Hello folks,
I just want to share my personal experiment making my AirGradient monitors, in this specific case, AirGradient One (I-9PSL-DE) and Open Air (O-1PST), exposed to the Matter network (or you can call it a ‘Matter fabric’ as a jargon).
In case you don’t know Matter (if you already know, feel free to skip this paragraph), Matter (formerly Project CHIP) is a universal smart home protocol that aims to make all IoT devices from any manufacturer interoperable, utilizing IP technology. Simply put, if you have a Matter-compatible device, you can pair it with any smart home platforms that work with Matter, such as Google Home, Apple Home (HomeKit), Home Assistant, Samsung Smartthings, and Aqara Home - all at the same time.
Let me just spoil the result. Currently, with this method, it’s not that satisfying for me, because I can’t get the PM, VOC, and NOx sensors exposed to Matter, but at least, CO2, temperature, and humidity work well (only these 3 measurements work). So I can ask my Google Nest Hub to read me the CO2 level in ppm from my AirGradient monitors, as well as these values show on my Google Home app.
Here’s a video asking Google to tell me the CO2 level:
AirGradient in Google Home app (via Matter using Matterbridge). Only CO2, temperature, and humidity are here, with a toggle switch to turn on/off posting data to the AirGradient server (just like how it appeared on the Apple Home app, so I don’t have a screenshot of Apple Home here.
AirGradient in Aqara Home app (via Matter using Matterbridge), only temperature, humidity, and a switch to turn on or off posting data to AirGradient are here.
How did I do that? It’s not very complex, but a bit frustrating for me, and obviously, you don’t need to have an engineering degree for it (I don’t have one either). I didn’t develop anything myself, just used whatever was already available out there. I connected my AirGradient to my Home Assistant via the native AirGradient integration, then I used Matterbridge to get the devices from my Home Assistant, and then it relayed them to the Matter network, which I successfully tried pairing to my Google Home, Apple Home, and Aqara Home.
Home Assistant > Matterbridge > Google Home/Apple Home/Aqara Home
That’s it.
Here’s what Matterbridge UI looks like:
Please share if you have tried something else interesting to make your AirGradient monitors work with Matter.
Thank you so much for reading.
See you,
Tai