Tweakers delight! Or is that tweak the light?

After adding that GE Cync bulb back into my eisy (to help out another poster in a different thread) I started poking around in admin console to see what I could do with it. I hadn't really experimented with Matter since the initial excitement last spring. I had seen something about a color control cluster for Matter in the release notes for 6.0.3. Let's just say that they went all out with the options! I'm still trying to get familiar with what everything does.

Here is a sampling of the screens for the three nodes that got created for the bulb.

The On-Off Switch node:

The Color XY node:

The Color Hue-Sat node:

Notice the scroll bar on the right? Too much to fit on one screen!

You'll notice the Duration and Rate settings, allowing you to set the time for the settings to "morph" to the new values. This takes programmability to the next level 😊

The color XY setting might be unfamiliar to most of us (myself included). We might be more used to the RGB method with values from 0 to 255 for each color. XY settings correspond to coordinates on a color chart, and are fractional (decimal settings). I found the following page, which is really helpful for this. It has the color chart, and a RGB to XY (or vice versa) utility:

https://viereck.ch/hue-xy-rgb/

Enjoy!

Edited February 4Feb 4 by Guy Lavoie

Being on a roll, I thought I'd also try the Nanoleaf bulb. This is a Thread device, and not known for being easy to work with. I already had it configured and working in Alexa, So I generated a pairing code in Alexa and tried adding it in UD Mobile. Nope, getting an error code. Ok...plan B was to share it from Alexa to Google home first, and then from Google home to UD Mobile. That worked 🙂 I think that Google home and UD Mobile are Facebook friends!

The interview process took noticeably more time than the Cync bulb did, a good minute it seemed. And the end result was only an On Off device node, no color or hue nodes. Even though the Nanoleaf bulb is a color bulb. Btw you can redo Matter interviews by right clicking on the device node and selecting Matter -> Synchronize -> Update with Interview (tell us about yourself, how long have you been a light bulb?). I tried that but it remained just an On Off device.

If I set the ramp rate to a slow value and turn it on, it comes up in a fast series of stepped intensities, looks like blinking. I suspect that it's the bulb firmware more than anything else since these are known to be difficult with compatibility. The same commands were smooth on the Cync bulb. I looked up the bulb in the Nanoleaf app to see if it would alert me to any firmware updates. Nope.

But still, now the Nanoleaf bulb works everywhere: Alexa, Google home, UD Mobile, and in the Nanoleaf app. We're getting there!

Having discovered the possibility to rerun the Matter device Interview, I relaunched the interview on one of the Philips Hue bulb nodes (when you share to Matter from the Hue app, all devices get shared at once). I had initially shared them many months ago in Matter testing, and only had device On Off nodes. Lo and behold, the new interview updated all the Philips Hue devices, adding all the color and hue nodes for the lights with those capabilities. That's great, and reinterviewing sure beats deleting and adding back devices.

Hue White bulbs give you On Off nodes (with dimming)

Hue White Ambiance give you On Off, and Color Temperature nodes

Hue White and Color give you On Off, Color Hue-Sat, and Color XY nodes

This now leaves Hue bulbs with two ways to control them: from the Hue plugin, or directly as Matter devices. The Hue plugin offers three ways of setting the color (RGB, XY, or color name). while Matter only has XY. There is also a third way to control Hue bulbs, as Zigbee devices, but that doesn't give you all those options, and I believe cannot be done simultaneously as Zigbee and controlled by the Hue hub.

Just to add to tested devices: I got a GE Cync smart plug. I was at the hardware store for something else and thought I'd take a quick look at the smart devices (mostly bulbs). Not all GE Cync products are Matter compatible, you need to look at the boxes carefully.

Again, it wouldn't add directly in UD Mobile, but adding it to Google home first and then sharing it worked, though it took two attempts.

I also noted that Ikea will be selling Matter compatible bulbs. These will be the KAJPLATS line. Announced last fall but not yet available, in Canada anyways. Up until now they only supported Matter through their Dirigera hub, exposing their Tradfri Zigbee bulbs as Matter devices, much like the Hue hub does. Looks like they're discontinuing their hub, and support will die out this summer. They will also be introducing other Matter devices (sensors, etc) with equally hard to pronounce names! If the pricing and compatibility are there, it could be interesting.

@Guy Lavoie

Thank you for all this valuable information! I'm just starting to look into expanding beyond Insteon, so I'm hoping you are willing to help me with a few very basic beginner questions:

Are you directly connecting to the GE Cync bulb using the ZMatter USB module for eisy, or is there another hub in between?

My wife wants RGB exterior lights that can be programmed to be different colors on different days. I have an eisy with a ZMatter USB module that I haven't even connected to it yet. I'm looking at these GE Cync bulbs. Do you have any suggestions or warnings you think I should be aware of?

4 hours ago, EBuchanan said:

@Guy Lavoie

Are you directly connecting to the GE Cync bulb using the ZMatter USB module for eisy, or is there another hub in between?

That's a trick question! The current state of Matter development and support with the eisy is that some things work, and others don't...yet. As you might have read above, adding new Matter devices to the eisy directly usually doesn't work. But first adding the device to another platform like Google Home or Alexa, and then sharing it with a pin code to the eisy usually works. It's worked with the products I've mentioned in previous posts. So no, there is no other hub between the eisy and the bulb once it's set up and works, but you do need another platform like Google Home or Alexa just to set it up initially. I bought a used Google Home mini for $15 on Marketplace, money well spent.

The GE Cync bulbs you indicated in your link are not Matter devices. I warned about that in a previous post. I guess GE likes to group all their smart products under the Cync label. It's showing as a wifi bulb, controllable from their app. Your eisy won't be able to do anything with them. You really need to look for the Matter logo, or Thread label. They do work with Google Home and Alexa, so might be able to accomplish what you want with Alexa routines. But once we're used to having our trusty eisy automate things, we're usually underwhelmed with doing it using other methods.

Lastly, the ZMatter USB dongle (despite it's name) is currently doing absolutely nothing in terms of Matter support. Really, it's a ZWave/Zigbee dongle. In the future, UDI might integrate it into controlling Thread devices directly. Until then, the eisy can currently control Thread devices through a border router. I have a 4th generation Alexa Echo doing this. That's how I'm controlling the Nanoleaf bulb.