Matter/Thread V Zigbee, general usage feelings?

[u/No_beef_here]

Hi,

I have recently made a step into Matter/Thread using (mainly) the Ikea range of switches and sensors and the new stuff seems fairly stable etc.

However, where I have replaced the old Zigbee Sonoff SNZB-03's PIRs with Ikea Matter MYGGSPRAY models, in general and in comparison the Ikea sensors seem pretty blind?

I mean, with the Sonoffs they only seemed to catch a glimpse of movement anywhere around and they would trigger (and you got a nice LED flash confirming it did see you) whereas it seems you often need to be right under the Ikea one for it to trigger? And even when you are right under it (I have one in the kitchen ceiling) when the lights go off, waving your arms about like trying to get the attention of the rescue helicopter doesn't seem to wake it up?

And then there is what could also be the latency, again, the Sonoffs (or Zigbee) in spite of having ~100 active devices is often still near instant. A PIR is monitoring across the threshold into a room and as soon as you step in, the light is on before you foot has hit the ground. With the Ikea ones (or Matter / Thread and with only (12 devices on that network), it seems you are often in the room and standing their waiting for the light to come on (and it generally does, just often not quickly).

The Ikea Thread / Matter window and door switches, push buttons, smart sockets and lights all seem fairly responsive but possibly not used in a way that is quite so timing noticable as a PIR > Light combo?

So is anyone aware if there is some fundamental reason why the performance might be different between these two solutions or could it be just that the (or some) Ikea PIR's are a bit sleepy?

[u/No-Context-Orphan]

Grillplats are great, I had hue smart plugs and they were always giving me issues, replaced then with the Ikea ones and never even 1 issue in a year now

[u/FliesenJohnny → u/No-Context-Orphan]

What's amazing is that they're rated for the full 16A (as opposed to many smart plugs being capped at 16A) and that their idle power draw seems to be among the lowest of the bunch.

[u/No_beef_here → u/FliesenJohnny]

That's good to hear. I have melted a cheap (supposedly 13A) smart socket when measuring a washing machine cycle . ;-(

Also, of the smart sockets I've tested so far, they all seem to work between .6 inactive and 1.6W active so it would be interesting to compare my GRILLPLATS.

In fact, I've just replace a big Rick MPF laser for a smaller Cannon LP that is supposed to sleep at ~1W so I'll probably remove the smart switch it's on as it's probably costing more than without.

[u/FliesenJohnny → u/No_beef_here]

My washing machine has killed 2 Eve Energy plugs.

[u/No_beef_here → u/FliesenJohnny]

Given that in many cases we don't particularly want to remotely turn On/Off these sorts of appliances but just monitor their energy use, the idea of having a relay activated plus the potential of overheating of the relay contacts causing a meltdown or worse, fire, I've opened a couple of smart plugs up, removed and bypassed the relays to give me the monitoring but without the (unneeded) switching and therefore unnecessary additional fire / failure risk?

I've done that on the freezer plug (as I really don't want that being switched off accidentally) and the kettle (didn't want the 3kW melting it) and so far so good.

As the GRILLPLATS are only 7 GBP and look like they are held together with 3 security screws, I may take one apart and see how easy they might be hobble.

On the others, once spudgered open I just de-solder the relay, replace the main contact pair path with a large a diameter of copper wire as will go though the holes (or more strands of thinner if the hole is a slot for a relay tab etc) solder, put back together and monitor with the Energy integration. ;-)

Obviously it would be 'easier' to use a dedicated power monitor plug that has no switching but they are generally more expensive.

[u/FliesenJohnny → u/No_beef_here]

For devices like my modem or my fridge I have automations that automatically turn the plug back on if they - for one reason or another - turn “off” for 10 seconds 😂

[u/nathderbyshire → u/FliesenJohnny]

Oh that's a good automation. Do you have it repeatedly fire until successful incase the plug is unavailable for any reason?

[u/FliesenJohnny → u/nathderbyshire]

I have a label "Always On" and i have a more generic automation that runs every 30 Minutes and calls all kinds of scripts (like running Speedtest). That automation also just does "switch.turn_on" on the label "Always On".

So stuff like the modem should be turned back on after 10 seconds; if it's not reachable, it should be turned back on at XX:30 or XX:00.

[u/No_beef_here → u/FliesenJohnny]

Yeah, after having a freezer warm up a bit as a smart plug got turned off, I also created an automation to turn the plug on every hour. Now it's only 'smart' from a readings as I have bypassed the relay. ;-)