Unless you're running Home Assistant and open source nodes. You can build a Matter+Thread node that works on a nrf52840 MCU, there are examples in the Nordic SDK. But then, why would you bother with Matter which is so bloated it doesn't even fit in flash properly? The only example that works on 52840 requires external flash to hold the B partition for OTA updates :)
So I'm using ESPHome for everything that could be wall powered and BTHome (with those same nrf52840 chips, you can buy boards for like $2 on Aliexpress) for everything that needs to run on battery.
That's not bad compared to Bluetooth. Also, you will need FCC cert by law and probably some UL certs if you actually want to sell you product anywhere so you are already looking at 10s of thousands even if you choose ZigBee. I would love to live in a world where indie hardware can launch wireless products without huge cert cost but that's not the world we live in.
I don't think you can do you own testing like you suggest. You can self declare but you still need to include test data in that declaration so unless you happen to own all of the highly expensive calibrated test equipment you will need to pay an external test lab.
You don't need UL if you are just selling directly via your own website. However, if you want to sell the product in stores, most stores are going to require it.
Zigbee's issue was that anyone could make devices and modify the protocol. Tons of devices are vendor-locked to their first-party hub. Philips attempted to do this recently with a firmware update and only backed off due to extremely bad PR.
Z-Wave has the same "problem" as Matter. You have to pay the consortium per product. Part of that what that pays for is testing, and cross-vendor compatibility is mandatory. As a consumer you are guaranteed that a Z-Wave device will work with any hub (and therefore Home Assistant/completely locally). You own Z-Wave devices.
I ran both in my old home, and used Zigbee devices where possible (Z-Wave devices are often more expensive).
I would much rather have it the way of Z-Wave and Matter. It is the lesser of two evils.
I wasn't aware of that. One other concern I have with Matter is that, if I understand correctly, Thread+Matter devices get their own IP address with internet access, whereas with Zigbee all of that has to be controlled by the gateway.
In theory that's a win for Matter, but I'm a little concerned about the security and enshitification problems that might cause. I kinda like the idea that I can buy a cheap IoT lock off Temu and as long as my Zigbee gateway is secure there's very little chance of that decision coming back to bite me...
This is, to me, one of the absolute biggest selling points for ZigBee and Z-Wave.
I can get some random, vendor I've never heard of, ZigBee sensor, and I know it won't do anything rogue on the internet because it doesn't have any way of getting to the internet.
Also, ZigBee is extremely power efficient compared to WiFi. With ZigBee, I don't mind putting a sensor in the crawlspace or somewhere a pain to get to. It won't need the batteries changed for a year or two anyway.
I know Matter can work over more efficient means than WiFi, but most of the cheaper devices I find are WiFi. A cheap ZigBee device is still ZigBee.
As I said, my experience has been that the cheaper products run on WiFi. I also don't like that a product advertising "Matter" doesn't answer the question of whether it uses WiFi or not.
I much prefer that a $3 ZigBee temperature and humidity sensor definitely doesn't use WiFi rather than having to dig to see if a cheap a Matter sensor uses WiFi.
Neither Matter nor Matter-over-Thread require Internet access.
We really should be yelling for advancements in simple-to-configure dedicated, restricted VLANs and SSIDs for IOT devices instead of yelling about how inappropriate we think that using IP is.
(Historically, IP wins in these conundrums anyway. IP has been succession of grand successes for decades.
Resistance is futile. We should work to prepare for the eventually of what is to come.)
> Neither Matter nor Matter-over-Thread require Internet access.
The protocols themselves might not but as a warning to people looking for “matter” as an indicator they can have local only control, apparently the matter spec doesn’t require local only setup. I bought Honeywell’s new matter thermostat and in order to get the QR code and keys you need to register it to a matter controller, you first have to download their app and connect the thermostat to their cloud, so that you can get the keys from the app. So the matter capabilities are still useless
>We really should be yelling for advancements in simple-to-configure dedicated, restricted VLANs and SSIDs for IOT devices instead of yelling about how inappropriate we think that using IP is.
What is the lay of the land for typical consumers in this respect? Any products you've worked with or would recommend?
I've recently started with Home Assistant and have been adding devices to my single network. The ISP provided eero modem/router doesn't provide VLAN capability.
I don't use consumer off-the-shelf routers enough (these days) to know the lay of the land very well. But when I do get my hands on them (usually when a friend wants help with something), I do have a look through the config options just to see what functions they expose. And I don't see that kind of thing available in the configs of the stuff I've recently had my hands on.
In my own little world at home, I just use OpenWRT (on a now-old Raspberry Pi 4), Mikrotik access points, and with some random switches that grok 802.11q wherever they are useful. This has let me do whatever I've imagined wanting so far with VLANs, SSIDs, routing, firewalling, ...
And a person can also use a one-box solution running OpenWRT (the OpenWRT One is such a box) or Mikrotik's RouterOS (like their succinctly-named L009UiGS-2HaxD-IN).
But all of that is drifting pretty far from the concept I'd like to see, which is:
Person walks into Wal-Mart. Person buys a router, and some Matter wifi light bulbs. As a part of setting them up, they're walked through a simple process of making an isolated network for those light bulbs.
And we don't seem to be anywhere near there yet.
(And that may seem like a far-reaching goal to some, but similar things have been accomplished in the past. A router from Wal-Mart used to boot up out of the box and Just Work -- while providing a completely unfettered, unencrypted networked named "linksys" or "NETGEAR" for anyone within earshot to participate in.
Things are longer that way these days. Consumer routers have tended to provide secure-by-default wireless networks for a rather long time now. At least in that one little, important aspect of consumer goods, sanity did eventually prevail.)
