Smart devices can be cool again: this is a failure of consumer protection and privacy regulation.
Matter/Thread is coming to save the day (extremely slowly)! We’ve had local mesh networks like z-wave and zigbee for many years (no telemetry, no internet “portals” to grab your data and advertise) but it’s always been kind of a niche. Matter/Thread could change that
Consumers think an automation hub is complicated, but with Alexa, Apple, Google onboard, tens (hundreds?) of millions already have a hub.
Consumers never knew about local mesh networks to prioritize them, but Matter/Thread is the new hotness (ok, at least a bit)
Corps never saw enough profit in zwave or zigbee, but Matter/Thread opens a much wider market.
Insist on Thread (or zigbee or z-wave) for your smart devices and the shit just flushes away.
Even how slowly they’re rolling out Matter/Thread is a good thing. All that time is manufacturers coming to a consensus on device profiles, which is a huge win for interoperability.
IMO a problem with Thread is that most of the Thread Border Routers are made by the same megacorps pushing proprietary spyware smart home stuff. I get that I could still get them to work with Home Assistant, but I don’t want to support them at all.
So instead I got the ESP thread border router dev board, but I haven’t gotten the firmware to compile and install correctly yet and so my Thread devices still don’t work.
(The only other open options I know of are (a) the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1, but that was sold out when I was shopping for a border router and also a USB dongle instead of a standalone device, which I’m not a fan of, and (b) the Home Assistant Yellow, which was expensive and then discontinued. There’s also now a GL iNet GL-S20, but I only found out about that while researching for this comment.)
Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1, but that was sold out
Bummer, I didn’t know that. I got one at the beginning on the hope that dual stack would work. Now ive been using it for Zigbee with the expectation of buying a second one whenever i buy a thread device
BTW, I believe Inovelli Smart Switches can act as Thread Border Routers. I’m a huge fan for their feature set but don’t yet have Thread devices to try
Smart devices can be cool again: this is a failure of consumer protection and privacy regulation.
Matter/Thread is coming to save the day (extremely slowly)! We’ve had local mesh networks like z-wave and zigbee for many years (no telemetry, no internet “portals” to grab your data and advertise) but it’s always been kind of a niche. Matter/Thread could change that
Insist on Thread (or zigbee or z-wave) for your smart devices and the shit just flushes away.
Even how slowly they’re rolling out Matter/Thread is a good thing. All that time is manufacturers coming to a consensus on device profiles, which is a huge win for interoperability.
IMO a problem with Thread is that most of the Thread Border Routers are made by the same megacorps pushing proprietary spyware smart home stuff. I get that I could still get them to work with Home Assistant, but I don’t want to support them at all.
So instead I got the ESP thread border router dev board, but I haven’t gotten the firmware to compile and install correctly yet and so my Thread devices still don’t work.
(The only other open options I know of are (a) the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1, but that was sold out when I was shopping for a border router and also a USB dongle instead of a standalone device, which I’m not a fan of, and (b) the Home Assistant Yellow, which was expensive and then discontinued. There’s also now a GL iNet GL-S20, but I only found out about that while researching for this comment.)
Bummer, I didn’t know that. I got one at the beginning on the hope that dual stack would work. Now ive been using it for Zigbee with the expectation of buying a second one whenever i buy a thread device
BTW, I believe Inovelli Smart Switches can act as Thread Border Routers. I’m a huge fan for their feature set but don’t yet have Thread devices to try