Sunday July 16, 2023; 6:49 PM EDT
- Eight years ago I began my experience with the Internet of Things when I purchased a set of two white Hue lights and a Hue bridge. I put one of the lights in a lamp in our basement and the second in a lamp in our living room and used the Hue app to control the lights and create simple automations like turning the lights on at sunset and turning them off at a designated time later in the evening. Later I added two color lights for use in the basement that I use for a variety of settings when watching TV and movies. #
- A year later we had a failure with our sump pump that caused flooding in our basement and a subsequent remodeling. After completing the remodeling I wanted to put a moisture sensor in the sump pump pit that will alert us when water reaches to a higher than normal level, but well below the top of the pit. Philips only sold lights, so I turned to another vendor known as SmartThings to buy a moisture sensor that required me to buy another hub. #
- It was at this point that I encountered the largest obstacle to the Internet of Things, a vendor lock-in that kept me from being able to use the Hue hub, which has a Zigbee radio, with other products that also use Zigbee. I was forced to add another hub to my home network and both hubs require a physical LAN connection. SmartThings, which was later acquired by Samsung, is more open than Hue, but it can't directly communicate with the Hue lights, I have to connect the SmartThings app on my phone to my Hue account to control lights. A similar set up is needed to use Amazon's Alexa or Google Home to control Hue lights and devices controlled by SmartThings. #
- While there are smart lights one can use directly with SmartThings, Alexa, and Google Home, I think the Hue app is still the leader in providing scenes that mix colors across lights to produce various effects. The need to stick with a specific vendor or install multiple hubs is the reason why Matter exists. Matter is a standard that along with a communication protocol called Threads is or will be supported by multiple vendors that promises to not only allow many more products to work with the same hub, or controller, like Alexa, Google Nest or SmartThings but also make the setup process easier. #
- Having been in development for many years, the Matter standard was released mid last year and official Matter products started to be available late last year. I have been keeping an eye on the products that are available and decided on Amazon Prime day to purchase a TP-Link Tapo Matter compatible smart plug that I received yesterday and set up today. #
- I planned to use either Google Home or SmartThings to configure and control the switch. The instructions for the switch are minimal and I did not install the Tapo app that TP-Link provides. My first surprise is that immediately after plugging the switch to power a Google Home notification appeared indicating a devices was available to be added. I proceeded to the next step that involved capturing a QR code that is on the switch and then letting the set up proceed that ultimately failed. While the device appeared to be recognized, it didn't look like network communication was taking place. #
- Next I unplugged the device and plugged it back in, but this time there was no notification on my phone. I decided to see whether I could have more luck using SmartThings, manually starting the process to add a device, but that seemed to also get stuck at network communication. Small as the documents that came with the switch are, they did tell me that if there was a problem and the phone was connected to 5 Ghz WiFi revert the older 2.6 Ghz WiFi and try again, which I did. #
- I did not have success at getting the switch configured with either Google Home or SmartThings even after switching my Pixel 7a to our 2.6 GHz WiFi network. The switch instructions also provide steps to reset the network and reset the switch to factory defaults, which I did by holding the power button down for ten seconds. After having done those changes, starting Google Home and manually adding a new device, I saw more progress that included an exchange of Matter credentials. Eventually I saw the steps to name the device and designate where it is located in my home and set up was complete with the switch accessible via Google Home and thus my Nest hub and Google Assistant on my Pixel 7a. #
- Clearly, the setup process was not as smooth as promised by those who created Matter, but in the end I was able to add a device made and sold by TP-Link directly to Google Home without having to install another TP-Link app. I have other WiFi-only TP-Link switches that to control with Google Home I needed to add to the TP-Link Kasa app with a TP-Link account that I then provided to Google Home. We are in the early days of Matter and we can expect the set up process to be smoother, for example the setup process ought to gracefully handle different WiFi bands. My plan going forward is to only buy IoT products that support Matter in the hope that some time down the road I can remove one or more of the hubs that I have accumulated over time. #