Eve Starts Selling Matter-Enabled Smart Home Devices

[dwaite]

I think I might have misunderstood the whole Matter concept. Surely, the whole purpose of a unified eco-system, with a unified protocol, is that anything that implements Matter can talk to anything else that implements Matter, right? Am I being too naive? Too simple minded here? So we have a HomePod that can allegedly talk Matter. And we have, say, a smart-switch that can talk Matter. But we still need another interposing hub in between the two?

Matter is a set of IP-based rules for devices to find and talk to one another securely within the home. It supports doing this over Wifi and Thread wireless networking protocols. If the devices aren't both Wifi or both Thread, they need another device between them to bridge the two networks.

Thread has several classes of devices - if you are plugged into power you might be always-on, while if you are powered by a button cell you may only wake up periodically to check for pending commands or to report your current status. There has to be something to deal with that intermittent connectivity.

Also, if your device is always-on it may volunteer to do routing. These devices (e.g. a HomePod or Apple TV) extend the thread network - but that means the devices on the fringes of your home may have to talk through one or more routers to get to their destination.

Finally, non-Matter protocols (like Zigbee) can be translated and exposed as Matter devices. Yet another potential for an intermediary.

On top of that network topology though, everything has an address and communication is expected to be directly to the other device, without needing to be delegated by some service running in the home or on the internet. The button directs a command to the light bulb, although it may need to go through intermediary parties to get there.

 

[Powerbooky]

For good reason. They’re better at penetrating walls than other Wi-Fi bands.
Since only a minimal amount of data needs to be transferred for home automation, the Wi-Fi protocols don‘t make sense for most home automation devices (except video fees, of course).

That's why it would have been better if Thread protocol had used a much lower frequency band, like Z-wave. But I know... the 2.4GHz band is almost free to use in almost any country worldwide. The lower RF bands not so much.

 

[Mrkevinfinnerty]

Works great with all your Alexa devices

 

[dwaite]

That's why it would have been better if Thread protocol had used a much lower frequency band, like Z-wave. But I know... the 2.4GHz band is almost free to use in almost any country worldwide. The lower RF bands not so much.

Yep, one of the cons of Z-Wave. https://www.silabs.com/wireless/z-wave/global-regions

 

[jsalda]

I don’t hold my breathe as to how long these things work. I have had mixed results honestly.

iDevices have been rock solid. Horrible lack of response to emails for questions, and few firmware updates.

Wemo: bad hardware sockets. Returned and moved on.

Kasa: recent purchase, seems good, firmware update within a month of new release (makes sense)

Personally, I’d rather stick with one brand if possible, every new brand I use add a new possibly to be hacked.

TLDR …hopefully the good matter/HomeKit companies raise quickly to the top for safety and stability.

I bought a Wemo outlet from the Apple Store, never could get it to work. Said state from a company that used to be really reliable. My EVE Energy setup easily and have been rock solid.

 

[macleod199]

I’m still waiting to hear when the thread-based Weather and Room will be updated to Matter. I’m in the beta program and it’s been nothing since the Energy.

 

[Will Co]

Matter is a set of IP-based rules for devices to find and talk to one another securely within the home. It supports doing this over Wifi and Thread wireless networking protocols. If the devices aren't both Wifi or both Thread, they need another device between them to bridge the two networks.

Thread has several classes of devices - if you are plugged into power you might be always-on, while if you are powered by a button cell you may only wake up periodically to check for pending commands or to report your current status. There has to be something to deal with that intermittent connectivity.

Also, if your device is always-on it may volunteer to do routing. These devices (e.g. a HomePod or Apple TV) extend the thread network - but that means the devices on the fringes of your home may have to talk through one or more routers to get to their destination.

Finally, non-Matter protocols (like Zigbee) can be translated and exposed as Matter devices. Yet another potential for an intermediary.

On top of that network topology though, everything has an address and communication is expected to be directly to the other device, without needing to be delegated by some service running in the home or on the internet. The button directs a command to the light bulb, although it may need to go through intermediary parties to get there.

Thanks for that summary - concise and informative.

So if we have, say, a Matter capable accessory, always on, which is using either WiFi or Bluetooth, and it's talking to the always on, WiFi and Bluetooth capable HomePod, then there ought to be no need for a hub, assuming there's no range issue. And yet I see plenty of devices which fit that description but yet still ned the hub.

 

[ChrisA]

That's why it would have been better if Thread protocol had used a much lower frequency band, like Z-wave. But I know... the 2.4GHz band is almost free to use in almost any country worldwide. The lower RF bands not so much.

Thread is a mesh network, so any mains-powered device (light bulbs, smart switches, smart outlets and so on) will act as router. A house might have dozens of routers to to Thread reception should always be good. The signal only has to get as far as the nearest lightbulb and then that light bulb will forward the data to the next one, and so on.

 

[sbrhwkp3]

Eve Systems today announced the launch of its updated Matter-enabled Eve Energy smart plug, which is its first out-of-the-box Matter-compatible device. Eve previously released a beta firmware update to add Matter to some existing Eve accessories, but as of today, it is possible to buy the Eve Energy with Matter integration.

The Matter-equipped Eve Energy is available in North America, Europe, and the UK starting today. The Matter-enabled Eve Motion and Eve Door and Window are set to launch in stores on April 17.

April 17 is also the official launch date of Eve's Matter firmware update, which will be widely available for the first time. It has been available to those who signed up to beta test, but the public launch is coming in April. Existing Eve Energy, Eve Door and Window, and Eve Motion Sensor devices will be able to be upgraded to Matter through the Eve app for the iPhone and the iPad.

Matter is a new smart home standard that's being used by Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, and others. It allows for interoperability between smart home platforms, so a Matter-enabled Eve Energy Smart Plug can, for example, be added to an Apple HomeKit setup and a Google Home setup at the same time so long as the appropriate Matter hubs are available.

With multi-platform support, Matter-enabled accessories can be controlled with iPhones and Android phones, something not possible with HomeKit alone.

The Eve Energy with Matter can be purchased from the Eve website or from Amazon for $40, and it will soon come to Apple retail stores.

Article Link: Eve Starts Selling Matter-Enabled Smart Home Devices

Exciting. I have 16 of their motion blinds in my home and they work great most of the time. But sometimes the blinds jump on and off of thread and can take time to respond. Hoping this update brings more stability.

 

[_Spinn_]

My Eve devices have been rock solid. Very happy that they are all in on Matter.

 

[dwaite]

Thanks for that summary - concise and informative.

So if we have, say, a Matter capable accessory, always on, which is using either WiFi or Bluetooth, and it's talking to the always on, WiFi and Bluetooth capable HomePod, then there ought to be no need for a hub, assuming there's no range issue. And yet I see plenty of devices which fit that description but yet still ned the hub.

Think of it more like internet traffic. you might have a NAT, a cable modem, a NOC router, your internet provider infrastructure, a backbone, all to hit a CDN - but thats not the way you think of it. You want to connect to something by IP, the network figures out how to make it happen, and traffic gets routed.

Each piece of infrastructure along that route serves an essential function (unless people are just throwing money away). This is different from lots of current bespoke IoT hardware, which will require some cloud-backed service and account to function at all, with often dubious justification.

But to your statement - Matter does not support bluetooth for IoT traffic, just Wifi and Thread (and Ethernet I suppose). Bluetooth is used as a provisioning alternative for unpaired devices, vs finding and scanning a device QR code.

If I have a thread-only network, it 'works' with at least one always-on device serving as a router. If I have a wifi-only network, it 'works' since I already have routing infrastructure thats always on (e.g. my access point). This includes binding a smart button acting as a light switch to a smart bulb - they will communicate directly between one-another on that network, without needing any other infrastructure.

If I want to bridge network tech, some device has to serve that purpose. Apple built this into (newer) HomePods and (premium) Apple TVs. There are translating components to take foreign networks like Zigbee, and translate those non-Matter light switches and the like to 'look like' Wifi-connected, Matter-compatible devices. I suspect (but don't have any evidence) that Apple plans to eventually make all 'legacy' HomeKit products work like this, and make everything other than those hubs Matter-only. HomeKit is already _very_ limited if you don't have an AppleTV or HomePod.

These are all IPv6-based, and there could be tons of them. A single Thread network could hypothetically have something like 16k devices on it. Obviously someone is interested in commercial applications, such as smart hotel rooms.

No Matter standard involves the internet-at-large. Generally the proprietary system that control and administers the network would deal with things like you double-checking your garage door is down while waiting to board your plane. Thats built into HomePods and Apple TVs as well, using Apple Home. For example, I believe things like security cameras share video onto local wifi and it is the responsibility for something else to capture/save that, be it locally or to the cloud. Matter is somewhat unique in that it mandates devices can be controlled/administered by multiple systems at once. So if I ask Siri to turn off my lights, their status in Google Home will update and vice-versa.

There are some other efforts, such as one by Samsung, to try to standardize IoT devices with mandatory cloud value-adds, like refrigerators with grocery lists and the like. I personally haven't been tracking any of those, however.

 

[MadeTheSwitch]

Thanks for that summary - concise and informative.

So if we have, say, a Matter capable accessory, always on, which is using either WiFi or Bluetooth, and it's talking to the always on, WiFi and Bluetooth capable HomePod, then there ought to be no need for a hub, assuming there's no range issue. And yet I see plenty of devices which fit that description but yet still ned the hub.

Keep in mind that the finalized first Matter protocol was released only 6 months ago. So everyone is in a VERY transitional phase. A lot of companies have a legacy mindset. Either because they want to wait and see how Matter shakes out, or because they think it’s cheaper and easier to program and engineer their products around their proprietary hub instead.

Also, as you noted, range can be an issue. A lot of these devices still use Bluetooth which can cause “no response” issues without an intermediary hub to bridge the distance gap. Companies really need to get out of the habit of using Bluetooth for these purposes. It’s just not reliable enough. I am hoping that over time, most companies will switch over to Thread. Time will tell on that but for me personally, if it’s not Thread capable, I won’t buy it.