what is the best (easiest) way to control switchbot curtain 3 from HA? Matter? Bluetooth? thank you
You have to be more specific about what you think is “best”.
Matter over thread is a mesh network meant for such thing, so if you have other Matter over thread devices, then you get a good network that can auto-recover and have redundancy.
Bluetooth needs to have a “hub” nearby and the star network it forms is relying on a good connection to that hub.
In this part I think Matter is better.
Matter is quite strict in what can be offered in features though, so Bluetooth might offer extra features, but it depends on what the vendor have chosen.
thanks so much for your help. im new to everything and keen to learn. i have a skyconnect dongle but currently using it with zigbee2qmtt, as i had a zigbee switch that didnt work with zha. so i suppose i could use the skyconnect with matter? but get a second dongle for zigbee?
i have a switchbot curtain 3 and a switchbot hub mini e. i have no other matter devices. i currently have a zigbee button that id like to open/close the curtain.
SkyConnect can run in a multi protocol setup, where it support both Zigbee and Matter over Thread, but my experience is that it is not as good as having separate Zigbee and Matter over Thread radios.
Zigbee, Z-wave and Thread (with or without Matter) are all thread networks, where mains powered devices help expand the network and make it robust with redundancy.
The more mains powered devices you get the better the network.
Because both Zigbee and Thread use the 2.4Ghz frequency they might interfere with each other a bit and you will get 2 networks that do not work together to improve each other.
If you stick with all the devices on just one network, then that network will be far better than the two separate networks, because it will work better internally and you will get a synergy effect from it.
Hedda have produced this guide on Zigbee and most of it is directly relatable to Thread also, with the exception that Thread can have multiple Thread Border Routers, which is the equivalent of a Zigbee Coordinator.
Thank you very much. Yes I read that, while promised it would, in actuality thread and ZigBee on the skyconnect at the same time doesn’t work well? Ok so it sounds like I want to stick with my ZigBee network and forget thread? So does this leave me with the options of matter over WiFi or Bluetooth? I have a switch to hub se but I don’t think that supports matter, so I’d have to get a newer switchbot Hub I think
It works, but the two protocols on the same device complicate things in HA.
I tried it for a couple of months and eventually ended up with two SkyConnects instead, one flashed with Zigbee-only and one flashed with Thread-only.
I am trying to move from Zigbee to Matter over Thread, which is why I have both at the moment, but the goal is to eliminate the Zigbee network eventually.
Matter is just in its infancy at the moment, so as an early adopter I will have issues with finding the right devices (sometimes they do not even exist yet), but I do it for the fun of it and the it is somewhat less important that it works perfectly.
I do not know what works for your setup, but I would suggest you first look at the options with your current devices before going out and buying “upgrades”. They might be working fine with the right setup of HA, so look into how you can integrate the current gear in HA first.