Will the Ezlo Plus be compatible with Matter devices when they eventually release?
Yes.
We will have a Matter compatible Hub.
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Are there any plans to add the THREAD protocol (and necessary hardware) to Ezlo hubs at some point
@melih
So Matter was officially launched about a week ago, when can we expect Ezlo Hubs to be Matter certified?
Does it require a complete new hub or can the currently available hubs be certified after a firmware update?
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Hi @korttoma @adamhay
We are protocol agnostic and will support all popular protocols including Matter.
we will most likely have two options, one with Matter enabled hubs as well as USB version to enable matter.
Please watch this space for updates.
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I wouldn’t expect any extra hardware to support matter on the current hubs. Thread support will require hardware (though it might be possible to implement this on the current radio in the Ezlo hub). Matter itself runs fine over an IP network, so matter support should be software only.
To control a matter of thread device, thread support is necessary, unless there is already another thread border router in the home.
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Haven’t Phillips Hue made or are making their existing Bridges support matter?
Just found this:
“The Philips Hue Bridge will support Matter with a software update, meaning that your Hue lights and accessories automatically support Matter, too.”
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That’s a nice example. The hue bridge is not a thread border router, but exposes the hue lights as matter devices.
If an Ezlo hub would support matter, this would allow Ezlo to control the hue lights via the matter protocol, without needing the hue plugin.
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So you would still need some kind of Thread Border router ?
Philips are just making it so that their Hue lights can be controlled by some other Thread Border router right ?
They are not turning their existing Hue Bridge into a Thread Border router ?
Thread is just a new wireless protocol to connect devices. To expose these thread devices to any service (app, website or whatever), you will need at least one Thread border router. Matter, as a control protocol, works over thread as a connectivity protocol.
As the hue lights are zigged based, there is no need for a thread border router to control them.
There are already some thread border routers, e.g. the Apple TV 4K or the Apple HomePod. More will follow.
If Ezlo adds some thread compatible hardware, the hub will become a thread border router itself.
So a hardware change or addition is needed then by the sounds of it? To make the Ezlo hub also a Thread Border router.
Its all quite confusing still at the moment.
Also whilst taking about Philips Hue, I think the Ezlo Philips HUE plugin is currently broken or has a major bug in it.
I ended up in a situation where the plugin kept generating new instances of all my Hue devices onto the Ezlo hub over and over and I ended up with 1000’s of device instances on my system and it ground it to a halt.
Support had to remove the plugin and all the devices via a script or something.
I have not been brave enough to install their Hue plugin again since. The bad version is 1.0.17 and that is the one still on the marketplace.
So currently my Ezlo Plus controller cannot directly control my Philips Hue lights.
A work around is that I am using Rene’s Vera to Ezlo bridge plugin and the AltHue plugin devices on the Vera Plus are being exposed to the Ezlo Plus that way instead.
Here is a reasonable description explanation of Thread, Border routers and Matter and how it all fits together to magically solve all current smart home headaches: What is Thread and how will it help your smart home? - The Verge
However, even though the standards are now finalised and hardware is starting to appear, it will take a long time to actually become really useful and start delivering on that magic promise.
Once the eco system starts to take off, you’ll probably find that you’ll have a Thread border router already somewhere.
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There is another option to control the hue lights directly. If you onboard the ezlo hub in the existing hue zigbee network, you can start including the lights as native zigbee lights on the ezlo hub, without using the hue plugin.
Hue plugging and using zigbee is not functionally similar, specific hue functions such as scenes or blinking of lights are functions implemented in the hue bridge, not in the bulbs themselves, so keep that in mind.
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Never heard about this before, didn’t know that was even possible !
I know that this an old thread, but it appears that Alexa is starting to support Thread. I wonder if we might be able to control thread devices via our current VOI capability.