I’m trying to get more devices running in Hubitat as currently it’s just a few smart bulbs, a Hue Bridge and lights, and a Z-Wave lock. I’m leaning towards the Lutron Caseta, Smart Bridge Pro for basic On/Off and dimming in light switches, but then I came across the Inovelli products and was intrigued, especially by the multi-tap functionality and LED status potential. I also thought I’d try to future-proof as much as possible by buying the White Series switches because they are Matter over Thread, which seems like the way things are going. I’m using an Echo Show 10 as a Thread Border Router since the C-8 Pro lacks the Thread radio. I paired the device with Alexa and then with Hubitat through a Matter pairing code. Then I loaded the only available driver I’m aware of which comes from the Community. The driver does give basic load control, On/Off, Dimming level, etc., but the problem is that I’m trying to use it in Smart Bulb Mode where the load receives constant power as required by Smart Bulbs. The driver does not expose any button control features at all and Hubitat does not even recognize the switch or any of its child devices as a button controller. If it did, I could use Rule Machine or several other apps to control it. I’ve been wrestling with this for days and it’s very frustrating to drop $140 bucks on a pair of switches that won’t even turn on the lights. The switches have been available for over 8 months, so they aren’t a brand new product at this point, and Matter has been around since 2022. Hell, even Alexa recognizes this thing has buttons that can be pushed and can perform actions based on the event. So, it seems like a low bar. What am I missing?
The author of the driver has commented that the features will be coming after Hubitat improves it’s Matter Support, but that was 5+ months ago, a lifetime in the tech world. I’m beginning to think I made a bad choice with these switches for my use case.
So my questions to this community are:
Has anyone had any success at all getting these switches working in Smart Bulb mode with Hubitat?
Is there any word on an official driver for these that exposes all advanced features and functionality?
Has anyone heard of any forthcoming updates to the community driver? @jvm33 4) What is the current state of affairs with Matter support in Hubitat? What exactly are the challenges that are delaying support for these devices? Is progress being made and what are estimated timelines for full support of this series of devices?
Should I have gone with the Blue Series zigbee switches? Has anyone had good results in a similar use case?
I know that’s a lot of questions but I’m hoping to start a discussion on this topic. I feel like I can’t be the only one who is trying to future-proof their purchasing decisions by using Matter and Thread. Thanks to all in advance for any comments or information on this issue.
Personally if I were to rebuild my smart home again or finally build a beach house on my lot I would go with Lutron:
Lutron has been around for decades and their products are rock solid
The protocol used by the Caseta switches, Clear Connect, uses a lower frequency band that doesn't have a lot of interference
Lutron stands behind their products and I have heard of them supporting products outside their warranty period
I seldomly hear of a device failure, meanwhile I have replaced a ton of various brands of Zigbee and Zwave switches including Inovelli.
I have a few Inovelli switches and they are cool but they are a somewhat new company that struggles to keep devices in stock. I have wanted to support them but every time I went to buy new switches they were out of stock. They always have a reason for this situation but I have started to sum it up to the boy who cried wolf and tired of the excuses. Plus they are spreading themselves very thin going after many new protocols trying to find their niche versus trying to keep their existing products in stock.
Matter of thread is "neat" but I wouldn't call it the future proof standard by any means as it is still problematic and uses bluetooth which operates in the 2.4ghz spectrum which is very overused. It is a little "bleeding edge" for me to invest a lot of money into it when Lutron just works. I recently purchased my first Matter of Thread device, a Level Bolt lock, because I needed a smart lock that works with existing hardware and Level is the only option. I have struggled a bit to keep the device online because of bluetooth range with the lock inside a metal door. I will admit my use case might be unique but I still don't like that it uses BLE as the range is poor and I had to purchase a special Thread Border router to place near it to improve things.
Thanks for the quick reply. I totally agree with your idea about Lutron being tried and true. I think that’s the way I’ll go. I was hoping that Inovelli would meet the need for my only room where I use the Philips Hue bulbs and I was looking at exploring their fan canopy modules and matching switches as well (Tried the OEM Hunter and Hampton Bay modules and they are garbage IMO). I appreciate your insights into Inovelli’s struggles with keeping product in stock and overreaching or spreading themselves thin. I was getting the same impression from their Project Europa, among other things. I was completely unaware that Thread was so similar to Bluetooth and may suffer from range limitations. That seems dodgy for a ‘Next Gen’ protocol for sure. Thanks for that info. Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree here, given my use case. Any recommendations for a different switch that has a Smart Bulb mode? I considered using Caseta Pico remotes, but that still leaves me with the issue of the physical switch being in play. I won’t use those ugly switch-blocking covers and I really don’t want to hardwire the circuit closed and just have a dead, unwired switch in the 3-gang bad in question. Otherwise, open to any and all options. Thanks again!
I haven't seen Inovelli's fan module in stock in quite a while though I stopped looking too given delays. The fan space is very hard right now as things are transitioning from AC motors to DC motors. All the existing fan switches from GE/Jasco, Lutron, OEM Hunter/Hampton Bay, Inovelli only work with AC motors.
Keep in mind that Matter has two flavors: Thread over Matter which uses BLE and Matter over Wifi. Which is personally a little frustrating for me having 2 different types of Matter devices to keep up with. But know it is the same with Zigbee vs Zwave too.
That is one nice thing about the Zooz and Inovelli switches where they support this and Lutron doesn't. Is there a reason you need smart bulbs? I never got into colored bulbs so smart switches have worked well for me.
Not quite: there is Matter over Thread and Matter over WI-Fi (as well as really Matter over anything with a Matter Bridge that will ultimately connect over Wi-Fi or Ethernet). Both Wi-Fi and Thread devices will use BLE for initial commissioning. Neither use BLE for any communication afterwards. Thread is a distinct, Zigbee-like protocol that happens to share the 2.4 GHz space with Bluetooth, but there isn't much related to BLE beyond that.
Thanks for this clarification, Bert. This was more in line with my initial understanding of Thread. Do believe Thread is as range-limited as Bluetooth?
The colored bulbs are just an ambiance thing. I’m only using them in one space and they can really create a nice environment indoors or outdoors. The Philips Hue site has a lot of spectacular pics of what you can do with colored lighting to create unique and interesting lighting schemes that add a LOT to the space. Same with the colored LED strips. I’d never use them for task lighting, but great for R & R. Purely decorative.
No, it is pretty similar to Zigbee at the physical layer. So, you can get a mesh network and extend the range more or less indefinitely, and I'd expect similar range in a single "hop" for both. It's actually a bit smarter than Zigbee in a few ways. One is that it's a bit smarter in how it handles routing (e.g, not all eligible routers are necessarily chosen for this role); another particularly interesting one is that multiple Thread border routers (TBRs) can act as a single network even if they (or any devices) aren't in Thread range of each other using a scheme called partitioning, while still appearing seamless to the end user since the TBRs handle this traffic over your LAN as needed.
In fewer words: if Zigbee works well in your environment, I'd expect thread to work similarly, if not a bit better.
I've replaced switches with in-box zigbee dimming relays. And put Pico remotes in the front. I can program the Picos to turn the relay off if necessary. This has worked really well. I know that @mike.maxwell did something similar in one of his previous homes.
A quick update on this situation and a strong recommendation for Hubitat users.
I was able to get my hands on a Blue Series Switch from Inovelli and the difference was like night and day. The Blue Series delivered everything that was promised by the manufacturer and all of the features I was expecting after reading about the Inovelli switches on their site and on other sites. There are a ton of features and I am very satisfied at the moment with my purchase. So if you have read my initial post, you are aware of the frustration i had initially with the White series switches. While I'm sure these are fantastic products that share most or all of the features of the Blue Series, they are just not a good fit at all for Hubitat at this time. The drivers for the White Series are absolutely abysmal at this point in time and none of the advanced feature or options are exposed to Hubitat by the driver. They are fine for basic On/Off functionality, but do you really want to pay $80 for a switch with only the most basic functionality? After doing some research it seems that some or most of the issues have to do with the Matter support in Hubitat and the fact that there is no Thread radio in the Hubitat hubs, which means relying on a Thread Border Router that also has to play nice with the White Series switches. Bottom line at this time is this... I recommend that any one who is using Hubitat and wants to use Inovelli White Series products, should reconsider and go with the Blue Series instead. It's not even close at this time. Avoid the White Series like the plague until they have mature drivers and adequate Matter support on this platform.
Thanks to all who have read or replied to this thread!
