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      Matter was more of a nice smart home concept than useful reality in 2023

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Saturday, 23 December - 12:35 · 1 minute

    Illustration of Matter protocol simplifying a home network

    Enlarge / The Matter standard's illustration of how the standard should align a home and all its smart devices. (credit: CSA)

    Matter, as a smart home standard , would make everything about owning a smart home better. Devices could be set up with any phone, for either remote or local control, put onto any major platform (like Alexa, Google, or HomeKit) or combinations of them, and avoid being orphaned if their device maker goes out of business. Less fragmentation, more security, fewer junked devices: win, win, win.

    Matter, as it exists in late 2023, more than a year after its 1.0 specification was published and just under a year after the first devices came online, is more like the xkcd scenario that lots of people might have expected. It's another home automation standard at the moment, and one that isn't particularly better than the others, at least how it works today. I wish it was not so.

    Setting up a Matter device isn't easy, nor is making it work across home systems. Lots of devices with Matter support still require you to download their maker's specific app to get full functionality. Even if you were an early adopting, Matter-T-shirt-wearing enthusiast, you're still buying devices that don't work quite as well, and still generally require a major tech company's gear to act as your bridge or router.

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      SwitchBot is the smart home stuff I recommend to doubters, and it’s on sale

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Wednesday, 12 July, 2023 - 17:26 · 1 minute

    SwitchBot Hub 2 in front of mini-split and TV

    Enlarge / For those with a mini-split, a TV, a desire to know the temperature, and a real thing for light-grain wood, the Hub 2 is mighty appealing. (credit: SwitchBot)

    There are some people who are eager to automate every aspect of their home with the latest smart home gadgets. Then there are some—many of them regular readers and commenters on this site—who could not only care less about the latest white plastic IoT thingy, but actively avoid such things.

    I get it: If it connects to Wi-Fi, it requires signing up for an account, and there's a chance the company selling it could go bust at any time. It's also a no-go for anyone who cares about security or who just wants simplicity. The Matter standard is supposed to solve exactly this problem, but its real implementation and impact have been slow and underwhelming.

    This is why I'm writing about just one set of gear while it's on sale for the second Prime Day (even if you're not a Prime subscriber): SwitchBot. I didn't use SwitchBot stuff until recently, but now that I have, it's what I'd recommend to anybody who just wants to make a few things in their home easier to turn on, turn off, or automate. There are no voice controls, no AI, just buttons and switches that do what you tell them.

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      The state of Matter smart home gear, post-CES 2023

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Monday, 16 January, 2023 - 21:01 · 1 minute

    Mui wooden board on a wall, with backlit icons underneath reaching hand

    Enlarge / Mui Labs' Mui Board 2nd Gen embodies the loftiest promise of Matter: a wooden board, from a company you've likely never heard of, controlling devices made by many different companies, even if they're already connected to other apps. (credit: Mui)

    First came the specification , then the release , and then CES 2023—it has been a busy few months for Matter, the smart home connectivity standard. You can't quite fill your home just yet with Matter-ready devices, but there are some intriguing options in development. Here's a look at some of the most practical, quirky, and viable gear coming soon (or soon-ish).

    Some parts of Matter are already here

    If you wanted to start your smart home off fresh this year with a focus on Matter-powered universal compatibility, you already have a couple pieces of the puzzle ready for you. Let's go bit by bit, starting with your phone.

    Your phone, whether iOS or Android , can, right now, scan the QR code or read the Bluetooth signal of a Matter-certified device. Most platforms support adding devices to a controller through an Android app, but only Apple's HomeKit and Samsung's SmartThings have support for iOS device enrollment . Amazon has said it plans to add iOS enrollment for Thread-based devices this spring but already supports devices over Wi-Fi.

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      Open Source Self-Hosted Home Assistant home automation with a Modbus TCP interface to a Victron Solar System

      GadgeteerZA · news.movim.eu / gadgeteerza-tech-blog · Sunday, 21 August, 2022 - 13:31 · 1 minute

    Home Assistant is an open source self-hosted home automation tool that puts local (not external cloud) control and privacy first. My system is running in a Docker container on a machine at home.

    Home Assistant is more than just the monitoring and managing of smart home switches and lights. It has powerful automation that can be triggered by all sorts of events or device states to notify you, or manage even solar systems, garage doors, and much more. For example, I have an automation that announces it has started to rain so we can get the washing off the line before it gets too wet.

    In this video I show what my HA dashboards look like, and how I managed to read lots of information via the universal Modbus TCP protocol from my Victron solar energy system, and to also write data back to the Victron system to change the battery minimum state of charge values from HA (or other registers).

    I have shared my config files on a Github page so that it is easier for others to replicate some of the same functionality (without spending 4+ hours like I did on a single value statement line).

    See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlvlhou70VA

    #technology #homeassistant #smarthome #opensource #selfhosting

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      Wemo’s confused Smart Dimmer shows how hard standardizing IoT may be

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Thursday, 4 August, 2022 - 17:13

    Wemo’s confused Smart Dimmer shows how hard standardizing IoT may be

    Enlarge (credit: Wemo )

    When the smart home compatibility standard Matter finally arrives , it promises to simplify and improve the connections and compatibility between different device brands, using Thread as its secure, low-energy backbone.

    Until then, let devices like Wemo's new Smart Dimmer with Thread serve as a warning: Matter runs on Thread, but not all Thread devices will give you a Matter experience. Belkin's new dimmer is a prime example of a device "with Thread" that is far from universally accessible—and likely confusing to buyers.

    Wemo's new dimmer doesn't require the onerous Wi-Fi setup you might remember from switches of old, instead connecting to your smartphone by Bluetooth or an NFC tap. To use it outside of Bluetooth range, you'll need a Thread network in your home. But here's where it gets tricky: This smart dimmer is controlled exclusively through HomeKit, so you'll specifically need a HomePod Mini or second-generation Apple TV 4K within a reasonable range of the switch. Those more robust devices can act as "border routers" in a Thread network, allowing more single-purpose devices like a dimmer to connect to a Thread mesh and access the Internet.

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      Home Assistant wordt gestopt. #HassIO #IOT #SmartHome metbril.github.io/home-assistant… pic.twitter.com/trRlD1CKoS

      Domus Sapiens (@DomusSapiens) · home-assistant.emevth.no-ip.biz / Home-Assistant Twitter News · Tuesday, 5 May, 2020 - 20:04