I use my EISY for Insteon devices and scenes.

I'm looking to add automated window shades to my house and need to choose the type of motor (Zigbee, ZWave, Matter over Thread).

I'm leaning toward Matter over Thread for the shades. I don't have Zigbee, ZWave or Matter/Thread in the house right now.

I'd like to control these from my EISY rather than adding HA to the mix (probably through a bhyve VM).

Would an Aqara Hub M3 theoretically work with the EISY Matter Beta support? Since it would plug into my network, the EISY would need to find it that way. Of course I can fix the IP address and specify if needed.

If it's Matter over Thread, you'll need a border router. If the Aqara Hub is also a border router, it should do. You don't need the ZMatter dongle. You'll need to configure the device on the Aqara hub first, then share it to the eisy. There's also the question of whether the device itself will work with the eisy (Matter is still in alpha testing). If it's basically an on/off device, chances are good that it will work.

I suggest you look at Ryse for controlling your shades. There is a Plugin and they regularly run sales.

I have them in two locations and they work well with UD's systems.

Edited 10 hours ago10 hr by DennisC
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10 hours ago, Guy Lavoie said:

If it's Matter over Thread, you'll need a border router. If the Aqara Hub is also a border router, it should do. You don't need the ZMatter dongle. You'll need to configure the device on the Aqara hub first, then share it to the eisy. There's also the question of whether the device itself will work with the eisy (Matter is still in alpha testing). If it's basically an on/off device, chances are good that it will work.

Thanks, Guy. The docs for the Aqara Hub M3 state that it is a border router. It also supports Zigbee and bridges between the protocols, not that I have any Zigbee.

I plan to use Smartwings shades. I expect they have more than on/off (up/down?) capabilities but will look for their protocol documentation.

I suppose I can use HA as a temporary solution if EISY isn't yet ready for the required support, but would prefer not to. I was hoping someone else beat me to the integration.

1 hour ago, DennisC said:

I suggest you look at Ryse for controlling your shades. There is a Plugin and they regularly run sales.

I have them in two locations and they work well with UD's systems.

Thanks, Dennis. I'm looking to install new shades with the motors built in.

Do you have the zmatter board?

My experience with matter so far is not good. I have echo and nest border routers but cannot successfully share several matter devices (all lights) to EISY. I have not tried the Aqara devices.

I used zwave for shades, and they work very well for me. In fairness, I have a decent number of zwave devices in the house and this may help with communication, but Zwave would be my recommendation based on my own experience.

8 hours ago, Sticklizard said:

Thanks, Guy. The docs for the Aqara Hub M3 state that it is a border router. It also supports Zigbee and bridges between the protocols, not that I have any Zigbee.

If you get Thread devices, then you will have Zigbee... The Matter protocol uses IPv6 and runs over wifi/ethernet for many line powered devices. If it's a Thread device, then the IPv6 is sent over Zigbee. This also means that if the devices (shades in your case) are spread out throughout the home, you'll need to have Zigbee establish a mesh network. The border router simply bridges the wifi and Zigbee networks. This is still quite new to most of us, and I've been experimenting with Matter, as has been @oberkc . Just days ago I've also begun trying out Zigbee on it's own. For example, I have an Amazon Eero 6 router with two satellite repeaters. These also act as Zigbee repeaters for Thread. I'm looking to see if they will also repeat non-Thread Zigbee traffic, given that this is a separate "network" in terms of inclusion, etc. Lots to learn.

Just be aware that Matter itself is still quite new, and even newer for the eisy. Just days ago an update was released which includes Matter improvements. I don't want you to go out and get the shades, and be surprised or disappointed if it doesn't work out of the box.

Zigbee and Thread traffics share Physical and MAC layers and can coexist over-the-air.

However at a network and App layer, they are mutually unintelligible. One does not get you the other. Zigbee does not use IPV6