I’m looking to add Thread/Matter to my existing setup (Pi4 running HA, Sonoff Zigbee controller/Zigbee2MQTT, Zooz Z-wave controller) in order to try out Ikea’s new Matter switches. I have been doing a little bit of reading on Thread and Matter but I’m not sure which controller/hub would be best with my current setup.
It appears that a lot of these hubs include Zigbee and wifi radios, so would that interfere with my current Zigbee controller/network and/or wifi network (Pi is right next to my Wifi router)?
Secondly, is there a feature difference between different controllers? I saw the Aqara M100 as an inexpensive option, but I want to be sure it fully supports the feature of the BILRESA switches as I’d like to use the scroll wheels to control the brightness of my lights. Other options I saw were the Google Nest and Apple 4KTV, but I’d rather not use a Google product and don’t have any Apple products in the house. I don’t have a hard budget, but would of course prefer not to spend money that isn’t necessary
Edit: ah I’m an idiot, it’s a zigbee + z-wave, not matter dongle! Derp. I added matter at the same time and mixed the two up.
I grabbed an Aeotec Z-Stick 10 Pro a few months ago, although I can’t run Matter over wifi (with my sole device that supports matter) since I can’t get an ipv6 address from my isp. But I figured it would be useful down the line as matter/thread gains popularity. I already had several Zigbee devices so future-proofing my setup. And I’m running ha off a proper server now, but that could change, so having less occupied usb ports is handy.I transferred my existing zigbee network to the new dongle and after some moderate troubleshooting (I have proxmox, VM passthrough, plus HA to deal with) I had it moved over and unplugged the old dongle, and everything continued to work.@wreckedcarzz @CmdrShepard49 Matter over wifi doesn’t seem related? I literally commissioned 2 LIFX Matter bulbs tonight. All I did was add the Matter integration and allowed it to also add the Matter Server app/add-on, and then hit “Add Device” in the app. It opened a prompt to scan the QR code for the bulb (after I connected phone to the correct network), and that was it. Dropped me back in HA in the screen to finish adding a new device (name/area) and that was it. Super painless.
And I absolutely don’t have any IPv6, I don’t even have it enabled on the LANs on the router side of things.
The only matter-compatable device that I have only works with ipv6/wifi, not thread, so I haven’t been able to learn how it works first-hand, unfortunately. I do wish they went with slightly different names for the network system, as it’s weird to have a product that is ‘matter compatable’ but ‘oh not your type of matter’ like, if they are catching geeky folk with this, it’s absolutely confusing traditional individuals.
I have the matter integration, but since I don’t have anything that can currently use it, it’s just empty right now.
@wreckedcarzz And I don’t have any Thread radio either, this was over wifi. The only Thread radio I tried to have is no longer supported by the current matter border router app, so I gave up on that idea entirely. I’ll just have to buy a second Sonoff Dongle-PMG24 if I want Thread, and flash it first, but so far the only things with Thread-only I’ve actually been eyeing aren’t truly Thread-only, like Ikea’s new remotes that have a secret Zigbee pairing mode.
Ooh, I’ve been thinking about getting some of their small ‘smart’ stuff they released a few months ago, just to poke at. Is it supposed to be straightforward to activate the zigbee mode in those? This is the first time I’m hearing this.