Will Hubitat support Matter? [Spoiler: YES]

.... ask her again in 15 years. The answer is usually different by then. :wink:

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β€œWhen I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

― Mark Twain

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Not to derail this thread.... but I actually think during Twain's time 21 might have been the age for reclaimed respect, these days I'm thinking it's more like 31.

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Maybe because life expectency in the 1830's was about 45 years. :wink:

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It is more complicated these days with kids living at home for decades past their move-by-dates. They have to encounter "real life", meaning non family to start the process of appreciation. :slight_smile:

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So true. One of my sons was out of the house at 18, off to Berkeley, never lived full-time w/us again. My other son lived with us full time until he was almost 27 due to several factors, including a diagnosis of Depression and the timing of the peak of Covid. Such different experiences for the two of them!

Sure.... but if Hubitat has thread built in (as well as matter) no data will go out from hubitat (well cloud based hubs like google/echo will send out device x was activated via thread/matter at x time but that's about it) . Also with said cloud based hubs, will their thread/matter devices work if there is no internet access? I know thread does on Homepod's but I don't know about google/echo.

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Unless they change something, no, they will not work at all without internet access. When we lose internet, all my Google "hubs" (Loosely using that term as that is what they are sold as) competely stop working and display nothing but a no internet screen. You can't trigger them, swipe them, or do anything but wait for WAN access, even with a fully functioning LAN.

ANother reason not to rely on anything connected to them. I got rid of all my echo's for Homepod mini's (at 8 now) I cut internet to them during testing and attached thread devices still worked so that was good.

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I rely on them for nothing. Voice control is a convenience and a novelty to the Grandkids. However, I would never use Alexa, Google, or even the Home pods as a "hub." That is just NOT their forte (and Google at a minimum needs to stay in their own lane or make something that actually is a hub before calling it one)

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Thread border routers are just specialized little APs. I imagine there will be all sorts of network management tools that will come out including some sort of firewall.

Looks like there two approaches being taken for simultaneous multiprotocol support on a single 802.15.4 radio.

For their SoC's, TI provides DMM (Dynamic Multi-Protocol Manager) https://www.ti.com/lit/an/swra641a/swra641a.pdf?ts=1673609650760

Silicon Labs discusses that and another scheme here https://www.silabs.com/documents/public/user-guides/ug103-16-multiprotocol-fundamentals.pdf

SiLabs describes 'Dynamic Multiprotocol' where (as in Ti's DMM) the application timeslices the radio, rapidly changing configurations including the channel) but also discuss 'Concurrent Multiprotocol' where both Zigbee and Thread can run concurrently on the same radio, sharing the same channel. This would appear to take the burden of complexity away from the application code.

That approach may still be on the horizon though, as they note "Zigbee and Thread are one example of suitable protocols for a concurrent multiprotocol implementation (not yet implemented in SiliconLabs stacks). I don't see a date on that doc, but haven't found one newer than rev 0.3.

Neither approach comes without drawbacks and constraints, as SiLabs notes:

Note: When a radio has to switch between two different PHYs, it 'disappears' from one network or another. For protocols where the device might be the 'parent' of a sleepy end device, if the parent device is not available when the sleepy end device wakes up to send a message, regular dependency on retries will impact the sleepy end device’s battery life.

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And neither would any data go out when the thread devices are connected on a vlan that has no access to the internet. I honestly don't know which way this will go. But thread devices apparently get an IPv6 network address on the 2.4ghz spectrum. If you currently run Ubiquiti or Omada or something similar, you have network gear that is excellent at assigning devices network addresses and routing traffic through and between them. Why not use it?

With both Ubuiqiti and Omada it is fairly straightforward to prevent any device from communicating with the internet, I don't see why if they came out with a thread implementation it would be any different. At least with something like Ubuiqiti and Omada you would need to setup the proper ACL's to ensure the devices don't communicate with the internet. With Hubitat, I don't know how you would do that, you could disconnect the HE from the Internet, or take Hubitat's word that their thread devices won't communicate with the internet.

Who knows, I definitely don't know how this will turn out. I would just be surprised if thread does become popular, if it is not build into most home routers and/or networking equipment.

Matter is a local hub mesh solution. Matter will allow any Matter controller to talk to any other Matter controller for which it is linked, directly -- no internet. Matter gateways may act as a bridge between matter controllers on the LAN and devices in the cloud, but the Matter controllers can choose to provide cloud based hosting as well, but as a bridge in that case.

Yup..., like "Zigbee IP"

I can't find a good reason to support another device clogging up the already over used 2.4GHz band that doesn't have a good advantage over the current standards. If you compare Zigbee vs Thread, they're nearly identical, except the IP (which is just putting additional traffic on my current network) and that went over like a lead balloon for "Zigbee IP".

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46 posts were split to a new topic: Will Matter ever Matter?

C-8 is a great hub. Hoping that there is a Matter firmware update in the future as indicated when it was released. That will help those of us who are cross platform

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Curious :thinking: - Are you successfully using Matter on any other platforms currently? I agree that Matter has the promise of improved cross-system compatibility. I just have not seen Matter take off very quickly in the marketplace. I am fine with that as I'd prefer vendors 'get it right' versus rushing buggy products to the market.

Just curious if you already have a current use-case for Matter devices on multiple platforms?

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I've got my first Thread device from my favorite Ali Express. It's a nice e-Ink display thermometer :
image

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005397633283.html

Included without any problems via Apple Home ( HomePod mini) - no need to look for or write new drivers, horey! :slight_smile:

Update October 2023 : this is NOT a Matter enabled device!

Not recommended to buy!

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