had insteon thermostats, insteon lights, insteon water leak sensors, insteon garage door, insteon automatic water shut off valve, etc.  All worked well for many years with minimal time spent troubleshooting. So that leads me to my question....

What is the ETA for Matter on the Zmatter board?  I think that will help me in my quest to be able to control most devices from one application and have a level of programming sophistication and ease of use I had for some many years with ISY.  I know there are some detractors who say that Matter will never be what is promised, so far, for me at least, it has that potential and I would like it to be a part of EISY sooner rather than later. 

 

[Michel Kohanim]

@nadler,

I want to say today alas we currently have too many bugs mostly related to how commissioning works. For most Matter devices, commissioning is done via Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) which then sets up the device for communications either through WiFi or Zigbee. The library for BLE GATT server is mostly Linux based and thus the delay. This is our top priority.

With kind regards,
Michel

[Goose66]

Could commissioning (at least for wifi or Zigbee connectivity) be done, even temporarily, through existing (perhaps hardware manufacturer-supplied) mobile apps, with IoX taking control once connected to the network? In other words, does Matter require IoX to control the devices end-to-end or can IoX just be a (one of potentially a plurality of) controller?

Edited October 20, 2023 by Goose66

[Michel Kohanim]

@Goose66,

The issue is that, once setup, IoX would need to be able to communicate with those devices. So, commissioning has to be done at both ends. For the most part, Matter use Zigbee cluster library for app layer communications. So, that's really not an issue.

With kind regards,
Michel

[brians]

3 hours ago, Michel Kohanim said:

@Goose66,

The issue is that, once setup, IoX would need to be able to communicate with those devices. So, commissioning has to be done at both ends. For the most part, Matter use Zigbee cluster library for app layer communications. So, that's really not an issue.

With kind regards,
Michel

 

The mobile device would setup commissioning using its BLE radio, and after this process, IoX would use the native interface of the device ie. Thread, or WiFi/Ethernet to communicate with it. Is it planned to have UD Mobile do Matter commissioning with BLE, or instead to be done in IoX using EISY BLE radio? The latter would explain your earlier comment regarding BLE Library being Linux based (since EISY is BSD).

 

 

[nadler]

Thanks @Michel Kohanim.  It's good to know that Matter is a top priority at UDI.

Regards,

Noel

[kurelgyer]

Timely... 😄

 

https://csa-iot.org/newsroom/matter-1-2-arrives-with-nine-new-device-types-improvements-across-the-board/