SONOFF MINI Extreme (MINIR4M) is the first Matter-certified home automation device from the company and appears to be based on the same hardware design as the SONOFF MINI Extreme (MINIR4) ESP32 WiFi smart switch that we reviewed last March and is still working fine in my bedroom.
Support for the Matter protocol means better interoperability with other brands of Matter-certified products, so you should be able to use the MINIR4M wireless switch with a Samsung Matter-certified Smart Home gateway instead, as well as Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and other apps besides the eWelink mobile app. The main visual difference I see between the MINIR4 and MINIR4M is the color with Orange referring to WiFi support and Green to Matter support.
SONOFF MINI Extreme (MINIR4M) specifications:
- MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32 dual-core wireless microcontroller
- Connectivity
- 2.4 GHz WiFi 4
- Bluetooth LE used for pairing
- Matter certification
- Input – 100-240V ~ 50/60Hz 10A Max
- Output – 100-240V ~ 50/60Hz 10A Max (resistive load)
- Dimensions – 39.5 x 33 x 16.8mm
- Casing material – PC V0
- TÜV, CE, and FCC certifications (The ID for the MINIR4 was 2APN5MINIR4)
Besides Matter support, the latest MINIR4M WiFi switch has the same key features as the MINIR4 including support for “detach relay” mode in which the states of external switches and relay are separated, so operating the external switch button won’t affect the relay state and eWeLink-Remote Control mode where the MINIR4M acts as a local gateway for wall switches such as the R5 and S-MATE model, so a single light bulb can be controlled by multiple switches. The company also says it works with Google Home and Amazon Alexa voice assistant, as well as Home Assistant, eWelink Web, and IFTTT with the last two only available in the paid version (Advanced Plan) of the eWelink app.
While Matter would allow you to use a single app to control devices from multiple brands, it’s likely that some brand-specific features like the one mentioned above would not be accessible from a competing app (TBC). So unless I’m mistaken, while Matter is great for interoperability, you may lose some of the features of a specific device if you stick to a single app. One question that remains is whether the MINIR4 will get a Matter firmware update, or at least whether it’s possible to install MINIR4M Matter firmware on the MINIR4. We will be reviewing the new MINIR4M soon, so we should be able to get more details and see how well it works with third-party Smart Home hubs.
As mentioned in the introduction, I’ve been using the SONOFF MINIR4 wireless switch for several months and I’m very happy about it. I’m a bit less satisfied with the SONOFF R5 scene controller which I use to turn on and off the MINIR4 (and my bedroom ceiling light), as the magnets are not powerful enough and it drops easily. As a result of several falls, two of the on/off switches are broken. It’s still working but not exactly aesthetically pleasing.
The new Matter-enabled SONOFF Mini Extreme (MINIR4M) wireless switch is now up for pre-order for $12.90, which compares to $9.90 for the MINIR4 model, so either Matter requires some more flash, it’s more expensive because of Matter certification, or a combination of the two. You can use coupon code CNXSOFTSONOFF to get 10% off any order on the ITEAD shop.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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> While Matter would allow you to use a single app to control devices from multiple brands, it’s likely that some brand-specific features like the one mentioned above would not be accessible from a competing app (TBC).
And this is the death nail already before matter even of.
Same mistake ZigBee did in the past which btw was brought to us by the same alliance responsible for (doesn’t) matter.
I work with Matter. Every app can get to all of the features on the devices. The question is, does the competing app contain the code needed to access that feature?
It is not necessary for all competing apps to support all device features. For example you might need to use the Sonoff app to put this device into ‘detach relay’ mode. But once it is in that mode the device will remember that state. Now when the competing apps access the device it will be in the remembered state.
If Samsung or whatever wanted to add the UI code to set this state, nothing is stopping them other than it is a lot of effort for no return. Much simpler to use the Sonoff app to set it and then have the device remember the state.
You’re correct, I have used the ewelink app to put the minir4m into detached mode, however via matter only the relay is exposed home assistant so I cannot detect switch events, making the the detached mode kind of useless. Is it likely that this can be solved in the future with a firmware update or is this a Matter limitation?
Matter supports the events, the app you are using is missing the code to see them. That also assumes the device included the code to send the events.
I got an answer about flashing the Matter firmware to MINIR4:
Hm. After this answer I suspect we lost any opensource in Matter hardware.
Open source with Matter is not clear cut. One one hand Matter is extremely secure with public key encryption used everywhere. The devices use secure boot. Apple has put top security devs on designing everything to be totally locked down. Because of this you can’t turn a non-Matter MINIR4M into a Matter one.
This heavy lockdown is to stop hackers from accessing your IOT devices. Matter is likely to add camera support next year and those cameras need to be locked down. (every Matter device uses the same encryption scheme).
But… you can make you own devices. The code is here: https://github.com/espressif/esp-matter
The encryption lock down stops you from making devices and distributing them. But you can still make one-off devices yourself. (and that’s how you do Matter development, you make these one-off devices).
If you want to distribute pre-built devices it is going to cost you at least $2K/yr in licensing fees plus a certification fee.
> One one hand Matter is extremely secure
At start of wi-fi WEP released – which means “Wired Equivalent Privacy”, so strong as wires, ha ha. We will see how it go.
My fear is what as usual – company procude some device, sec flaw found later on, but company just forgot about device. And as user flash locked, we have vulnerable devices everywhere…
Thanks for your insights about Matter. At least we have theoretical possibility to make opensource devices with self compiled firmware (like ESPhome, for example).
All of the Matter devices are running the same code. And all of the licensed ones support OTA updates. Also — Matter devices are not on the Internet, they are LAN only. No Internet makes them much harder to hack.
To access them from the Internet you have to use a device like a Google Hub, iPod, Alexa. And then it is Google/Apple/Amazon providing the Internet access.
Home Assistant has Matter support, but theirs is not as secure. Home Assistant is not running a native Matter network, instead it accesses Matter like Google/Apple/Amazon do. And then it takes those Matter command and uses non-Matter code to work with them.
I don’t think it is possible to recover ESP devices which have secure boot enabled. When you turn on secure boot you burn fuses in the device to form a key. That key is used to decode the boot. Once that is done you can’t update the device flash without knowing the key, and Sonoff is not going to tell you that key. If they are buying pre-flashed modules they don’t even know the key, Espressif has it.
Secure boot has to work that way, the whole point of it is to prevent someone from reflashing the device without your knowledge. Consider that if you are able to do it, then others could also do it.
it is mentioned that the minir4m has the same features as minir4 like detach relay and remote control gateway. I can’t seem to add a remote control sub device, the option is not there in the menu so I can’t link the s-mate2 to it. Any ideas?