Matter issues - device offline

Devices & Integrations
1

I’ll start with I don’t have a lot of experience with Matter devices. I bought a Midea air-conditioner this summer and didn’t know it was Matter enabled. I thought I was going to add it to Google and use virtual switches to control it. To my surprise when I turned it on, ST’s announce it found a new Matter device. That’s where the trouble starts, I can get it connected, and it works for a while, it just won’t stay online. Twice now, over that past few months it just goes offline. I tried unplugging it and plugging it back in, that did nothing. If I hold down the WiFi button, ST’s sees it again and wants to add it, but I have to remove the previous offline device to get ST’s to actually complete the setup. I’m not using any routines or automations for this, it’s just a device in ST’s.

So, my question is: Are people having issues keeping Matter devices connected to ST’s? My air-conditioner is only about 15’ from the hub, and I have a bunch of ZigBee and ZWave devices in the same room, none of those are disconnecting. I know Matter devices are fairly new, but this being my first Matter device and so far, not very impressed.

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2

Are you sure it’s not related to the WiFi network? Make sure the device has a static IP.

The only WiFi (LAN) device that is directly connected to my hub was shown as offline whenever it received a new IP.

And it doesn’t matter how far or close the device is located from the hub, because WiFi is a star topology with the router (not the hub!) in the middle.

3

I’ll give that a shot. It was on DHCP, so I’ve assigned it a Static address. Fingers crossed. I probably won’t buy a bunch of new Matter devices if they have to use my WiFi resources. I prefer to use ZWave of ZigBee to keep them off my LAN.

Thanks for the assistance.

2 Likes
4

Thread is where it’s at.

My cameras, air purifier, Aqara FP2, a Tapo H100 Matter bridge are WiFi and that’s it. Everything else (about 70 devices) is Thread or ZigBee.

And yes, I’m pretty sure that it was the dynamic IP.

5

I’ve reset the AC and it’s showing on the network with the Static IP. Device is still working in ST’s. I’ll see how it goes. Thanks for your help.

2 Likes
6

I am also facing the same issue and tried to assign a static ip but my broadband provider does not support it. I tried clicking on the diagnostics button to bring it back online but every time this happens, I have to restart the router to get it back online. Any other way? In terms of the placement, my hub (channel 20) and router (channel 1) are placed next to each other and have not issues with any other zigbee or wi-fi devices till now.

7

You should solve this issue first. See if you can connect your own router.

8

Matter doesn’t use IPv4 addresses, it uses link-local IPv6 addresses that don’t need DHCP either. In fact it doesn’t even need a IPv4 address assigned, they just don’t use them.

If that turns out to be the fix that would be a bad implementation by Midea.

9

The device is connected to router and hub so don’t understand what you mean. Can you be more specific please?

10

Nit, but Matter uses Unique Local Addresses (ULA) which are the prefixes fc00::/7.

11

It uses link-local too if you don’t have IPv6 infrastructure, which I guess is the common case.

From Matter 1.0 spec:

When all Matter Nodes are attached to the same Wi-Fi / Ethernet network, link-local IPv6 addressing is sufficient - no additional IPv6 network infrastructure is required.

Matter doesn’t really impose a specific type as long as nodes can communicate:

an operational IPv6 Unicast address that provides connectivity and routability between Nodes SHALL be used. This includes a global unicast address (GUA), a link-local address (LLA), or a unique local address (ULA).

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12

So, is there a solution for my issue? As of now, matter offline every 2 months once and I have to switch off and switch on the router for it to work.

13

Mine doesn’t support static IPs per se, but I created a “reservation” for a mac address to use a specific IP address. See if your router has that function.

14

Ok, is it exactly called Reservation or something else?

15

It depends on the vendor.

16

ok thanks, so just specify some ip address? Is that it?

17

Usually you just have to tell it the last octet from 0 - 255. If not, it’s going to be something like 192.168.0.??? or what ever your DHCP range starts at. It has to be a number that is not in use be another device. Once you create the reservation, your router will use that IP address for that device when ever it’s on the network. Since I did that, my matter device did not show up offline again.

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18

Will this affect other wifi devices?

19

No this should not affect any of your WiFi devices. IP addresses must be unique, your router/gateway should not let you create a duplicate address or use one that is currently in use. IP reservations and static addresses aren’t exactly the same thing but they perform essentially the same function, to assign an IP address to a device that the device uses every time it’s on the network.

20

Just to be clear, I don’t switch off my router at all as I tend to keep it on all the time. I only switch off and on when the matter device is offline so with my current scenario, you still recommend to specify the ip address?