Home Assistant will release hardware suite with Matter support next year – Computer – News

Home Assistant has raised enough money to make Amber devices. This is an upgradeable kit, equipped with a Raspberry Pi Compute Module and a chip to connect to all kinds of smart home devices. Amber is also getting support for Matter.

At the time of writing, Home Assistant has raised nearly $146,000. The goal is set at a minimum of $140,000 and Campaign on Crowdsupply It started last week. Interested parties can participate in the crowdfunding campaign until October 27. The products will be delivered in June 2022 if all goes according to plan.

Amber Home Helper It is a device for controlling smart home equipment via Home Assistant software. Amber is mainly composed of a PCB with a coil Silicone Labs MGM210P Mighty Gecko-module. It is based on the EFR32MG21 soc and has Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth and . support Multiprotocol communication Shaped like Zigbee + Bluetooth 5.1.

Home Assistant Amber will be compatible with the future Matter-smarthomestandard, including major tech companies such as Apple, Google and Amazon. Silicon Labs is also closely involved and once the necessary SDK is available, Amber will work with Matter devices.

The amber tag must be expanded with an extension Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module. Users can choose their own version. All variables are working. This way, you can also upgrade to a variant with more RAM and storage. Moreover, the Amber PCB has an M.2 slot for an NVMe SSD, or an AI accelerator like Google Coral. This allows users to improve the machine’s machine learning capabilities.

Home Assistant will make various combinations. Complete set with Amber board, Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module, enclosure, heatsink and power supply costs $149. There are also groups without the unit of account; There are variants with the power supply and with Power-over-Ethernet. These versions cost $99. Prices shown do not include VAT and shipping costs of $20.

The hardware is made by the manufacturer in Shenzhen, China. Already there engineering samples Establish and conduct preliminary tests for compliance with electromagnetic radiation regulations. The official inspection is not yet complete. In theory, this could cause a delay if things are detected there that require PCB modification.

The team behind the project has pre-ordered components to make 500 copies of the complete Home Assistant Amber kit and parts for 4,000 kits that require users to purchase the Raspberry Pi 4 Compute Module themselves. According to the makers, it is difficult to get large numbers of the unit, while there is no problem in ordering a single copy.

last year , blue house helperThe team’s first hardware project. This included a collaboration with a single-board computer manufacturer, and that project is now discontinued. Blue will continue to receive support. Amber is the back and it was built entirely from the ground up by the Home Assistant team.

Home Assistant is an open source software for controlling smart home equipment. The project was created in 2012 by Dutchman Paulos Schutzen, who works on it full time. The software is free, but there is also an optional paid Home Assistant Cloud service. Tweaker posted a Interview with Schutzen.