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Eve Releases First Thread-Enabled Smart Light Switch

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Eve has today released a new version of the smart home connected Eve Light Switch featuring support for Thread, in what seems to be the first Thread-enabled light switch for any smart platform (via HomeKit News).

eve-light-switch-with-thread-nw-fi.jpg

The Eve Light Switch, which is designed for the European market, can use both Thread and Bluetooth to connect to a smart home network, depending on which is available. It requires a neutral wire and is not compatible with existing switch plates, meaning that the only option is to use the one that comes with the Eve Switch itself.

eve-light-switch-with-thread.jpg

Until now, Eve's popular smart home devices have mostly been Bluetooth-based, which attempted to avoid the occasional reliability issues of Wi-Fi networks, but came at the cost of slower response times. Thread technology is now proliferating through Eve's smart home products. The new Eve Switch is constantly powered, allowing it to expand the Thread network in a user's home as a Thread Router.
Eve Light Switch supports Bluetooth and Thread, and joins your Thread network automatically. As a router node, Eve Light Switch relays other Thread accessories' data packets and enhances the stability and reach of your smart home. Thread is also a pillar of CHIP – the smart home standard of the future.
Click to expand...
Apple has begun looking toward open standards in the smart home space, working with other companies such as Google and Amazon to develop a universal standard for smart home products. Apple's commitment to open standards and Thread within HomeKit was demonstrated by the launch of the HomePod mini last year, which is the first Thread-enabled Apple device.

Although the HomePod mini supports thread, it only serves as a Border Router, unlike the Eve Light Switch, which works as an entire Thread Router. Thread accessories do not need a proprietary bridge to communicate with each other, instead only needing a Border Router like the HomePod mini. The new Eve Light Switch puts the company center-stage with the advancement of Thread in conjunction with HomeKit.

The Eve Light Switch is priced at €99.95 and is available now from the Eve website.

Article Link: Eve Releases First Thread-Enabled Smart Light Switch
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2021/04/20/eve-releases-thread-enabled-light-switch/
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Thanks but I think I'll stick to a Philips Hue switch which probably has bags more functionality and costs €16 on Amazon.....

I see this flopping.

ETA: I used to love Elgato Eve products. I have a number of them throughout my home, but lost faith in their longevity. It's almost like they are designed to fail after the warranty expires.

I had the original Eve Weather. That died, 1 year and 11 months after I purchased it. I live in Europe and after a lengthy debate regarding EU law, they eventually conceded and gave me a new unit. The barometer on that one died one year and 10 months after getting it. They are yet again refusing to replace the unit (as they said the new one is not under the same 2 year warranty we get under EU law), so once again I'm battling it out with them.

Ultimately, the product quality is pretty crappy and I'm reluctant to buy more of their products, which is a shame as when they work, they are excellent.
 
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beanbaguk said:
Thanks but I think I'll stick to a Philips Hue switch which probably has bags more functionality and costs €16 on Amazon.....

I see this flopping.
Click to expand...
This has a different function in some ways, Hue switches only work with Hue enabled lights and bulbs, this switch can be retrofitted to control normal lights and bulbs.
 
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I bet if Apple spent as much time and money on delivering Apple-branded HomeKit devices as they do on questionable or just plain bad content for AppleTV, they would have a total lock on the home automation market.
 
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MacRumors said:
The new Eve Switch is constantly powered, allowing it to expand the Thread network in a user's home as a Thread Router.
Click to expand...
This is quite smart. The switch always has power with the exception being a power outage. And you have light switches in every room, so the network is in your whole house without needing any other hubs or routers. But expensive unfortunately.

Edit: Do they also have smart power sockets to replace the standard ones instead of adding another layer? Would be nice but I don't even want to imagine the price.
 
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These switches are expensive, but quite useful too. I use four of them and in some rooms did not even install a regular light on the ceiling. With the Eve switches I can trigger other homekit-lights (not wired to them) too (via automations) and have implemented time-based scenes. This is super convinient, and also guest-proof (they can switch the light as expected).
There are also way cheaper HomeKit enabled wall-switches (with WiFi) on Amazon, but I've never tested them.
The only real trade-off is that you need a permanent N available in the installation-socket.
 
Requires a neutral wire, so not really for the European market at least not the UK.

Still nothing to replace Lightwave switches. It’s pathetic. Even Hue is useless if you have G4/G9 bulbs which are very common in the UK.
 
Mike_Trivisonno said:
I bet if Apple spent as much time and money on delivering Apple-branded HomeKit devices as they do on questionable or just plain bad content for AppleTV, they would have a total lock on the home automation market.
Click to expand...
how much do U want to bet? Such a odd statement on your part,considering u have no idea what they spend on HomeKit , but nice try.
 
My problem with home automation is not so much finding devices that are HomeKit compatible, but that they're all varyingly cranky.

IMO, IoT devices, including home automation ones, should have: ECC RAM and CPUs (and equivalent for their flash) providing greatly reduced susceptibility to random glitches, space to hold at least two copies of their firmware plus core firmware to redo a failed partial update, firmware signatures, a hardware "watchdog" timer to reset them if the OS didn't regularly check in perhaps by zeroing a counter (a basic sanity check), OS level software sanity checks on top of that (to include checks to determine if they need to re-register themselves with some controller or hub, rate-limited so that the total of such checks does not become burdensome), and the ability to hold the state of whatever they controlled across a reset or power outage. I may have forgotten something, but that seems a basic list sufficient to keep something working whenever possible. In the event of a detectable and persistent internal failure, they should report that and go to a "safe" state (usually turning off whatever they control), too.

Heck, even critical medical devices often lack some of those reliability features, which is plain appalling. But home automation could have potential safety issues, esp. given that remote control via the Internet is possible; and attacks that turn devices as trivial as lightbulbs into 'bots for further nefarious uses have been demonstrated, even if not widely deployed; and of course cameras are certainly targeted. The vast bulk of that would be preventable, with due care, and at least say five years of updates (IMO longer for things that don't need much new features and could last longer, like smart LED bulbs). It would certainly cost more for initial development (fixed costs), but at quantity only modestly more for hardware and maintenance (incremental costs).

(I certainly hope that self-driving cars have all those reliability features and probably more, like the ability to deal reasonably with both failures that don't directly impact drivability, and various sorts of failures that do.)
 
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beanbaguk said:
Thanks but I think I'll stick to a Philips Hue switch which probably has bags more functionality and costs €16 on Amazon.....

I see this flopping.

ETA: I used to love Elgato Eve products. I have a number of them throughout my home, but lost faith in their longevity. It's almost like they are designed to fail after the warranty expires.

I had the original Eve Weather. That died, 1 year and 11 months after I purchased it. I live in Europe and after a lengthy debate regarding EU law, they eventually conceded and gave me a new unit. The barometer on that one died one year and 10 months after getting it. They are yet again refusing to replace the unit (as they said the new one is not under the same 2 year warranty we get under EU law), so once again I'm battling it out with them.

Ultimately, the product quality is pretty crappy and I'm reluctant to buy more of their products, which is a shame as when they work, they are excellent.
Click to expand...
Interesting to hear this perspective. I just bought my second Eve product - the Weather, which was just introduced in the US. I did, because I've had the Eve motion sensor for a year and it hasn't given me any trouble. The Weather looks really solidly made, if a bit smaller than I had expected and its screen is all but unreadable from any angle other than directly in front of your eyes. But I guess that was done to conserve on energy. I haven't opened the back cover, but it appears to run on a single "watch" type battery. As I'll be interacting with it mainly through Siri or the Home app, no big deal. Regarding the "Home" app - the Weather shows up as 2 different accessory - Temperature and Humidity - and the barometric pressure isn't available at all. Eve support tells me that is because there's no support for barometric pressure type of accessories in HomeKit yet. I can see the pressure in the Eve app, but there it's only visible in a tiny font under the 'Trends" chart label (getting old is hell - I wear multifocal contacts and it's literally impossible for me to see either the pressure or any of the labels on the chart :-( And nothing is zoomable in the Eva app - bad UI design, if you ask me.

Sorry for the long sidebar - on to this wall switch: I agree with others that this is way overpriced. When I had my house built, I believe I paid around $50 for each Lutron Casetta(sp?) light switch. While they don't have thread support, I have nothing but good things to say about Lutron's HomeKit support, quality, and ease of adding additional accessories over time. I have about 20 of their switches (most are dimmers).
 
ingik said:
This has a different function in some ways, Hue switches only work with Hue enabled lights and bulbs, this switch can be retrofitted to control normal lights and bulbs.
Click to expand...
So do Lutron Caseta light switches - at about half the cost. Not sure their only differentiator - thread support - is enough to justify that kind of cost difference. Maybe Lutron isn't available in Europe?
 
beanbaguk said:
Thanks but I think I'll stick to a Philips Hue switch which probably has bags more functionality and costs €16 on Amazon.....

I see this flopping.

ETA: I used to love Elgato Eve products. I have a number of them throughout my home, but lost faith in their longevity. It's almost like they are designed to fail after the warranty expires.

I had the original Eve Weather. That died, 1 year and 11 months after I purchased it. I live in Europe and after a lengthy debate regarding EU law, they eventually conceded and gave me a new unit. The barometer on that one died one year and 10 months after getting it. They are yet again refusing to replace the unit (as they said the new one is not under the same 2 year warranty we get under EU law), so once again I'm battling it out with them.

Ultimately, the product quality is pretty crappy and I'm reluctant to buy more of their products, which is a shame as when they work, they are excellent.
Click to expand...
Exactly. The hue switches I have 3 of and still come out under one of these one button switches.
 
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