Hardware Glossary
The terms this site uses, defined once, in plain English. Each definition links to the page where the concept actually does something — a protocol hub, a guide, or the planner.
Radio protocols
- Matter
- An application-layer smart home standard that lets one device work with several platforms at once. Matter runs over Wi-Fi, Ethernet or Thread — "Matter over Thread" and "Matter over Wi-Fi" name the transport underneath. See Matter devices in the index →
- Thread
- A low-power IPv6 mesh radio network. Thread devices talk to each other directly, and mains-powered ones route traffic for battery ones. Thread is only the network layer — Matter usually runs on top of it — and reaching it from your LAN requires a border router. See Thread devices in the index →
- Zigbee
- A mesh radio protocol older and cheaper than Thread, with a very large device ecosystem. Zigbee devices need a coordinator (a USB stick or hub radio) attached to your platform; they do not use IP addresses. See Zigbee devices in the index →
- Z-Wave
- A licensed sub-GHz mesh protocol. The lower frequency penetrates walls better than 2.4 GHz and avoids Wi-Fi interference, in exchange for lower bandwidth and a smaller device pool. Like Zigbee, it needs a controller radio. See Z-Wave devices in the index →
- Border router
- The device that joins a Thread mesh to your normal IP network — for example a HomePod, an Apple TV, or a SkyConnect stick running OpenThread. Without one, a Thread device is unreachable no matter how compatible it is. See guide: do you need a border router? →
- Bridge (hub)
- A vendor box that translates between a proprietary device radio and your platform. "Bridge Needed" on a device page means the platform never talks to the device directly — the bridge is a hard requirement, and often a cloud dependency. See guide: what the verdicts mean →
Wired buses
- I²C
- A two-wire bus (SDA data, SCL clock) that lets many sensors share the same two pins on a host board. Every part on the bus needs a unique 7-bit address, which is where address conflicts come from. See I²C parts in the index →
- I²C address strapping
- Changing a part's I²C address by wiring an address pin (often marked A0–A2, ADDR or SDO) high or low. Parts with no such pin are fixed at one address; two fixed parts on the same address cannot share a bus without a multiplexer. See guide: resolving I²C address conflicts →
- SPI
- A four-wire bus faster than I²C. Clock and data lines are shared, but each device needs its own chip-select pin, so every extra SPI part costs a GPIO. See SPI parts in the index →
- UART
- A point-to-point serial link (TX and RX). Unlike a bus, each UART device needs its own port on the host, and microcontrollers have only one or two hardware UARTs to give. See UART devices in the index →
- GPIO logic voltage
- The voltage a device's data pins expect — typically 3.3 V on modern microcontrollers, 5 V on older parts. Feeding a 5 V signal into a 3.3 V-only pin can damage the host, which is why device pages state it where a source documents it.
Platforms & firmware
- Home Assistant
- An open-source home automation platform that runs locally. Most pairings in this index are documented against it, in one of its integration flavours: Matter, Zigbee (ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT), Z-Wave JS, or ESPHome. See browse platforms →
- ESPHome
- Firmware you configure in YAML and flash to ESP32/ESP8266 boards, turning wired sensors into Home Assistant entities. The entities a board exposes are whatever its YAML declares — nothing is discovered automatically. See browse platforms →
- Entity
- The unit a platform exposes after pairing: a temperature reading, a contact state, a switch. A device page's "primary entities" lists what the documented pairing surfaces once it is set up.
- Pairing / commissioning
- The process of introducing a device to a platform — scanning a QR code for Matter, opening a join window for Zigbee, an inclusion mode for Z-Wave. Factory resetting first is the step that fixes most failed pairings.
This site's vocabulary
- Verdict
- The three-value answer every device page leads with: Natively Supported (the platform speaks to it directly), Compatible (Manual Config Required) (it works after a configuration step), or Bridge Needed (a vendor hub must sit in between). See guide: what the verdicts mean →
- Setup complexity
- A four-step scale — Plug-and-Play, Intermediate, Advanced, Advanced YAML — describing how much work sits between unboxing and working entities. It rates the documented pairing, not the device in general.
- Mains voltage
- A device flagged ⚡ connects directly to 110–240 V AC. Wiring it is electrical work: in most jurisdictions there are rules about who may do it, and getting it wrong is a fire and shock hazard.
- White label
- A device manufactured by one company and sold under another's brand. Flagged because the same hardware often appears under several names, with identical compatibility behaviour.