eWeLink CUBE OS enables all SONOFF WiFi and Zigbee devices to connect to Matter

All SONOFF WiFi and Zigbee home automation devices can now work with the Matter protocol. This can be done in two ways:

• Software path (free of charge)  – Use eWelink CUBE OS on a Raspberry Pi or other host computer to bridge SONOFF WiFi & Zigbee devices to Matter.
• Hardware path — Install a certified Matter gateway such as SONOFF iHost, ZBBridge-U, or NSPanel Pro, and pair your WiFi/Zigbee devices to use them with Matter.

The main benefit is that you no longer need to use the eWelink app, and any SONOFF devices can now work with Matter-compatible platforms, such as Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, Amazon Alexa, and Home Assistant.

I’ll focus on the software solution in this post. Most users will likely install eWelink CUBE OS on a Raspberry Pi 4/5 connected to a supported USB Zigbee dongle if they have Zigbee devices. SONOFF lists their own ZBDongle-MAX, ZBDongle-PMG24, SONOFF ZBDongle-LMG21, ZBDongle-E, and SONOFF ZBDongle-P adapters, but others are also supported.

Everything is documented on the Cube OS website with installation instructions for the Raspberry Pi, virtual machines (VirtualBox, VMware, Hyper-V, and Proxmox), and NAS devices from Synology and UGREEN. Once the installation is complete, you can access the web dashboard (http://cube.local/) using your favorite web browser.

From there, you can click on Docker and select eWelink Smart Home to automatically add eWelink-supported SONOFF WiFi devices after authorization. The procedure is similar for Zigbee devices, and it’s not limited to SONOFF devices since Zigbee2CUBE supports a long list of vendors and over several hundred Zigbee devices.

Further checking out the documentation shows Matter devices are supported (Beta), as well as cameras with RTSP and ONVIF,  as well as eWelink sub-devices such as the SwitchMan R5 controller and the S-MATE 2 Smart remote control.

eWeLink says CUBE OS is a “free, open, self-hosted local software system designed to upgrade the smart devices already in your home”. We mainly covered the built-in Matter Bridge in this post, but it offers other features for automation, scenes, dashboard creation, and more. While it’s indeed free as in beer and self-hosted, it does not look to be open-source, as the GitHub repository does not offer any source code, only binaries and documentation.

Via SONOFF on X.

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