I suggest that we first align the concepts of Matter bridge and Matter hub.
Matter bridge - Sync zigbee devices and LAN devices that ihost can control to other matter networks, like apple home app, Alexa, google home, etc. You can use their app to control devices which connect to ihost.
Matter hub - uses ihost as a platform to control matter devices of other brands, ihost is a platform itself, so it doesn’t connect to any platform. If you don’t want to use a PC, you can use the browser of your mobile phone to access the cast for controling devices.
Of course, if you want to synchronize the device on ihost to other cloud platforms, it is very easy, because ihost itself has an open API , you can synchronize the data in ihost to any platform - but you need to develop the corresponding addon yourself. For example, Yeelight can develop an addon that syncs devices in ihost to yeelight’s cloud platform, so you can control devices in ihost from the yeelight app.
To be honest, if you are looking for a zigbee gateway that can connect to the cloud platform and operate with an app, then ihost does not fit your needs.
It is positioned as a localized server that connects and manages local zigbee devices and bridges them to the Matter network, allowing users to control these devices using their favorite apps - like the apple home app, Alexa app, google home app, Smartthing app, etc.
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If you are looking for a matter gateway that can connect various matter devices on your LAN to the cloud platform and operate with an app, then NSPanel Pro now supports this - no additional iHost required.
Sorry for the bad experience, NSPanel Pro was designed to work with eWeLink cloud and apps, not specifically for local control. iHost, on the other hand, is designed for local control from the start and does not consider interworking with eWeLink cloud devices. This is the root cause of the limitations of many scenarios when they work together. We will continue to upgrade iHost and NSPanel Pro in the future to make them work better together on the LAN.
With 1.13.00 it’s possible to connect eWeLink_Remote sub-device (like R5) to other devices at the same time. For example, you may have R5 connected to iHost and to NSPanel Pro. Consequently, you can create scenes assigned to R5 in both iHost and the eWeLink app. Normally, adding a sub-device to another device terminates the assignment to the original device. Is this a bug or is it intentional? If it is intentional, what purpose does it serve? Generally, this situation makes no sense.
Yes I am confused! In the description of the latest ihost and Paral-Sync update, it says that it should work!
However, after the update there is still no support for SNZB-02P and TRVZB!
I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong!!!
I still have the issue of device names being lost in Google Home app after iHost reboot. I have advised this to Daniel under my original ticket 197762 and uploaded a new system log under ticket 198387 as I was unable to attach it to the email chain.
I would be interested to know if others are still experience this issue as well.
Yes, I agree with you regarding the mapping of Zigbee devices.
But you should have access to all Zigbee devices connected to iHost via NSPanel Pro!
I access without problems with iHost SNZB-01P, ZBMini L1, ZBMini L2, SNZB-04 devices connected to NSPranel Pro!
From the very beginning, i.e. from ihost version 1.11.0, it was possible to connect R5 to ihost and nspanel pro at the same time.
On ihost I had a scene set for WiFi devices and in nspanel pro for the zigbee device added to nspanel pro. The only condition is that the R5 scenes should not be duplicated.
This is not from the very beginning, I assure you. It’s from v. 1.11.x then, and this is not that long ago
Thanks for correcting me, anyway. I got focused on Matter connectivity and accidentaly discovered this possibility today. The question remains - is it a bug or was it introduced in purpose? As you see yourself - it may be confusing.
