cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/7783032
When I started at Ars in the summer of 2022, the next generation of smart home standards was on the way. Matter, an interoperable device setup and management system, and Thread, a radio network that would provide secure, far-reaching connectivity optimized for tiny batteries. Together, they would offer a home that, while well-connected, could also work entirely inside a home network and switch between controlling ecosystems with ease. I knew this tech wouldn’t show up immediately, but I thought it was a good time to start looking to the future, to leave behind the old standards and coalesce into something new.
Instead, Matter and Thread are a big mess, and I am now writing to tell you that I was wrong, or at least ignorant, to have ignored the good things that already existed: Zigbee and Z-Wave. I’ve put in my time with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and various brittle combinations of the two. They’re useful for data-rich devices and for things that can stay plugged in. Zigbee and Z-Wave have been around, but they always seemed fidgety, obscure, and vaguely European at a glance. But here, in the year 2024, I am now an admirer of both, and I think they still have a place in our homes.
That does also look like a good option. In my case, I have a Pi 4 running both zigbee2mqtt and zwave-js-ui using connected Zigbee and Zwave USB dongles placed centrally in the house (Eclipse mosquitto is running on a separate 3-server cluster). I’ve only briefly searched, but network zwave controllers seem to be much less common or more expensive, so I probably wouldn’t benefit much from changing my Zigbee controller at the moment.
The Zigbee ones aren’t too expensive. The one I use (Smartlight SLZB-06) is $30 plus shipping ($8 to the USA) from their official store.
Z-wave is more of a niche at this point, especially since newer Zigbee radios also support Thread (which is the future).
Oh I know, but my thermostat and a handful of other devices are Zwave, so for me specifically it’s probably not worth changing things up at this time.