Home Automation

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Discussion about general home automation ideas and projects, home automation protocols like Z-wave, Zigbee, Matter, etc, and home automation software and hubs like HomeSeer, Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Homey.

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Does Matter matter (compared to devices flashed with third-party open source firmware)? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I'm just getting into home automation, so I don't really know what I'm doing. I care a lot about supporting open standards (which is partly why I never bothered with it until now that Matter is coming out), but I also very much like the idea of having everything I own running Open Source firmware instead of whatever potentially untrustworthy stuff it comes with.

So anyway, I got some TP-Link Kasa smart plugs (KP125MP2), but have since been doing some more research and found that some folks don't think there's actually much, if any, advantage to Matter devices compared to older wi-fi devices that've been flashed with Tasmota or ESPHome. So now I've also got some Sonoff S31 smart plugs and a USB to serial adapter to flash them with, and I'm wondering which set of things I should actually keep.

I kinda feel like I need to try installing and using them to know which I prefer, but I'd also feel bad about returning stuff after it's got provisioning info stored on it (or worse, flashed firmware). So maybe I can decide based on advice y'all give me instead?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I mean, the obvious thing here is that “it just works” compared to flashing (and knowing how to flash) custom firmware onto devices. In my mind there are two big things that Matter has going for it:

Local-only support. If a device supports Matter it needs to be fully controllable locally per the specification.
Thread support. All the perks of zigbee and z-wave with the benefits of a much more reliable and robust network thanks to its mesh design. Every Matter device can act as a relay for any other Matter device. The only thing that needs to talk to anything over the LAN (or internet) is a border router.

Those two things aside, Matter is open source. It was formerly ProjectCHIP. So, if the device has the correct hardware to support Matter (not all current IoT devices have the necessary hardware) in theory open source firmware for those devices should be easier to develop.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Thread support... Every Matter device can act as a relay for any other Matter device.

These are Matter/Wi-fi devices, not Matter/Thread devices, so I don't think that part applies?

Those two things aside, Matter is open source. It was formerly ProjectCHIP. So, if the device has the correct hardware to support Matter (not all current IoT devices have the necessary hardware) in theory open source firmware for those devices should be easier to develop.

I like TP-Link networking hardware in large part for its support for OpenWRT. Maybe I should like TP-Link Kasa IoT devices (or maybe just the Matter ones?) for a similar reason?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think it comes down to what you want to do with these things. You’re just getting into home automation, so I would plan on whatever choice you make now not being a reflection of where you end up on your journey.

The kasa devices don’t have great open firmware support but do offer a low level api for integration into things like home assistant. I’d personally lean towards it, but that’s mostly because I deal with software for a living and feel I can get enough value out of how it integrates with things in both the tinker space and out of the box.

If you’re more interested in tinkering at the firmware lev though it looks like the sonoff is the one to get. They’re ultimately just a plug you can turn on/off and monitor the energy usage with so however you end up tinkering, it’s a gateway into the larger home automation.

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