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November 6, 2025 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 7 Comments

Review of SONOFF’s latest Matter Smart Switches – Basic Gen5 and Tx Gen2

Today, we’re about to review not one, but two new Matter devices: the SONOFF Basic Gen5 Smart Switch and the SONOFF Tx Gen2 Smart Wall Switch. Both are upgraded versions of their previous models, now adding support for the Matter protocol (over Wi-Fi). The Basic Gen5 is the fifth generation of the popular Basic series, known for being affordable and widely used in the market. It’s a Wi-Fi smart switch that can control all kinds of devices, such as lights or small electrical devices. Basically, anything within its 10A limit. What’s new compared to the previous BasicR4 is the addition of Matter and near-field control via Bluetooth. As for the Tx Gen2 (T6), it’s an upgraded version of the older T2/T3 lineup. Besides adding Matter, it also brings a few new features, like adjustable backlight brightness and the Detach Relay mode. Both models support voice control via Apple Siri, Google […]

October 9, 2025October 9, 2025 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - No Comments

Weffort Outdoor Smart Shade Review with Home Assistant over Matter/Thread

We’re going to do a quick review of smart outdoor motorised shades from Weffort — another brand that makes smart shades compatible with popular Smart Home platforms, including Home Assistant, SmartThings, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, and Amazon Alexa. The cool thing about Weffort’s shades is that everything’s fully customisable and made-to-order — from the fabric and motors to casing styles, size, and the Smart Home platform you want to use with. With various options, it might sound complicated at first (usually people just let a pro handle it), but it’s actually way easier than you think. Plus, the shades are lightweight, so you can totally install them by yourself. Custom-made shades Before we got the test unit from Weffort, they let us locate a good spot for installation and testing so that we could take measurements following the guide on their website, which also has tips on choosing materials, installation, measurements, […]

May 15, 2025May 15, 2025 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - No Comments

SmartWings Smart Shade Review – An outdoor, solar-powered Matter shade tested with Apple HomeKit and Home Assistant

Recently, we received a custom-made-to-order smart shade from SmartWings for review. We never heard about SmartWings before, but the company claims to have been in the smart blind/shade and home automation industry for over 15 years. Their standout feature is the high degree of customisation they offer—whether it’s the type of shade, custom size up to almost 3 meters in width and height, various fabric styles, and compatibility with major Smart Home platforms like Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit, Samsung SmartThings, Home Assistant, and Hubitat. SmartWings asked us to select a location in the house where we wanted to review the smart shade. We wanted to review a solar-powered outdoor shade, so we selected a windowed door with direct sunlight. We carefully measured the dimensions following the instructions on the company’s website to understand the process. We had to select the shade type, privacy level of the fabric (openness), […]

May 24, 2024 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 11 Comments

SONOFF SwitchMan M5 Matter Review – A Matter Smart Wall Switch tested with eWelink, Apple Home, and Home Assistant

Review SONOFF SwitchMan Smart Wall Switch M5 Matter

We received the latest Smart Wall Switch from SONOFF, called the SwitchMan Smart Wall Switch-M5 Matter, which we will refer to in short as M5 Matter. This model supports Matter (over WiFi) and is very similar to its predecessor, the SwitchMan Smart Wall Switch-M5, with the addition of Matter. The M5 Matter provides an alternative option for easy integration with other Smart Home platforms that support Matter. This device is the second one from SONOFF to support Matter, we already reviewed the first Matter device, the SONOFF MiniR4M at the end of last year. Matter, developed by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), is supported by major companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, LG, and Samsung, as well as other smaller companies. It could be a boon for Smart Home enthusiasts seeking a universal communication standard between devices, offering more choices, less complexity, and potentially lower costs. Let’s take a closer […]

October 3, 2023October 3, 2023 by Paisit Wongsongsarn - 20 Comments

Review of the first Matter device by SONOFF – MINI Extreme Wi-Fi Smart Switch (MINIR4M)

We have just received the first Matter product from SONOFF for review, which is the Mini Extreme Switch (MINIR4M) model. Its external appearance closely resembles the Mini Extreme Switch Wifi (MINIR4) which we reviewed previously. They have different colors to distinguish between WiFi (Orange) and Matter (Green). In this review, we have experimented with various Smart Home platforms that support Matter, such as Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and even their own eWeLink app. Let’s see how their operations and features differ to some extent. Quick intro for Matter. We have heard Matter/Thread together in the news. Matter is a control protocol, while Thread is a communication protocol. Both protocols can work together, or separately. Matter can operate on the top of various communication protocols, including WiFi, Ethernet, BLE, or Thread, with subtle differences such as energy efficiency, network, and resiliency. What’s crucial to note is that Matter acts […]

August 7, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

DietPi News – v8.20 released, NanoPi Neo Air handheld Linux terminal

The latest DietPi v8.20 release of the lightweight Debian-based Linux distribution for SBCs and server systems was outed on July 29, 2023, and on a separate note, a DIY handheld Linux terminal based on the NanoPi Neo Air SBC and running DietPi has been found on the interwebs. DietPi v8.20 release The project team released the new DietPi v8.20 on July 29th, 2023 with the following highlights: Homebridge: New software package bringing Apple Homekit support Kernel updates for Pine64 Quartz64 – Linux 6.4.7 and enabled support for the NFS kernel server FriendlyELEC NanoPi R5S/R5C/R6S series – Linux 5.10.160 StarFive VisionFive 2 RISC-V SBC – Linux 5.15.123 WiFi Hotspot: Enhanced DHCP default settings Fixes and updates for DietPi-LogClear, DietPi-Dashboard, DietPi-LetsEncrypt, PaperMC, vaultwarden, etc… The full changelog can be found on the DietPi website and the source code is hosted on GitHub. NanoPi Neo Air handheld Linux terminal running DietPi While it’s […]

November 4, 2020November 4, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Telink TLSR9 Wireless Audio & IoT RISC-V SoC integrates RISC-V DSP/SIMD P-extension

At the end of last month, there was a lot of buzz about Bouffalo BL602, one of the first RISC-V SoC with built-in wireless connectivity, namely WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE. We should expect more and more of those types of solutions, and Telink & Andes jointly introduced TLSR9-series of wireless audio chips for hearables, wearables, and other high-performance IoT applications. The chips are powered by an Andes D25F RISC-V 5-stage core that happens to be the first core to integrate RISC-V DSP/SIMD P-extension and offer Bluetooth 5.2, Zigbee 3.0, HomeKit, 6LoWPAN, Thread, and/or 2.4 GHz proprietary protocol. The press release focuses on the Andes core, but an article in Chinese allows use to find more about Telink TLSR9 family’s key features: CPU – Andes D25F 32-bit RISC-V 5-stage core @ up to 96 MHz (2.59 DMIPS/MHz and 3.54 CoreMark/MHz) with RISC-V DSP/SIMD P-extension Optional NNU – AI engine […]

February 9, 2020December 15, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Yeelight Smart LED Bulb 1S (Color) Review with Android App and Google (Local) Home

Yeelight Smart LED Bulb Google Local Home

Last summer, Google released the Local Home SDK developer preview which allows developers to run actions and use resources on the local device rather than in the Cloud for lower latency. One company that updated its devices is Yeelight whose WiFi smart lights have now been enhanced with the Google Local Home SDK helping deliver a latency of less than 0.3 seconds, so you don’t need to wait after your voice command has been processed by Google Assistant. The company contacted me to test the new feature and had GearBest sent a sample of Yeelight Smart LED Bulb 1S (Color) for review. I have never tested Yeelight devices so I’ll start with an unboxing, testing with the Android app, before trying it out with Google Home and Google Assistant. Unboxing of Yeelight Smart LED Bulb 1S (Color) The package has some useful information about the light bulb including some specifications […]