[HN Gopher] Matter, set to fix smart home standards in 2023, stu...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Matter, set to fix smart home standards in 2023, stumbled in the
       real market
        
       Author : LinuxBender
       Score  : 75 points
       Date   : 2023-12-25 16:15 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | rubatuga wrote:
       | TLDR: Matter with Philips Hue is unreliable. Matter doesn't
       | support adaptive lighting on HomeKit (yet).
       | 
       | My two cents: thread and matter has the potential to be more
       | reliable than WiFi. The biggest blocker is that thread border
       | routers have no vendor interoperability (you have to buy a bridge
       | for every vendor)
        
         | tjoff wrote:
         | > _The biggest blocker is that thread border routers have no
         | vendor interoperability (you have to buy a bridge for every
         | vendor)_
         | 
         | Why? They all work ~fine on zigbee which is pretty much the
         | exact same thing just with even less oversight.
         | 
         | I haven't bought into matter/thread because I haven't found a
         | single device I want yet.
        
           | ianburrell wrote:
           | Zigbee and Thread are not the same thing. They use the same
           | 802.15.4 radio. Zigbee does its own wireless mesh protocol,
           | and then adds profiles on top. With home automation being
           | most common. Thread uses 6LoWPAN to run IPv6 on 802.15.4.
           | Thread adds a mesh network. Matter is the home automation
           | protocol on top of that.
        
             | tjoff wrote:
             | From an systems perspective they are the same thing. Zigbee
             | vs. Thread is just transport. The protocol on top of that
             | is what matters and the sole purpose (from my narrow
             | perspective) of Thread+Matter was that this would be a team
             | effort to allow different vendors to talk to eachother.
             | 
             | And with that in mind IPv6 feels like a decent choice.
             | 
             | If vendors don't respect that foundation then the whole
             | point of Matter+Thread is just gone.
        
           | Tijdreiziger wrote:
           | Even on Zigbee, there are slight incompatibilities between
           | vendors.
        
           | rubatuga wrote:
           | You can't add zigbee lights from IKEA to a philips hue bridge
           | and have them show up in homekit. [0]
           | 
           | [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/Hue/comments/cpbu9w/ikea_tradfr
           | i_bu...
        
         | upon_drumhead wrote:
         | I literary couldn't get any eve matter devices to work at all
         | on my network. Turns out matter requires some ipv6 features my
         | router doesn't support and isn't easily found out what routers
         | do support it.
         | 
         | I'm a firm believer in matter and threads future, but ipv6s
         | home network mess is going to hamper it for years imho.
        
           | alphabettsy wrote:
           | IPv6 Unicast and Multicast. Seems like any consumer router
           | made in the last decade should work as long as IPv6 is
           | enabled. Consumer routers vary widely in software quality
           | though.
        
             | upon_drumhead wrote:
             | No, it also needs to support:
             | 
             | ICMPv6 (type 133) Router Solicitation (RS)
             | 
             | ICMPv6 (type 134) Routing Advertisement (RA)
             | 
             | Which my xfinity provided router does not. I spent weeks
             | with support emails between xfinity and eve trying to get
             | it sorted out before eve declared it an unsupported router
             | and refunded me the purchase.
        
               | rubatuga wrote:
               | RA and RS packets form the basis of IPv6, so objectively
               | the router from Xfinity does not support IPv6.
        
               | alphabettsy wrote:
               | Fair enough. I haven't used an ISP provided router in a
               | decade. I can't justify paying more for what's usually
               | pretty crap.
        
               | aksss wrote:
               | Right but isn't this kind of illustrating the problem
               | with the state of home automation in general? I mean, if
               | you care enough to know about the features of your
               | router, your also likely the kind of person who can pay
               | attention to and work out all the kinks in home
               | automation, and it's fun and really cool when you get it
               | working.
               | 
               | But for 90% of the population home automation is as
               | elusive and as prohibitive as quality home espresso -
               | expensive, delicate, and requires all the attention of a
               | niche hobby. Not that most people aren't smart enough to
               | figure it out, but for most people the juice isn't with
               | the squeeze. All the COTS hardware for easy
               | implementation is a closed cul-de-sac and rather
               | mediocre, and is condemned to be a neat gimmick that
               | quickly loses its luster.
        
               | alphabettsy wrote:
               | It's certainly an issue with home automation, but I'd
               | argue with home networking as well. Eero and Nest routers
               | are popular for a reason, they hide the complexity and
               | "just work".
        
         | dharmab wrote:
         | In my personal experience, Phillips Hue is unreliable in
         | general. I just replaced every Hue bulb in my home because one
         | in four had either turned inti a flickering haunted house prop
         | or failed entirely.
        
           | alphabettsy wrote:
           | In my experience they have been the most rock solid piece of
           | all the smarthome tech for a decade for me in multiple homes
           | and apartments. I still have and use the original bulbs that
           | came in my first starter kit.
        
             | dharmab wrote:
             | Some of the failed bulbs were purchased after 2020. I
             | suspect quality has declined.
        
           | shepherdjerred wrote:
           | I have something like 50 lights from them and only one has
           | ever given me trouble
        
         | Volundr wrote:
         | I'm still unclear on why the need for a border router exists at
         | all. My zigbee devices work just fine without access to my
         | local network or the Internet, but the same devices using
         | matter/thread claim to need a border router? What are they
         | doing differently than my zigbee stuff?
        
           | alphabettsy wrote:
           | The protocol and network are open, but it's encrypted and as
           | far as I can tell none of the major vendors allow you to
           | export or import the keys you would need to add a bridge from
           | a competing platform.
        
             | toomuchtodo wrote:
             | Sounds like an FTC complaint around interoperability and
             | anticompetitive behavior.
        
             | tjoff wrote:
             | Isn't that what the Matter QR codes are for? Which I
             | thought were mandatory for all Matter products?
             | 
             | I guess a loophole might be to make the border router
             | matter compatible but none of the actual devices. At which
             | point you really shouldn't be buying them anyway.
        
               | alphabettsy wrote:
               | No. Thread and Matter are not the same thing.
               | 
               | Matter is an interoperability standard so that devices
               | expose a common API. It works over WiFi, Bluetooth or
               | Thread currently.
               | 
               | Thread is a network protocol like WiFi or Bluetooth.
               | 
               | The QR codes are used for pairing devices to a Matter
               | controller.
        
           | ianburrell wrote:
           | For Zigbee, you need a hub for apps to work because the
           | Zigbee protocol is its own thing. If you are lucky, it is
           | Home Assistant and can use that on local network. If you
           | aren't using HA, then it is custom hub that talks over the
           | Internet to just that app.
           | 
           | Big advantage of Matter/Thread is that don't need a hub with
           | its software. It is IP-based protocol. On Wifi or Bluetooth,
           | your phone talks directly to the devices. On Thread, you need
           | a gateway to translate from Wifi to Thread. Your phone only
           | needs to know about Matter.
           | 
           | I don't think Matter devices talk over the Internet, I think
           | they use non-routable IPv6 addresses. You can use HA to
           | control over Internet but that uses the HA app. I don't know
           | what other apps do, probably the same custom thing as with
           | Zigbee.
           | 
           | Matter works similarly to HomeKit, with direct access to
           | devices, but Matter adds the low-power Thread. It is also
           | standardized so that could have generic Matter app instead of
           | every device being its own app. And can add support to HA
           | instead of custom Wifi and Bluetooth devices.
        
             | Tijdreiziger wrote:
             | You only need a hub _if_ you want to control your devices
             | from your LAN. You don't need one if you only use Zigbee
             | steering devices.
        
             | Volundr wrote:
             | That makes a lot more sense if it's supposed to talk
             | directly to my phone. Would I still need a router if I
             | already have HomeAssistant with a thread usb module? I
             | don't really care about bypassing HA, I'm fine with keeping
             | the hub.
        
               | ianburrell wrote:
               | If using Thread from HA server, then it would work the
               | similar to Zigbee (and they use the same radio). I think
               | HA can do Matter over Wifi and Bluetooth.
               | 
               | Some Google Home devices can be Thread hub, and Google
               | Home can do Matter directly. iOS 16 has Matter support
               | but not sure what that means. That may be the advantage
               | that don't need to download app for each device but will
               | be builtin to OS.
        
       | wkat4242 wrote:
       | The problem is the investors. They love recurring revenue. Hence
       | data mining apps and closed ecosystems with subscription fees.
       | And bait and switch tactics like Hue where the conditions
       | deteriorate over time (like needing an account now so they can
       | track you better)
       | 
       | Companies don't really want to give us freedom of choice. They
       | just want to take our money. Ideally through subscriptions so
       | they have to do almost nothing for it but can cash in easily.
       | 
       | So all the "special sauce" doesn't have a technical reason but am
       | economical one.
        
         | ahaucnx wrote:
         | It's true that the trend in the industry definitely goes
         | towards subscriptions and closed eco systems.
         | 
         | We at AirGradient see that very well that more and more
         | companies force their users into the cloud and some monitors
         | even refuse to show current air quality when not registered to
         | the cloud. Imagine you would need to register your fever
         | thermometer with an app in the cloud before you could measure
         | your temperature...
         | 
         | Part of the problem is not only the investors in Matter but
         | also VC funded smart home equipment manufacturers that are
         | pressured to go down the recurring revenue business model.
         | 
         | At AirGradient [1] we want to demonstrate a counter example.
         | Our fully certified air quality monitors are open source
         | hardware and thus we provide the firmware code and they can be
         | easily re-flashed with whatever software you like to use. With
         | this openness a great community has emerged that maintains
         | integrations to various systems like Home Assistant via
         | ESPHome.
         | 
         | [1] https://www.airgradient.com/
        
           | russell_h wrote:
           | I've got one of your pre-soldered kits running ESPHome in my
           | office. It's a great product, thanks for making it!
        
             | snapplebobapple wrote:
             | #metoo. I love it. I wish it did carbon monoxide among
             | other things i havemt thought of yet.
        
           | dns_snek wrote:
           | Thanks for trying a more customer-friendly approach!
           | 
           | I don't have an immediate need for one of these, but do you
           | have any plans to expand to Europe or work with a local
           | distributor? Inflated shipping cost & time, VAT & customs
           | duties (+additional processing time) and a cumbersome return
           | process if anything goes wrong, makes for a less than ideal
           | shopping experience.
        
             | Cockbrand wrote:
             | +1, I just bought an Aranet4, and I'd return it in a
             | heartbeat if I could buy an Airgradient (or three) in
             | Europe without the added cost & hassle.
        
             | ahaucnx wrote:
             | This is definitely on our radar.
             | 
             | At the moment we still have a lot of dynamics in the
             | product, eg frequent firmware updates on the shipped units
             | and this is why we currently prefer to ship directly.
             | 
             | Once things are more settled down we will look for
             | fulfillment centers in Europe and the US.
        
               | shafyy wrote:
               | Hey, I run a small fulfillment company in Germany and
               | would love to help shipping your products. In fact, I
               | just wanted to order your indoor kit yesterday but, as
               | others have said, it's not that straight-forward ordering
               | from the US. Drop me a note at can@getravioli.de and
               | let's see if we can make it work, including the
               | complexity with the firmware updates and so on.
        
           | gausswho wrote:
           | Can you elaborate on the Home Assistant integration? Do you
           | just need to plug in the devices and ESPHome detects them or
           | is there more to it?
        
             | ahaucnx wrote:
             | At the moment you need to flash ESPHome onto it (can be
             | done easily via the browser) and then there is a well
             | maintained ESPHome configuration script available.
             | 
             | https://github.com/MallocArray/airgradient_esphome
        
           | heyoni wrote:
           | I literally just purchased your fully assembled kit a few
           | days ago specifically because all the parts are open source
           | and easy to hack. Right now I'm running Amazon air quality
           | monitors with a homebridge plugin I had to patch myself
           | because Amazon changed their API which broke everything.
        
           | naasking wrote:
           | Aww I wish I had known about AirGradient a few weeks ago. I
           | ended up buying an an Air Things wave plus where I can at
           | least export data to csv.
        
           | Larrikin wrote:
           | This is exactly the kind of product worth supporting. It's
           | Christmas Day, so won't be buying today, but I've added this
           | to the list of items for my Home Assistant.
           | 
           | There isn't an HN promo code is there?
        
           | wkat4242 wrote:
           | I think I'd seen your product before on HN. It looks nice but
           | like the others say, I'm in Europe so it's a no go for now.
           | Will keep an eye on it though for when you decide to expand!
        
         | kolinko wrote:
         | Isn't hue on zigbee, so you can use any other app to control
         | the equipment?
        
       | metadat wrote:
       | In the past few months, after doing a ton of research I ended up
       | going with Z-Wave for a new home build. Z-Wave isn't not going
       | away anytime soon.
       | 
       | Zigbee is also pretty cool, between these and an odd Wi-Fi only
       | device here and there, it seems more than adequate.
        
         | colordrops wrote:
         | I came to the same conclusion and it has been fine.
        
         | travem wrote:
         | I am using z-wave as well. It has been rock solid, and using
         | the z-wave association capability I don't even need the hub
         | (using Hubitat) unless I want to do more complex automations.
         | The only downside is the ecosystem has fewer options (but have
         | been high quality IMO) and the cost is higher than the
         | ubiquitous WiFi smart home devices that require their own apps
         | and internet connection.
        
         | acheron wrote:
         | Yep I have Z-Wave stuff with a Hubitat box. Works pretty well.
         | I do wish I could locate a Z-Wave water timer for
         | sprinkler/irrigation.
        
         | rlpb wrote:
         | I am also invested into Z-Wave with about 50 devices. It works
         | well, doesn't require an Internet connection, degrades
         | gracefully if the hub is unavailable (or indeed any RF) and
         | Z-Wave JS UI is good enough for self-hosting and bridging to
         | MQTT for full integration with anything else I want.
         | 
         | The protocol is also excellent for battery powered devices in
         | terms of super low power consumption: depending on the device's
         | needs, the protocol allows for the device radio to be
         | completely off for hours at a time. For example, I have a
         | couple of key fob controllers that we use daily but we haven't
         | replaced the batteries in them for years.
         | 
         | My only fear is that "consumerist" IoT platforms that change
         | every few years will usurp it and new Z-Wave devices will
         | become unavailable.
        
         | CoastalCoder wrote:
         | I did zwave lighting for my home office a few years ago.
         | 
         | I hit a problem where it was really difficult to debug setup /
         | configuration problems.
         | 
         | I suspect this was due to zwave devices being as cheap as
         | possible: my devices had just 1-2 buttons and 1-2 blinky lights
         | for configuration.
         | 
         | I would have gladly spent $30 more per device to get better
         | device diagnostics.
        
         | dns_snek wrote:
         | Out of curiosity, why did you decide to go with Z-Wave over
         | Zigbee?
        
           | deadmutex wrote:
           | Not OP, but I hear that Zigbee implementations vary by
           | vendor, and are usually not compatible across vendors.
        
             | Larrikin wrote:
             | I did the research about a year ago and this wasn't an
             | issue that came up.
             | 
             | It really just seems to come down to your local market.
             | Zigbee seemed to have more compatible devices in the US vs
             | zwave so I went with zigbee. I only have about fifteen
             | devices, mixed between a few manufacturers, but it's been
             | rock solid after I switched from my initial conbee to a
             | sonoff dongle.
        
           | metadat wrote:
           | Z-Wave devices are mostly certified to not interfere with
           | each other, whereas Zigbee is a fingers crossed free for all.
           | 
           | All wired Z-Wave devices also act as repeaters to extend the
           | network, which is handy.
        
         | vGPU wrote:
         | I have a few zooz Z-wave devices and a bunch of zigbee stuff.
         | 
         | The Z-wave devices turned out to be significantly more
         | unreliable surprisingly.
         | 
         | The only z-wave device I still have running is my smart lock.
         | Everything else has been replaced with zigbee.
        
       | LanzVonL wrote:
       | I just don't trust smart home stuff, it all seems like a big data
       | collection nightmare at best, at worst you could have criminals
       | and government nannies both spying on you 24/7. I still use
       | incandescent lights though too.
        
         | postpawl wrote:
         | There are some smart home hubs that support self hosting. Home
         | Assistant and Hubitat are both really good solutions.
        
           | LanzVonL wrote:
           | Are those Free and Open Source? If there's a security problem
           | can I fix it myself and flash new software?
        
             | piperswe wrote:
             | Home Assistant is FOSS software that just runs on a Linux
             | box, its functionality/integrations all come from FOSS
             | plugins that you can write and/or modify yourself.
        
             | dns_snek wrote:
             | HomeAssistant is FOSS and it has an incredible number of
             | integrations, it's extremely capable though not as user-
             | friendly as commercial offerings when it comes to setting
             | it up, which is to be expected.
             | 
             | In similar vein ESPHome and Tasmota are 2 independent FOSS
             | projects that can replace proprietary firmware on many
             | commercial smart devices based on ESP32.
             | 
             | Some WiFi-based smart devices like those made by Shelly
             | work without internet access and integrate with HA via
             | local HTTP API.
             | 
             | Fully local smart home is possible, but you'll need to
             | research what you're buying - as a general rule, you should
             | avoid WiFi-based smart devices unless they offer a local
             | API. Everything else (ZigBee, Z-Wave) _should_ work offline
             | without proprietary hubs, though I 'm sure there are
             | exceptions.
        
               | Crosseye_Jack wrote:
               | And the LibreTiny version of ESPHome supports the common
               | WiFi microcontrollers that have been "replacing" the ESP
               | range, that have been popping up in devices made by Tuya
               | and the like such as
               | 
               | BK72xx: BK7231T, BK7231N RTL87xx: RTL8710BN, RTL8710BX
               | 
               | https://esphome.io/components/libretiny.html
               | 
               | But yeah, using both Tasmota and ESPHome I've moved all
               | (bar one) of my "WiFi Only" devices to being fully local
               | devices.
               | 
               | (The exception being my thermostat for my heating, that
               | uses a tuya-mcu and a LCD driver IC so I don't really
               | want to reflash that and faff with the tuya-mcu this side
               | of winter, and I'm planning to replace it with a
               | OpenTherm controller next year anyway. In the meantime
               | I'm using a local tuya integration in HA to just send it
               | commands directly)
        
             | bestouff wrote:
             | Yes and yes.
        
           | bjackman wrote:
           | I recently set up Home Assistant and a bunch of ESPHome-based
           | sensor devices. It was pretty easy (for someone who's
           | technical enough to write YAML, use SSH, and do some basic
           | soldering) and now I have a "smart home" which is totally
           | bullshit-free and cost like $80 all-in. It was a fun like
           | weekend project I can recommend it!
        
         | Shish2k wrote:
         | That's one of the things Matter is supposed to help with - part
         | of the spec is that all devices need to have a local-only / no-
         | cloud / no proprietary app option
        
         | dopidopHN wrote:
         | Also: what is the point?
         | 
         | Convenience ? One minute of me debugging a http request to fix
         | my light is evaluated dearly.
         | 
         | If that happen once it will offset years of voice light off/on
         | and other lazy ass of poor design workaround.
        
           | eternityforest wrote:
           | Totally agree here, if tech isn't ultra reliable, maintenance
           | free, and feature rich, why am I bothering?
           | 
           | Not just with HA, but tech in general really. I love the idea
           | of FOSS, but it's important that stuff just works, every
           | time, without hackery.
        
       | anymouse123456 wrote:
       | Matter. Not fit for human consumption.
       | 
       | I understand how compelling the marketing hype seems at first,
       | but a quick investigation reveals this to be yet another mafia
       | shakedown and effort to lock down and prevent any meaningful
       | competition.
       | 
       | They have a 16-bit Vendor ID. That's 65,535 vendors supported.
       | Globally. Ever. One must pay the CSA ([0] $2,500 per PRODUCT or
       | $7,000 per YEAR) for one of these artificially scarce
       | identifiers.
       | 
       | In order to download specs, you're expected to accept TOS,
       | authenticate and then you're emailed a (presumably authenticated)
       | link to the PDF [1].
       | 
       | You need to wait for the consortium to define every single
       | application layer detail for each and every type of thing [2].
       | 
       | Of course, the decision makers are unable to make high quality
       | decisions since their own businesses depend on trapping customers
       | in their respective walled gardens. The goal is to prevent any
       | small or medium sized businesses from competing with the small
       | handful of multinational megacorps.
       | 
       | From what I can tell, it's all of the worst parts of USB, without
       | HID and Serial to fall back on for things they didn't think to
       | define.
       | 
       | [0] https://csa-iot.org/become-member/#Membership
       | 
       | [1] https://csa-iot.org/developer-resource/specifications-
       | downlo...
       | 
       | [2] You must download the "Device Library" spec yourself, as my
       | link is fingerprinted and I do not wish to violate a hidden TOS
       | clause.
       | 
       | [edit] formatting
        
         | fnordpiglet wrote:
         | It has a cool name and cute logo though. I'm sure it's easy to
         | silk screen onto a device.
        
         | HankB99 wrote:
         | > They have a 16-bit Vendor ID. That's 65,535 vendors
         | supported. Globally. Ever. One must pay the CSA ([0] $2,500 per
         | PRODUCT or $7,000 per YEAR) for one of these artificially
         | scarce identifiers.
         | 
         | I didn't know any of this. I pay attention to IoT (and run a
         | modest Home Assistant setup in my home.) Had I known about
         | these constraints, I would have written off Matter from the
         | beginning.
         | 
         | What were they thinking?
        
           | anymouse123456 wrote:
           | Coming from software and making the move to hardware has been
           | incredibly eye-opening.
           | 
           | As soon as you need to instantiate something with atoms, the
           | cycle-times and overall difficulty increases exponentially.
           | Just when you think you've got something, all these
           | despicable gatekeepers shove their hands in your pockets.
           | 
           | There are lots of reasons we can't have small batch, niche
           | electronic products, and these license fees combined with
           | even worse regulatory costs require enormous sales volumes to
           | amortize.
           | 
           | It's really concerning to see the same rent-seeking values
           | making such strong headway in the software space over the
           | past 5-10 years too.
        
         | dns_snek wrote:
         | I've read a lot about smart home protocols and I didn't realize
         | Matter failed at its #1 selling point, being open-source.
         | 
         | This is why I love HN, thanks for pointing it out.
        
         | cesarb wrote:
         | > They have a 16-bit Vendor ID. That's 65,535 vendors
         | supported. Globally. Ever.
         | 
         | Isn't that the same as USB or PCI? Both also have a 16-bit
         | vendor ID.
        
           | anymouse123456 wrote:
           | Yep.
           | 
           | The USB-IF also artificially limits the vendor address space,
           | which gives them the ability to charge exorbitant fees before
           | anyone can deploy a device without conflicts.
           | 
           | I haven't tried to build and deploy a PCI device yet, but
           | given your point, I assume the same game is being played.
           | 
           | At least with these 2 technologies, they can lean on being
           | around for some decades. Bits were quite a lot more expensive
           | 20+ years ago.
        
           | seanalltogether wrote:
           | Bluetooth as well.
        
         | aksss wrote:
         | I think that the vendor ID limitation is less of a hurdle,
         | realistically, than it's made out to be, especially in the
         | short term. Simple cert costs and loss of captured markets/lack
         | of demand are the bigger impediments. But I don't think the
         | obituary needs to be written on matter yet.
        
         | eternityforest wrote:
         | I was so excited about Matter at first, but now it seems like
         | nobody really cares.
         | 
         | WiFi has gotten way more reliable, and devices with open local
         | APIs are more common now. Bluetooth is even starting to be used
         | occasionally. YoLink's LoRa based hardware is still better than
         | anything else even slightly affordable, even though it's still
         | totally a closed cloud based platform.
        
       | the_mitsuhiko wrote:
       | I honestly feel like smart homes are getting worse each year for
       | me. Now even Hue is an unreliable and unnecessarily frustrating
       | experience. The only actual improvement in my setup has been that
       | the IKEA Dirigera hub is now a solid improvement but some Hue
       | stuff doesn't work with it.
       | 
       | On the other hand some manufacturers are now actively fighting
       | home assistant and the matter switch is non existent. A total
       | zero number of devices in my home run over matter, something that
       | I didn't expect given the huge amount of excitement early on.
       | 
       | It feels like rather than everything slowly converging I now run
       | two hubs still, custom smart home apps, a largely unreliable and
       | useless home assistant next to some things with HomeKit.
       | 
       | I really can't stand it and I'm incredibly frustrated by it.
        
         | ratiolat wrote:
         | Dirigera still does not support Matter. I bought it for 'coming
         | soon' Matter support, but it's still not there. Have been
         | waiting for looong time now.
        
           | the_mitsuhiko wrote:
           | That's why I originally replaced the hub. But it's a much
           | better hub on its own so I'm not too mad. I can't find matter
           | devices independently that I want to use and are actually
           | working properly.
        
         | tacticalturtle wrote:
         | Do you have any examples of manufacturers that are fighting
         | Home Assistant?
         | 
         | I just started using it and getting into home automation, and
         | that's disappointing to hear
        
           | the_mitsuhiko wrote:
           | The famous example at the moment is the family of MyQ garage
           | doors (Chamberlain, Lift Master etc.). Integrations that
           | break after an upgrade and don't get fixed for longer than I
           | can deal with are more common.
        
             | adestefan wrote:
             | I just installed a ratgdo on my Lift Master door and it's
             | great.
        
           | aksss wrote:
           | Personally, I shop for automation features based solely on
           | their capacity to integrate with Home Assistant.
        
       | simbolit wrote:
       | The sub-headline says everything you need to know: "Gadget
       | makers, unsurprisingly, are hesitant to compete purely on device
       | quality."
        
         | okeuro49 wrote:
         | And you would have misunderstood...
         | 
         | > If Matter can succeed in convincing companies to compete on
         | the merits of their devices--not the incidental revenue that
         | comes from being a single-system device provider, or phone app
         | marketing...
        
           | simbolit wrote:
           | ...then in a few years, people won't even notice that they're
           | simply scanning a code on their devices and adding them to
           | whatever home control system they wish.
           | 
           | The sentence you (partially) quote starts with "if" and ends
           | with "wish". Cough.
        
       | blindriver wrote:
       | After trying to go in hard with IoT, I now just rely on Apple
       | Home Kit to unify everything for me. It's good enough except for
       | the terrible interface to set lights on and off, it's literally
       | the worst I've ever seen.
        
         | csnweb wrote:
         | Same here, I also don't understand why the home app is rather
         | lacking. The light switches in the control center are okay, but
         | that quickly becomes too full. I mostly use voice commands to
         | manage my lights and third party apps like the one from Eve for
         | other accessories.
        
       | euroderf wrote:
       | Does anyone know a good ELI5-type page for deCONZ and Phoscon ?
       | Their documentation is kind of a mess.
        
       | odiroot wrote:
       | Maybe because Zigbee is good enough. And Matter/Thread try to do
       | too much.
        
       | napkin wrote:
       | I'm reserving my interest in smart home tech for when it's a
       | clear win in terms of energy efficiency. Very recently I compared
       | my current home lighting costs with a fully smart-equipped setup,
       | and it basically just balanced out. I was surprised, because I
       | calculated a best case scenario where the lights could basically
       | always be off when not in use, compared to my current patterns
       | where honestly I'm pretty lazy and leave all them on almost all
       | day. The industry/general consumer priorities are pretty
       | frustrating.
        
       | FloatArtifact wrote:
       | From those that are privacy conscious matter also has an issue
       | that seems largely underreported.
       | 
       | You can't choose which device on the network is the controller
       | when setting up a new device to a network.
       | 
       | For instance if you have a home assistant blue it might choose
       | your Amazon echo to initiate the network. Therefore you have
       | multiple networks running which may not respect your privacy or
       | choice.
        
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