this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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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)? (self.homeautomation)
submitted 11 months ago by grue to c/homeautomation
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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] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Another consideration is price. I haven’t looked in to it myself but wifi stuff is cheaaaap. And if you have a handle on flashing Tasmota then adding a lot of smart devices can be done on the cheap. I presume matter stuff for now might have a premium on top being new, but that’s just my guess. I know Zigbee and zwave are generally a little pricier than wifi devices.

Currently Matter devices are indeed more expensive but they have the potential of being even cheaper. Matter also supports Wifi and Ethernet, not only Thread.

With Matter, device manufacturers can focus entirely on the hardware/firmware and don‘t have to worry about client software like custom apps. They only have to implement a single protocol to support all major ecosystems natively.

In theory this should also lower the bar for entering the market for small companies.