I was in the market for an air purifier and I saw that Switch Bot recently released a firmware update for theirs that made it Matter compatible, so I bit the bullet.
I had to set it up with its own app to get the firmware update and eventually to get the Matter code (no Matter QR Code on the device nor manual). However, in SmartThings it is using the “SmartThings driver for Matter thermostat devices”. Is that correct??? Shouldn’t there be an air purifier driver or a more generic name for this driver?
The device screen has a Main section with Air purifier fan mode and Fan speed. There are also sections for Hepa filter and for Activated carbon filter. But every time I go into the device a popup says “This device hasn’t updated all of its status information yet. Check again later”, but it has been saying that for a day now, and the filter sections just aren’t working.
Is there a better driver to use? Or a way to get the whole screen working?
ST has made the decision to group multi-function devices into a single driver for many things like switches/dimmers and buttons. This is also the case for thermostats and air purifiers. Currently, there are only three vendor specific fingerprints to match specific capability profiles. The rest will have to match on generic fingerprints based on deviceTypeIds found in the device endpoints. If there is not a specific combination of deviceTypeIds to match your device’s capabilities, you won’t get the full functionality (or have more capabilities than your device supports). You can see your endpoints and the associated deviceTypeIds in either the ST CLI or the community developed API Browser+. You can also see the profile your device is using with either of those tools or the ST Advanced Web App.
The device name and device profile from the ST Advanced Web App came up as “air-purifier-hepa-ac-wind”.
Thanks for the confirmation that this is the appropriate driver; Samsung should make the name a little more generic and catch-all though.
However, how do I get the “This device hasn’t updated all of its status information yet. Check again later” to go away and make the device screen fully usable?
So, I’m assuming it’s selecting that profile because the first endpoint matches the deviceTypeId for an air purifier which is explicitly mapped to that profile in the fingerprints for the driver:
- id: "matter/air-purifier"
deviceLabel: Matter Air Purifier
deviceTypes:
- id: 0x002D # Air Purifier
deviceProfileName: air-purifier-hepa-ac-wind
and that means that the device will get assigned all the capabilities of the profile even it doesn’t support them:
and while there are other profiles defined for various combinations of capabilities that an air purifier supports, it doesn’t seem like the driver will override the explicit fingerprint match when it goes through its dynamic profile determination. If the profile has a capability your device doesn’t support, you’ll get the message you’re seeing.
I would be curious to see what the endpoints are that the device is presenting. Also, Hepa and Active Carbon clusters are optional in the spec so assuming that every air purifier will have them seems wrong. A little driver logging with the CLI would tell us more about what the device is reporting back to hub when you attempt to refresh in the app.
You’re getting further than me. Mine always throws an error at the last step of onboarding.
That device profile also doesn’t support any kind of air quality reading, which the SwitchBot air purifier reports a basic good, bad, very bad over Matter.
If it supports air quality, it should have an endpoint with deviceTypeId 0x005B. From reading the code, it looks like air quality is determined dynamically, but not clear if that will happen when there is an explicit fingerprint match.
Just an upadate on this original post. I happened to check this morning and the firmware on my two SwitchBot Air Purifiers is now V2.5. So I removed them from SmartThings and re-added them over Matter.
They now come up without error using the same driver. The sections for the filters are no longer there, but I can set the fan mode and fan speed. I can also get a reading of air quality once the unit is running.
Either SwitchBot or SmartThings (or both) fixed this original issue.
SwitchBot Air Purifier now works properly with SmartThings.
@rmjb thanks for the update & I just ordered one. Can you tell me if I still need to download the app to update firmware or will the work with smartthings out of the box.
@Automated_House I have been trying to setup the switchbot air purifier with smartthings but i am only getting the on off button, nothing else in the app. I linked the accounts plus did the firmware update but im stuck
Hi, you will still need the app to get the Matter code for the device.
The app is also needed to do firmware updates and the app has more features for the device than is exposed via matter, such as the filter life, air quality sensor (when running), light configuration options, etc.
All in all, you can use the Matter integration for your automations (turn of the air purifier with your Good Night routine, or when an external air quality sensor detects particulate), but you still need the app for overall management. From what I’ve seen, that seems to be a common case for Matter over Wi-Fi devices.
@rmjb thanks for responding. So it took me about ab hour to get it working & according to the instructions & google it was the cloud setup that I had until maybe after the 5th tike of deleting & resetting did it setup as matter. What a royal PITA lol but at least its done. I do have the app setup & im just wondering maybe switchbot will add more controls via matter & especially the filter status. Thank you & also merry Christmas.
I don’t have any routines with it, but I just checked and for Control devices on the air purifier I can set the “Air purifier fan mode” which has the following options: Auto, Low, Medium, High, Off.
