Blog on using Matter.js to control the brightness of a light (Part 2 of a previous blog)

[potto216]

Hi All, I wrote a second blog on using Matter.js focusing on how to control the brightness of a light https://medium.com/@potto_94870/matter-js-adding-a-brightness-control-to-a-light-456513ed8ca0. The article should be accessible by anyone without a Medium account. I appreciate suggestions and corrections.

[Apollon77]

Cool,

some notes:

• When you "simplify" you use "npm init @matter" but without any example specified? especially because you want todo a light you could select the light example or such?
• Also: "npm init" automatically builds anything, so the build command is only needed if you change something.
• In your code example when you convert to DimmableLightDevice ... some comments still say "OnOffLight" :-)
• "features like brightness can easily be added in nonstandard devices by including the Level Control cluster in an endpoint." is indeed difficult because it is formally undefined what happens if extra clusters exist on a device type. So likely most controllers and their UIs would simply ignore them and so the feature is "only half added" :-)
• when showing the code on root endpoint behaviors maybe add a sentence that most of the added Behaviors are "official clusters", but some (like Index, Parts" are matter.js-internal management behaviors that contain more basic logic for a "server node" and manage internal data structures

[Apollon77]

For "Multiple" things but "fixed" on a device you normally build a so called "Composed Device".
That means you have one ServerNode and simply add different Endpoints to it (e.g. I have a Meross PlugIn Strip and this has simply 5x OnOffPlugInDevice there. but you could also build a multi sensor device with a TemperatureSensorDevice and a HumiditySensorDevice.
If you add multiple devices of the same type there (e.g. the 5x PlugIn example above) you are required to use "tagList" per endpoint to differentiate them. (see https://github.com/project-chip/matter.js/blob/main/chip-testing/src/AllClustersTestInstance.ts#L697-L704)

An Aggregator you usually use when you have "Non Matter devices" that you want to bring into the matter world where also the number of devices can differentiate and such ... thats an other use case

[Apollon77]

just tell when blog is final then I can plan posting on linked In again

[potto216]

Besides the npm init/build and code comment changes I made the following edits to https://medium.com/@potto_94870/matter-js-adding-a-brightness-control-to-a-light-456513ed8ca0

Changed:
"Figure 4 also illustrates the beauty of Matter's modular design - features like brightness can easily be added in nonstandard devices by including the Level Control cluster in an endpoint."
to
"Figure 4 also illustrates the beauty of Matter's modular design - features like brightness are added in devices defined in the Matter Device Library Specification by including the Level Control cluster in an endpoint."

Changed:
"These clusters define the administrative and diagnostic capabilities of the node, which are essential for device management such as commissioning. "
to
"These clusters define the administrative and diagnostic capabilities of the node, which are essential for device management such as commissioning. Most of the added Behaviors in the above code are "official clusters", but some like Index and Parts are matter.js-internal management behaviors that contain more basic logic for a "server node" and manage internal data structures."

Changed:
"And once your device works with Matter it works with any Matter compatible app such as the Google Home app, Amazon's Alexa app, or Apple's Home app, just to name a few."
to
"And once your device works with Matter it works with any Matter compatible app such as the Google Home app, Amazon's Alexa app, or Apple's Home app, just to name a few. But this compatibility requires the device to be defined in the Matter Device Library Specification. What if it isn't? What if the device has extra sensors or switches? One answer to this is the use of Composed Devices which will be the subject of another article."

Let me know of other change suggestions.

[Apollon77]

Awesome!

[Apollon77]

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ifischer_matterjs-adding-a-brightness-control-to-activity-7266721859436527616-HXml?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop