Which hub for Matter?

[cicoub13]

Now that Gladys is Matter-compatible I’m starting to look at which Matter hub I could buy.
I see that some Apple TV, Nest Hub and Aqara/Ikea/Philips bridges can do routing.

Some Zigbee dongles are Thread-compatible (and therefore Matter) but you have to flash the firmware.

And there are also specific dongles.

Which one do you use? Did you choose a hub according to your equipment (Apple TV because you use HomeKit)?

Should you favor a Thread hub to have broader device coverage?

If I understand correctly, MatterBridge allows integrating non-Matter devices (like Shelly or Zigbee) into Matter. Is there any benefit to doing that for Zigbee (aside from having everything under a single integration in Gladys)?

[StephaneB]

I’ll be very interested in the discussion as well.

I had discussed the question with @pierre-gilles, who had given a preliminary answer here.

But your question is broader, @cicoub13, and it deserves a dedicated thread, which I will therefore follow closely.

[cicoub13]

Thanks, I missed the discussion (well, the bit of the discussion among my 167 messages ) .

First responses

@pierre-gilles

I bought my Apple TV on LeBonCoin for the record

You can find models in very good condition for less! (I see models for €150 on LeBonCoin )

Google Thread Border Routers:

Screens: Nest Hub (2nd generation), Nest Hub Max
Wi‑Fi routers: Nest Wifi Pro (Wi‑Fi 6E)
Streaming devices: Google TV Streamer (4K)

I see Nest Hub 2nd gen for €50 on leboncoin

Amazon Thread Border Routers:

On the Amazon side, you seem to need an Amazon Echo 4th generation, it seems.

Also, you only need a Thread Border Router for Thread devices; it’s not necessary for Matter devices that are already on the Wi‑Fi network (example: Matterbridge, Wi‑Fi devices)

@mutmut

you can get by without a Thread Border Router if you don’t have any Thread hardware

@pierre-gilles

Not sure there’s much point in connecting Zigbee2mqtt to Matterbridge; Zigbee devices will always be better managed directly in the Zigbeem2mqtt integration.

[pierre-gilles]

Hi @cicoub13

I recommend the Matter documentation for the Gladys integration:

Intégrer des appareils Matter dans Gladys Assistant | Gladys Assistant

I explain all the concepts you need to understand!

However I think there’s a small confusion between Matter and Thread

→ A Matter device is not necessarily Thread-compatible
→ A Thread device is not necessarily Matter-compatible

If you want to use Matterbridge or any other non-Thread Matter device, no hub is necessary. Gladys

[mutmut]

Hi @cicoub13

@cicoub13

I see that some Apple TV, Nest Hub and Aqara/Ikea/Philips bridges can act as routers.

So are you going to use these « routers » to do something else?
Personally I don’t want a cloud gateway, no need for an Apple TV (I have a Freebox) but I use a bit of HomeKit via an iPad and iPhone (but not much), no Hue devices.
Aqara M3 might be interesting if you move your Zigbee devices onto it (but expensive).

@cicoub13

Some Zigbee dongles are compatible with Thread (and therefore Matter) but you have to flash the firmware

I didn’t know that site but I have a SMLIGHT SLZB-06M at home for Zigbee, a device connected via Ethernet and PoE, and then connected with z2m.
And the price is more than reasonable.

If I have to switch to a Matter Router, I’d get a second SLZB-06M and flash it with OpenThread.

I haven’t tested with Matter because I don’t have any Thread hardware.

There you go, those were my two cents

EDIT:

• it seems that matter-over-thread is only the gateway and not the device that provides a QR code to pair, to be confirmed.
• apparently their next dongle SLZD-MR1 will be Zigbee AND Matter over Thread at the same time.

[lmilcent]

So in theory you can run Glad

[mutmut]

In practice too, that’s what I have at home :

• SLZB-06M on PoE
• Gladys on a Proxmox cluster of 3 machines with HA and Ceph for storage
• zigbee2mqtt on my NAS in Docker (which I could also switch to Proxmox).

If one of my mini-PCs goes down (the one with Gladys for example), it boots straight on another, no need to reroute USB ports.

[lmilcent]

Great, thanks for the details!

If you have SSDs, doesn’t Ceph wear out your SSDs

[mutmut]

@lmilcent

If you have SSDs, doesn’t Ceph wear out the SSDs too much? It’s known to be very write-intensive, and therefore to prematurely wear out the drives.

well, you just taught me something
And now that you mention it, in almost a year I had an SSD (whose age I didn’t know but it was a non-enterprise M.2 SATA SSD) that died and I really struggled to replace it (now I have my guide ). I hadn’t made the connection with Ceph.

After a bit of reading about Ceph, its Bluestore, the Ceph pool and the metadata, I’m going to redo my entire Proxmox config to separate OS/metadata (SSD) and the data of the OSD/Ceph pool (HDD or enterprise SSD) because I currently have EVERYTHING on the same SSD…
I need to replace one of my mini-PCs, it will be an opportunity to start clean (and I think I’ll struggle a bit to validate my final config).

@lmilcent

Are you satisfied with the SLZB-06M in terms of transmit power, handling the number of connected devices and ease of initial setup?

Transmit power is pretty good. I have router modules so the network is quite clean I find and not directly tied to the SLZB (but I’m not a specialist).

And as for the configuration, it’s really very simple — nothing to complain about on that point.

[prohand]

FYI j’ai commandé le SLZB-MR1 :

https://www.domadoo.fr/fr/produits-de-domotique/

[lmilcent]

Amazing! I’ll take the plunge as soon as I get your feedback

[Will_71]

I also bought it but haven’t installed it yet…

[lmilcent]

Well, I finally bought it from the official site (I don’t think Domadoo ships to Canada). I’m looking forward to being able to buy Zigbee or Thread devices and, above all, to avoiding disconnections when my server goes down or restarts.

Ideally, Gladys will become a Kubernetes pod that will no longer need a USB stick! That way, high availability for Gladys by default (multi-server).

[prohand]

As promised, here is my 1st feedback :

SLZB-MR1 avec Gladys

Bonsoir à tous, Comme promis voici un petit retour concernant l’intégration du SLZB-MR1. Je l’ai reçu aujourd’hui et je viens tout juste de finir de l’intégrer Ma config avant upgrade : 1 * Machine virtuelle Gladys sur un serveur Proxmox 1 * Machine virtuelle Mqtt sur un serveur Proxmox 1 * Machine virtuelle Zigbee2mqtt en version 1.42.0 sur un serveur Proxmox 1 * clé ZBDongle-P avec radio sous CC2652P branché directement sur le serveur Proxmox Ma config après upgrade : 1…

[pierre-gilles]

Interesting device, I’d be curious to know if it works with any Thread device:

Aqara Hub Intelligent M100, Contrôleur Matter, Routeur de Bordure Thread, Aqara...

[jcmoriaud]

I’ve ordered it, I’ll report back here.

[jcmoriaud]

I just received it.

I currently have a Sonos P dongle for Zigbee.

How should I proceed to avoid breaking everything?

Do I « replace » the Sonos, remove the Zigbee container and set up a new configuration with the Aqara, or can I use the Aqara M100 only for Thread/Matter?

Thanks in advance.

[Will_71]

Personally I wouldn’t touch the Zigbee network if it’s working.
I don’t know how Aqara works but if there’s only one chip you’ll do either Thread or Zigbee but not both.
I’d dedicate that dongle to the Thread network.

[pierre-gilles]

I agree with @Will_71, don’t touch the Zigbee that’s working

However, I’m very curious to know what this Thread gateway does, I had posted the link here because I found it on Amazon, but I’ve never seen anyone use this device, so very curious to know what it does ^^

If you have any experience with it, @jcmoriaud!

[jcmoriaud]

The Aqara M100 is seen by Gladys :

Now I’m trying to pair IKEA Matter Bilresa remotes and it crashes every time via the Aqara app.

I’m also trying to add them via Gladys, which doesn’t find them, but I don’t know if that’s the right way to do it…