ThinkA (zwave to HomeKit hub) now in distribution, hands on reviews coming in

@jelockwood @Automated_House

Early hands on reviews look good on this, and I have to say I really like their UI design as far as exposing parameter settings.

I don’t know if it would be possible to add a smartthings hub as a secondary to this or not, if you could, that would be very cool.

HomekitNews did their usual very detailed review.

Note that not everything is exposed to HomeKit. Some device classes don’t carry over and some individual features are also missing. For example, HomeKit does not yet have a device class for UV sensors, so one of the Fibaro multisensors only exposes some of its capabilities in the Home app. Also, double tap appears to be missing on most buttons, but you do get press and long press.

Anyway, this could also be a good indication of how matter bridges might come into the Home app.

Here’s the previous discussion thread from this forum about this device with a few more details.

ThinkA Release First Zwave to HomeKit Bridge (EU for now, US coming next year)

Yes I monitor HomeKitNews and saw their review.

I personally regard the Thinka hub as expensive but worth it due to quality and uniqueness.

As you mention whether it can be connected zia ZWave or some other method to a Smartthings hub e.g. as a ZWave secondary is the main issue. If Thinka was to add Matter support to their hub this would solve the secondary issue.

Regarding certain classes not being supported by HomeKit this is an egregious failing on Apple’s part being that they are far, far too slow in adding more device types. Frankly Apple are being so bad that I am currently seriously considering abandoning HomeKit despite its easy of use, security and local processing.

I am currently keeping my powder dry and waiting for Matter to be launched. Matter has pretty much all the advantages of HomeKit such as ease of adding devices, security, local processing, and more in that it inherently supports multiple masters meaning that in theory both Smartthings and another system could directly control Matter hubs and devices. Being also that Matter is not exclusive to Apple and is (allegedly) being equally supported by Google and Amazon, if Apple continue their very poor performance it will no longer ‘matter’. (Groan.! :roll_eyes:)

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At present Matter supports even fewer device classes than HomeKit. Presumably both will add more over time.

And smartthings has chosen not to make its hubs a “matter bridge,” meaning smartthings will be able to bring matter devices into a smartthings account, but unlike Philips Hue, Aqara, and a few others who have already announced, you will not be able to see the smartthings hub in a different matter compliant app like Apple Home. It’s going to be a one-way integration only according to Samsung‘s announcements so far. :disappointed_relieved:

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