Matter in Home Assistant workshop announcement

Blog
74

Interesting - I’ve got as far as the need for IPv6 addressing and ‘fabric’ encryption, but not the mechanism and transports for set-up. Google Play Services seem to wrap this process up completely making the Android Google Home sample app more of a set of stub API-calls. ‘Local fabric’ smells a lot like a self-signed certificate / credentials.

Matter seems to be fairly resource intensive due its use of Wi-Fi radios and encrypted IPv6, meaning battery powered devices will use Zigbee/ BLE/ Thread (/ Z-Wave?) requiring hub Border Routers even when the costs of micro-controllers with cryptographic accelerators drops.

Some initial research suggests existing ESP12 / ESP8* can’t support Thread (no IEEE 802.15.4) and Matter might be a struggle (no hardware encryption). Plain-text MQTT works well enough on the LAN, although it would be good if IPv6 was supported.

75

Tried to get the idf environment compiled, has anyone really solved the libusb-1.0.0dev problem?

76

Just tried that with the code sample from the ESPHome docs:

esphome:
  name: "c3-devkitm-1"
  comment: "Testing the ESP32-C3-DevKitM-1 board"

esp32:
  board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1
  framework:
    type: esp-idf
    version: recommended
    # Custom sdkconfig options
    sdkconfig_options:
      CONFIG_COMPILER_OPTIMIZATION_SIZE: y
    # Advanced tweaking options
    advanced:
      ignore_efuse_mac_crc: false

But it does not compile:

INFO Reading configuration /config/esphome/esp32c3devkitm1.yaml...
INFO Generating C++ source...
INFO Compiling app...
Processing c3-devkitm-1 (board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1; framework: espidf; platform: platformio/espressif32 @ 3.5.0)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tool Manager: Installing espressif/toolchain-xtensa-esp32s2 @ 8.4.0+2021r2-patch2
Error: Could not find the package with 'espressif/toolchain-xtensa-esp32s2 @ 8.4.0+2021r2-patch2' requirements for your system 'linux_aarch64'

System is latest stable HA / HAOS 64 bit with everything up-to-date (but not beta or dev) running on RPi 4b. Compilation was started through the web frontend of the ESPHome add-on.

1 Like
77

There is whole thread about this. Short answer, compile it on an amd64 machine.

1 Like
78

I tried to find discussions about that problem, but didn’t. Could you add a link?
I hope that Intel is possible too. No AMD available.

79

Amd64 covers intel and amd. I’ll try and find the link.

Edit First ESPHome project (ESP32-S2 feather board) stuck on initial configuration install

1 Like
80

Yepp, that explains it all. Thanks!
I am very curious how code for this dev board will be compiled during the workshop. From the OP I conclude that RPi should be fine.

1 Like
81

When baloob says “ESP-IDF”, I understand you need the ESP IDE (or maybe Platformio) to compile the firmware, not just using esp-idf as the framework in esphome.

Likely, the firmware is “pure” C++.

82

I don’t think so. He mentions ESP-IDF and ESPHome in the same sentence. But maybe we should just wait until Wednesday… :sparkles:

1 Like
84

Emphasise “also”, as I read it it “this kit is what you need for the tutorial, but afterwards you can use it for esphome if you like”.

Given that there is a pretty prescribed piece of kit, maybe there is a precompiled binary for the tutorial.

85

OK so as far as I understood up till now this is a well-marketed rebranding of Zigbee, with a few additions.

2 Likes
86

Actually, the only thing i n common I can see is that they relate to IoT.
The underlying protocols are completely different.

1 Like
87

Well, there is some margin for improvement in your understanding. If there were any relation between the two worlds than it would probably be “ZigBee IP” vs Thread. Did you ever hear of ZigBee IP? I guess not. It never really made it to the market. Whatever you have really seen in terms of ZigBee has nothing to do with Matter (or Thread as a low level protocol).

88

The only thing in common between Matter and Zigbee is standards certification are both owned by the Connectivity Standards Alliance.

  • Matter uses IPv6 so is good for mains devices, and as an integration protocol between hubs, phones, and the Cloud (a hub is not necessarily required). ~250 manufacturers are signed up.
  • Zigbee uses IEEE 802.15.4 so is good for battery devices
  • An allied protocol, Thread also uses IEEE 802.15.4 BUT addressing and discovery is DIFFERENT from Zigbee.
  • Hub Border Routers connect protocols (e.g. Zigbee 3.0 <=> Matter), a function which HASS is likely to support along with Nest Hubs, Amazon Echo, etc.

I suggest looking at a few of the links in my previous posts for detail - both consumer, and low-level tech.

1 Like
89

This sounds awesome! One question though, will an ESP8266 work? I have a few lying aroundd, but no ESP32’s.

90

Did you even bother to read this thread before posting to it?

91

ESP8* and ESP12 are very different from an ESP32-C3 - 8086 compared with a Pentium.

The ESP32-C3 is a specific MCU designed for secure IoT applications - e.g. Matter.

The ESP32 family supports IEEE 802.15.4, a cryptographic accelerator, BTLE 5, more powerful CPU (single and dual-core), 2x GPIO pins, 8x the ADCs, 1/4x the sleep current, capacitive touch, the list goes on and on… ESP32-C3 data sheet

I suggest looking at a few of the links in my previous posts for detail - both consumer, and low-level tech.

92

I found it here on GitHub :grin:

93

It seems to me that the Nordic Semiconductor nRF52840 Dongle is also a supported Matter device in due time. Price is around 10 €/$.

Sources

94

Guys, afaik there is still not a single Matter device on the market.
Having this “demo” workshop is nice, but it’s basically a WIP for everybody, so let’s not give it more importance than it has as of today :wink:

2 Likes