Why move from Zigbee (Hue) to Matter (IKEA)?
Price is a big factor. Until very recently, Hue bulbs were £45 each! By comparison, IKEA sells theirs for less than £10 each. You could kit out a small apartment for the cost of doing one room.
The self-healing network was another. We live in an old(1910s) brick house and signals don’t penetrate very far. By moving to a more adaptive network, the devices become much more reliable.
Other things of note:
Most of the lights use the E27 screw fitting. UK lights mostly use the B22 bayonet fitting. IKEA sells adaptors in a 2 pack under the KOPPLA name - 902.956.15
I found adding them to the network individually worked better than batches. I’d add a light, update the firmware so that it became a router, then do the next room along. Also, the battery powered switches and sensors need resetting if you don’t add them quickly.
Further findings from the IKEA Kajplats lightbulbs that work over Thread and Matter:
The lightbulbs out of the box only work as a thread endpoint. A firmware update will enable router mode, allowing them extend your thread mesh network. You can update them from within the Apple Home app.
They all support adaptive lighting, which changes the colour temp warmer as the day progresses.
- #Eve Energy kept reporting, but also couldn't be pinged from the border router...
- Eve Thermo has become unavailable
- My wife has accidentally kicked #Tapo bulb into reset because of the issues
Only #Ikea #Kajplats has stayed connected...
I need to... Double down and get more #Matter devices... And I guess I need Thread USB dongle as well... 😂
There’s something about those new #Ikea #Matter devices that’s not entirely ok…
People complain it’s been difficult to pair them with anything and I’ve seen an explanation you need to enable IPv6 on your network. Don’t see why, but ok…
Plot twist - I have it enabled, and yet… I’ve had issues adding #Kajplats E27 CWS glove 1055lm to both #HomeKit and #HomeAssistant.
It has eventually worked, after a few attempts and #AppleTV and #HA restarts, but still - not the experience I’ve been expecting.
Finally managed to get a barely working #Matter setup by using a Ukranian #Smlight MR1U, which has radios for both #Zigbee and #Thread. Very cool device which can be freely flashed with plenty of firmwares and powered by either PoE or USB.
Sadly my #HomeAssistant installation on a #Pi400 refused to detect the device via USB. Moved the sd card to a #Pi4 and it got detected right away. Huh.
After messing with the outdated Python Matter Server I got a single #Kajplats bulb working, all other Matter devices refuse to connect. 😂 Well, at least it's a star of something.
Or I just stop wasting my time now and move on to Zigbee for now. 😮💨
Gareth Harmer
Michal Špondr
Sebastian 
Jeroen Postma 🇪🇺
R (rolandinsh)
CryptGoat
Martin 🇪🇺