Exploring the Arduino Nano Matter and Alexa Integration for Home Automation
Working on a presentation/article involving the Arduino Nano Matter: https://store.arduino.cc/products/nano-matter - the idea is that it uses the Matter set of rules to communicate using the Thread network. It needs a relatively new piece of hardware to use this type of radio, and I'm using an Amazon Alexa Show.
So far I've been impressed with how easy it is to set up once you have the Alexa app on your phone and the required hardware. It generates a QR code, you scan it, and it mostly takes care of things (though if you commission it to the wrong thing it seems there is some hassle involved, IIRC I went through that a while ago). After setting up the
nano_matter_lightbulb_color example, the Alexa was able to control the light with commands like "Alexa make first light green" (it came up with "first light" as its name.
Anyway, Matter might be something that will be a big deal in home automation in the future, though I'm not sure whether to call it a protocol per se. I guess it is, but it sits on top of other protocols like Thread.
As for the Echo Show 8, it could be cool but I'm not thrilled that it displays quite a few ads. I need to figure out how to turn that off!Arduino Official Store
Arduino Nano Matter
Nano Matter merges Arduino’s signature ease of use with with the powerful Silicon Labs® MGM240S, wrapping the best of two worlds into one of the smallest form factors currently on the market. Experimenting with Matter-compatible devices has never been easier! With Nano Matter, makers – at all levels of expertise – can
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one of the biggest issues in the smart home industry is that devices from different "ecosystems" , basically from different companies, cannot comunicate with each other because they usually use different technologies and matter is supossed to become a standard "protocol" for smart home so devices, regardless the vendor, can interact with each other... it sounds in general a good idea, but i don't if more companies will follow the iniciative, because is a big win for users but a "loss" for companies, because users will not be locked to a specific vendor..💀
Yeah there was a serious slowdown in Matter participation in the last couple of years. IIRC there was some technical limitation. May have been power or similar. I'll see if I can find it in my notes..