Well, it should be in the next release (march/april 2024) but it might not make it and then it will be moved to the next one. But I have high hopes it will make it to the upcoming 1.3 release. But then we’ll have to see if vendors are going to push firmware updates to update their existing devices to use the official cluster(s) for energy monitoring. So realistically it might take something like about a year before this is actually available.
Now, let’s hope we can do a few more custom implementations like we did with Eve to fill the gap in between.
Using existing Apple Border routers is actually the most stable Thread network you can get at the moment so your experience is somewhat weird.
Using Home Assistant as Thread Border router is not yet available (and highly experimental as you have experienced) so you shouldn’t start using it in the first place until it is ready. We have still so many things to do to finish that, like creating UI, work out the issues with Bluetooth, etc. etc.
So my advice would actually be to go back to the Apple Thread network because that should give a stable experience.
At least… if you do not add any Nanoleaf devices to the Thread mesh. Those devices have buggy firmware at the moment and your entire thread mesh becomes very unstable because of that. At the moment I just advise everybody to remove (or not add) Nanoleaf Thread devices until the new 3.6 firmware is released.
Remember that Matter has just been released a year ago, it will need a few years to mature. Until than do not expect wonders but what I can tell is that development is going REALLY fast because the big tech companies are so heavily investing in it.
So I don’t think its going to take 10 years to mature/stabilize like Z-Wave and Zigbee but more like 2 or 3 years.
Probably it was so terribly instable as I joined SkyConnect OTBR to the existing Apple based Thread network, and also I was using the SkyConnect in multiprotocol mode and ran ZHA on it too. I later purchased an additional radio and migrated ZHA to Z2M, configured SkyConnect to thread only and created a new thread network (using a different channel), then migrating everything to this new thread network.
There was a reason though why I didn’t just disable thread on the SkyConnect and continue to use my HomePod mini as thread border router, but unfortunately I cannot remember what it was.
I have not yet seen those kind of sensors yet but pretty sure they will eventually be released. Many companies are working on Thread devices. I believe the member list of CSA is actually over 700 nowadays, most stepping in because of Matter.
I actually also have a couple of Homekit IP devices in my home, one of the most stable IOT devices I have ever seen/owned. Downside is that nowadays they also seem to have a focus on their cloud platform.
Yes, that is already working today with border routers from Apple and Google thanks to the technique called TREL. The traffic is load balanced between border routers in your home. Works rock solid and it can only become better once we’re able to just form one big thread network from BR’s of multiple vendors.
Also, keep an eye on companies like GL-Inet that are working on small, standalone Thread Border routers, based on OpenThread that you can spread around your house as alternative for the BR’s from the big tech companies.
I’m more interested in the fact that Matter supports the third state “tilted” for sensors of the “window” class. As this does not exist in America, there is a risk that “windows” in Matter can only be “open” or “closed”.
Oh, that’s a great find! I think it would be very helpful if the HA documentation had a list of suggested (Open) Thread Border routers, similar to the list of Bluetooth adapters, as it’s hard to keep track of the development: Bluetooth - Home Assistant .
I appreciate Your knowledge and preparation! Based on earlier communication from Paulus, do you think HomeAssistant could be the ultimate test environment for Matter for companies? It could be a big advance to have everything working on HA at first.
I will stay away from matter as I had my mileage already with zigbee and is just so much pain to work with it (despite no one getting tired saying it’s all compatible). Instead I continue using wifi devices based on esphome because they have 100% compatibility with HA - no matter what!
No first of all because w’re based on the official SDK which runs in its own process. Just like we did with Z-Wave its actually a good thing to keep HA core the automation engine and keep the actual controller/radio communication away from that.
I also do not agree on the “easier for beginners” part. Running the HA core yourself or even through docker is for advanced users only - beginners start with Home Assistant OS which you can even run in a VM to quickly try it out.
Architecture-wise it’s a good thing to have multiple isolated micro-services running in their own process which are then communicating over a leightweight protocol like websockets or mqtt to the automation engine.
The other solutions you inspected (I don’t think there are actually a lot others that do Matter) are probably not based on the official SDK ?
Almost/all companies test with HA as we’re one of the 5 big Matter controllers:
Apple Home, Google Home, Samsung Smartthings, Amazon Alexa, Home Assistant
As we’re part of the CSA and actually preparing to get certified we’re part of the deal and also participate in test events.
A few even go one step beyond and quickly prototype stuff with HA as its easy to just adjust it to their needs and some even contribute fixes or features as the spec evolves.
This may be the wrong venue for this question, but I guess you could classify me as an early adopter of Matter devices. I have Skyconnect set up for thread, with Aqara P2 door sensors and Nanoleaf bulbs, along with a couple of Leviton switches with the matter firmware.
Nanoleaf issues have been discussed repeatedly so I won’t rehash them here, but want to ask a couple of questions focused on HA’s implementation, and if because it’s still “beta” these may be addressed in a future update.
I have both a Leviton D215S and a D26HD. The D215S currently controls an exhaust fan, but when added to Matter in HA, appears in the Light domain. I know in Zigbee I can map devices to other domains, but that doesn’t appear possible in Matter. I recently had an incident where my smart speaker was given an “all lights on” command by accident, and the fan came on with the lights. Fortunately I was able to correct it and not leave the fan running for an extended period.
The other issue involves the D26HD (and this also can be seen in the Nanoleaf bulbs) - In Zigbee devices, I can see an attribute showing the last “on” state even when off, so I can do a “Scene: Create” to save those values, and recall them after an automation triggers a state change. Those attributes don’t appear in Matter devices yet, so I don’t know if they’re missing as part of the protocol, or if the HA instance just hasn’t implemented them yet - my scenario is if the switch is off, save the last used brightness, turn on to 10%, and then at another event turn the light back off while restoring the last used brightness. Currently, the next time the light is turned manually on after the automation has run it is still at 10%.
A device is discovered as light because it reports being a light device type.
if you do not want that, you should consider using a matter relay/switch device which will then be discovered as switch device which is universal enough to let you choose how to use it (switch as fan, switch as light etc).
If the Leviton switch is actual a universal switch and not a light switch they should change their device type. I guess its main purpose is light switch ?
If you really want to work around it, you could probably create a template fan device using the light under the hood and then make the original light invisible.
About the missing attributes. It’s a Home Assistant default to remove that attributes when the device is off. So that is not a Matter issue but by design in HA. In fact it will also not work with other integrations. If the entity is off, the attributes are gone.
Not Matter but related since it is about Thread (not sure if that’s allowed).
I read that HA does not yet support thread 1.3 with TREL (for Skyconnect). Is this part of the roadmap or not the priority at the moment?
TREL support has been added but its still not very stable. We have reports (me included) that an otherwise perfectly stable Apple Thread network destabilizes as soon as the SkyConnect is added. For now my advise will be to use the skyconnect standalone (thread only firmware) or with other OTBR based BR’s like Gl-iNet (or just multiple skyconnects but most stable is a couple of homepod minis.
We still have crashing issues on top of the fact that sharing the radio for both zigbee and thread is only ideal for smaller networks. If you ask me its far from production readiness but for all we know a magic bug fix pops up tomorrow that fixes it. Just temper your expectations. Thread only firmware is stable though.
