Matter 1.2 is a Big Move For the Smart Home Standard (theverge.com) 64
Matter -- the IOT connectivity standard with ambitions to fix the smart home and make all of our gadgets talk to each other -- has hit version 1.2, adding support for nine new types of connected devices. From a report: Robot vacuums, refrigerators, washing machines, and dishwashers are coming to Matter, as are smoke and CO alarms, air quality sensors, air purifiers, room air conditioners, and fans. It's a crucial moment for the success of the industry-backed coalition that counts 675 companies among its members. This is where it moves from the relatively small categories of door locks and light bulbs to the real moneymakers: large appliances.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the organization behind Matter, released the Matter 1.2 specification this week, a year after launching Matter 1.0, following through on its promise to release two updates a year. Now, appliance manufacturers can add support for Matter to their devices, and ecosystems such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings can start supporting the new device types. Yes, this means you should finally be able to control a robot vacuum in the Apple Home app -- not to mention your wine fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine.
The initial feature set for the new device types includes basic function controls (start / stop, change mode) and notifications -- such as the temperature of your fridge, the status of your laundry, or whether smoke is detected. Robot vacuum support is robust -- remote start and progress notifications, cleaning modes (dry vacuum, wet mopping), and alerts for brush status, error reporting, and charging status. But there's no mapping, so you'll still need to use your vacuum app if you want to tell the robot where to go.
The Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the organization behind Matter, released the Matter 1.2 specification this week, a year after launching Matter 1.0, following through on its promise to release two updates a year. Now, appliance manufacturers can add support for Matter to their devices, and ecosystems such as Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings can start supporting the new device types. Yes, this means you should finally be able to control a robot vacuum in the Apple Home app -- not to mention your wine fridge, dishwasher, and washing machine.
The initial feature set for the new device types includes basic function controls (start / stop, change mode) and notifications -- such as the temperature of your fridge, the status of your laundry, or whether smoke is detected. Robot vacuum support is robust -- remote start and progress notifications, cleaning modes (dry vacuum, wet mopping), and alerts for brush status, error reporting, and charging status. But there's no mapping, so you'll still need to use your vacuum app if you want to tell the robot where to go.
more data (Score:3, Funny)
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I don't think all those types of devices are supported, but when they are I'll connect them with my non-internet facing HomeAssistant instance with Matter
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How does commissioning work without an internet connection? Does it use an offline set of certificates to check device attestation?
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The standard way would be you use an app on a phone to scan a QR code or NFC tag on the device which has the bluetooth connection data. The phone then provides the hub connection data to the device. The app is acting on behalf of the hub and can be entirely offline. Devices are also suppose to be able to connect to multiple hubs though they don't always have support for that
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Sure, but they are attested using PKI.
Are you quite sure the mobile phone app which helps with commissioning isn't contacting the Certificate Authorities? (Or whatever they are called for matter.)
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PKIs were designed for offline use. There are a couple hundred trusted Certificate Authorities that each issue a "root" certificate. These root certificates are distributed worldwide, in browsers, operating system distros, phones, etc. When you encounter a certificate in the wild, you have to verify the certificate before accepting it, which is done by checking what you can locally: is it expired? Does its DNS name resolve to the name on the cert? Does it have a valid signature? This means checking to
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Yes, the app (which is already authenticated with the matter hub) tells the server to add the device being commissioned
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How does commissioning work without an internet connection? Does it use an offline set of certificates to check device attestation?
Think about who is trusting what. Did you need internet access to pair your garage door remote to the opener?
Matter devices don't need to be trusted by the public, they need to be trusted on a private network, and it doesn't make sense to sign keys on a private network with an external "authority" like a CA. You and I don't need a commonly trusted middleman to certify your refrigerator because I don't need to trust your refrigerator and the middleman can't verify what's what inside your private network anyw
what about needs to work with local server off lin (Score:2)
what about needs to work with local server in an off line setup? Or even work when outside network is down?
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I'm trying to figure out why and for what benefit to me, do ANY of my appliances to connect to anything??!?
Let's see....until now, not connected and worked EXACTLY as desired:
Stove
Oven
Refrigerator
Chest Freezer
Washing Machine
Dryer
Dishwasher
Microwave
Stand Mixer/Vitamix/Breville Juicer/Breville "Smart" Oven/Cuisinart Food Processor...all the crap that's on the countertops....
These are good, basic (some advanced) kitchen app
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I love smart home stuff and connect lots of smart devices to my local hub. Here are a few use cases I can think of:
Stove/Oven/Microwave: Most do this already, but you could do scheduled cooking with more requirements like "turn down the heat at 4pm". Maybe also have them shut off in an emergency
Refrigerator/Chest Freezer: I guess make sure they're maintaining temperatures. If there's a camera or some other sensor attached maybe you could do more, but these don't really have controls. Usually a "smart f
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Absolutely! Almost all devices should still work locally without any network integration. I've seen a few like Sous Vide devices that are too small to conveniently have an interface, but even then they SHOULD be able to work locally. There are a lot of bad devices that require cloud access and wifi, but hopefully greater Matter integration will reduce those
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If you'd ever lived with someone who forgets to put their clothes in the dryer, a smart washing machine would actually be a really useful thing to have. For rest of the stuff on your list, yeah, adding smart features is really just a gimmick.
The things I have connected to my smart home setup are lights, outdoor cameras, outdoor holiday decorations, the bathroom fart fans, and HVAC (for scheduling). Like many of us here, I don't however see much point in something like a smart toaster. As you said, if I'm
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Here's an example from your list - having your dryer alert you when it's done with a load. That's useful. And if the alert fails, it still operates are a regular dryer.
Although mostly my use case is having the exterior lights turn on at dusk and turn off at a certain hour. There are still switches that'll work if Home Assistant goes offline. But it's kind o
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I think you are focusing on the wrong word. CONNECTED devices are awesome. I want as much control as I can. But by connected and control, I mean me and me alone for things behind my firewall. I wanted connected things. I just refuse to have things that connect back to the manufacturer who I then I have to ask permission from to control a device behind my own firewall and who can see everything that is going on behind my firewall. Device manufacturers like using the word connected because they want less tech
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Samsung refrigerators can send an alert to my phone when the door is left open too long. This is useful for when children are old enough to get something for themselves but not necessarily remember to close the door every time. For a couple of years, I would have to close the door or tell them to close the door fairly frequently. Without it, I might not notice the open door for a couple of hours, which could result in fridge/freezer contents spoiling or melting.
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You know you could have a self closing door, or a buzzer on the door.
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So that's not really in the scope of the Matter standard, but it is pretty certain that devices will be able to work locally and without an outside connection. Matter isn't dependent on a specific communication protocol but there is a (poorly named) mesh networking protocol "Thread" which it's pretty tightly tied to. Aside from that, nothing really stops devices from using WiFi or Bluetooth as a communication protocol assuming you could pair them first.
The hub (be it Alexa, Google Home, HomeAssistant, etc
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what about needs to work with local server in an off line setup? Or even work when outside network is down?
The Tuya smart bulbs I have work like regular light bulbs when the connection is down. The smart plugs all have little buttons on the side for manual operation. The Ring doorbell still rings the chime like an old fashioned button, but the camera obviously doesn't record anything. The Alexa speakers, however, just sit there looking stupid.
Now if you want all your smart gadgets to work without a connection to the cloud, yeah, it's possible but you'll generally have to roll your own solution by using someth
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A lot of the Tuya stuff works with local only in Home Assistant as well. For some, you need to initial connect it but then you can block it right afterwards.
Honestly, if I wasn't burned so badly by Wink, Tuya would be the direction I go. I'd say a good 60% of what's out there works with thier hubs. And most of their zigbee stuff can be used outside of their hubs as well.
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Tuya's become a nightmare to deal with. They've decided they fear local integrations because they're losing ad revenue when people don't use the Tuya app. They have been going to progressively greater lengths to prevent device buyers from bypassing the Tuya servers and running their stuff locally.
My understanding is you can no longer register for a free Tuya developer account that lets you set it up with the "Local Tuya" integration for HomeAssistant -- you have to have a paid developer account, if it work
Can it be used locally? (Score:2)
I don't want smart devices that connect to the cloud or require a subscription
If it can't be used locally, I don't want it
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Even if it is local as soon as you connect something like Alexa your data becomes owned. I don't see the draw to connected devices such as a washing machine, fridge, or dish washer. The only service they seem perform is allowing manufacturers to monitor, gather data, and disable remotely for whatever whim they see fit. "That repair was not by an authorized service, sorry but your washing machine will now quit working until one of our techs come out and replace that bad, bad, OEM part. Shame on you evil cust
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It was previously reported right here on Slashdot that people's smart devices (important ones that they depend on in their house) stopped working because Amazon suspended their account for policy violations (which were in error).
The mere possibility of such a thing is an instant deal-killer for me.
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Even though my home is largely dumb (and I like it that way), I do have security cameras. However, rather than pay some company for video cloud storage, I rolled my own with PoE cameras, a Mac Mini, an external 6TB drive (that can store 30-days worth of video), and Security Spy software. The initial cost was way more, but I don't have to pay recurring monthly storage fees and nobody has access to my video except me.
I've been using SecuritySpy for years. It is extremely reliable, supports OnVIF and tons of other cameras, uses local storage, has a great web server, and Apps for iOS and AppleTV.
Ben Bird (Developer) is continuously improving SecuritySpy, and his staff provide wonderful tech support, and they even took my suggestion for and let me "beta test" a "wakeup and bring-forward from screen-saver/display-sleep on Event" feature that was incorporated into the next update.
I currently run it on a 2009 Aluminum iMac th
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Re:Can it be used locally? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes it can if you have a hub that's run locally like HomeAssistant
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Not exactly. The Matter protocol makes a connection between the device and the hub(s). Matter can run over lots of other protocols like Thread, Wifi, Ethernet, etc so it's possible if it's a WiFi device, it could be connecting to a cloud separately. For untrusted devices, it might be worth setting them up on their own subnet with no access to the Internet if that's a concern
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That's not really possible with how the protocol is designed. It's more like a device can identify as a lightbulb and has various lightbulb function associated (on/off/brightness/color/etc). The commands sent over Matter are then just basic "light turn on at brightness 45" rather than IP packets that can be routed to the internet
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Yes it can if you have a hub that's run locally like HomeAssistant
Or, for HomeKit, an AppleTV (like I do), or a HomePod mini.
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I don't want smart devices that connect to the cloud or require a subscription If it can't be used locally, I don't want it
^ ^ T H I S ^ ^
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That's like asking if HTTP can be used locally. Matter is a protocol. Nothing more.
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Also, if the connection circuitry fails but the rest of the appliance is still functional, will the appliance shut down?
I don't want a device that requires any connections other than power and water as necessary, so my question is largely rhetorical.
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I have been able to "smarten" dumb appliances by plugging them into smart power switches. For less than $8 each I bought a couple boxes of smart switches from Amazon, then reflashed them with Tasmota -- no more cloud! -- and joined them to Home Assistant. Now any device I want to be smart, I plug it into a smart switch and monitor the power.
One of my scripts monitors the power draw on my dryer, and when it goes above 100W for a minute then drops below 10W for 15 seconds, it knows the cycle is done and ale
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You could do something like schedule it to run when power is cheapest or when you're out of the house. Could also have an alert when it's done if you wanted. There are a few use cases that I could see
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You could do something like schedule it to run when power is cheapest or when you're out of the house. Could also have an alert when it's done if you wanted. There are a few use cases that I could see
On my current dishwasher, I can do a delay start and say how many hours to wait before starting the cycle. This dishwasher is not connected to any network, so no one outside the family knows how frequently I wash dishes.
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That sounds pretty fancy!
Might have some more dynamic requirements like if you're also doing laundry and want to wait for that to finish before starting the dishes to take advantage of limited solar generation during the day or if the power company sets rates dynamically and you want to wait until the ideal time to start.
The great thing about Matter is that you could run a local hub and then it wouldn't be accessible to anyone outside of your home, or it could be connected to one of the common smart hubs li
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Who the fuck cares about that?!?!
I start it as soon as I can, to maybe keep food residue from drying and being harder to wash off....
Do people seriously wait to run things when "power rates are cheaper"?
Is this even close to a statistically significant number? To save that whole penny?
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Some people don't want to spend more money than necessary. It's more common with water heaters, but dish washers are basically just little water heaters. Would add up over time of course. My dishwasher heating element used about 90 kwh last year or about $25. I'd take the time to make an automation to reduce that if possible.
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Do people seriously wait to run things when "power rates are cheaper"?
After my partner got his Bolt EUV, I looked into the time-of-use billing option that FPL offers. You'd pretty much have to be willing to live without air conditioning during the day to save any money on that rate plan, even with an EV. I suppose if you had no choice in the matter and your utility company only offered time-of-use rates, then it would make sense to schedule your laundry and dishes for off-peak times.
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you still have to load the dishes by hand. They don't pick themselves up off the table.
Seems a lot more of a pain in the ass to use a remote interface instead of just pressing start as you put in the last dish of a load.
Reading the summary and the article (gasp!), it sounds like a dishwasher in the app is more for reporting status than to remotely start a cycle. If I'm in a different part of the house, it might be nice to receive notification that the cycle completed or that there was an error while draining. Is that a big enough draw to provide more personal data to companies? I don't think so.
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you still have to load the dishes by hand.
Showing to all that you don't have a clue what is being discussed or why some people will optimise their dishwasher. I for one got sick of setting my timer manually every single time to run the dishwasher off peak. I would be very happy with one that started when the power meter tells it it that currently there is excess solar capacity. The heating cycles consume quite a lot of power.
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okay? (Score:2)
You could do all of this with zwave and zigbee, but many manufacturers chose not to allow it. This is nothing new, and it's not likely much will chan
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I try to run Zigbee not just because the power use is reasonable, but because it's non-routable. I also have some 433MHz for the same reason, but the clear text broadcast isn't exactly high security.
WiFi devices need utility power or a constant stream of batteries, they all try to phone home, and most of them these days won't work without doing so. You might think you're tech savvy and can re-flash the device, but manufacturers are always trying to prevent that.
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It is the improved interoperability that is compelling with Matter. It lets you ditch the proprietary hubs and just use a single gateway device. Not a huge selling point, but when you have one lock, three different brands of LED strings, and whatever else, all of the stupid hubs start to become a pain.
Aww... (Score:2)
Wake me for the next one (Score:2)
Who controls it? (Score:2)
Can I have my own off-the-grid system or do I have to send all my data to some central authority corporation that then decides whether, if and for how long and how I may use my home automation system?
Home Assitant (Score:2)
Iâ(TM)m disappointed that the summary doesnâ(TM)t mention Home Assistant which is by far the best home automation system. Yet they mention Apple Home Kit which is abysmal.
Re: Home Assitant (Score:2)
PS. Slashdot needs to implement a character encoding detection algorithm that can automatically identify the encoding of the comment text and convert it to UTF-8 before displaying it. This would fix the apostrophe rending problem.
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Just turn off the smart quotes features on your phone. It always was stupid.