Connecting IKEA repeater to hubitat

[sagi.bracha]

Hi all,

Sorry if this topic is repeated i just cant really found anything to answer my question .

I have a few Xiaomi sensors around my home and since a few of the far away sensors sometimes loosing connection i decided to buy IKEA repeater.
I then only connected it to the power outlet (couldn't find any pairing button).

After i unplug the hubitat hub for a few hours and also a few days pass i checked the Zigbee route table and it looks like the repeater is not part of my mesh .
Do i need to do anything so the IKEA repeater will connect to the hubitat and to the xiaomi sensors ?
Do i need to discover the IKEA repeater device in the hubitat "Discover Devices"?

Thx in advanced to all the helpers

[lairdknox]

Yes, you need to pair the repeater to your hub. I forget the exact steps but you might have to reset it first. Notice the small hole next to the USB outlet. You can stick a small pin in there to activate the button.

EDIT: It looks like you have to hold the button in for five or six seconds to get it to pair.

[sagi.bracha]

You are correct i missed that hole.
Do i need to setup anything else after i paired the repeater with the hub ?

[greglsh]

@sagi.bracha

I have 3 of those repeaters and they work well ,as I have about 12 Xiaomi devices. What I did was pair the first one closest to the hub, wait about 10min, then pair then next one and then the next one 10min later working my outwards from the hub. Once they paired just leave them and let the mesh sort itself out.

[sagi.bracha]

Thanks so much.
i currently have only 1 repeater but if it will work well i might add another one

[cuirbear]

Should the repeater populate the Link and Route tables?
Mine does not show any status

[aaiyar]

@cuirbear

Mine does not show any status

Keep a log window open when you click either one of those buttons.

[cuirbear]

Thanks! That worked great.
Quick question: should the repeater be near the Hub, or nearer to the farther away zigbee devices?

[aaiyar]

@cuirbear

nearer to the farther away zigbee devices?

Somewhere half-way between the hub and the farthest away devices.

[cuirbear]

So, I moved the repeater, and now get this in the logs:

Route and Link info.
Does this indicate that it isnt connected?
Do I need to re-join after moving the device?

[zsolt.toth.39]

Yes. They has stopped working. Tried to re pair them again but the hub doesnt recognise them (all 4). No driver associated with them.

[kkossev]

@cuirbear

So, I moved the repeater, and now get this in the logs:

......

Route and Link info.
Does this indicate that it isnt connected?
Do I need to re-join after moving the device?

You can use the "Zigbee - Generic Repeater (w/ healthStatus)" driver to be sure that your IKEA signal repeater is paired to HE Zigbee network and is operational.

[Project] Device Health Status [Tuya, Aqara, Ikea, Sonoff, Lidl and others]

The Zigbee Repeaters online/offline status was a bit difficult to track. These devices typically don't need a driver - they operate when simply paired to HE as a 'device'. The HE inbuilt driver "Ikea TRADFRI Signal Repeater" does not have any polling implemented and does not send any events to the hub, thus the 'Last Activity' and the HE 'Status' properties are not handled properly and HE reported the repeater as 'INACTIVE'. This is the first of the series of the popular Markus's drivers where …

Note, that this driver will not show which device uses it as a repeater and what is the link quality, but only the repeater's online/offline status to HE hub.

[aahanmohan]

Old post but in case someone like me comes looking these posts by @dandanache really helped me with these (and many other) devices.

This post deals has drivers for a LOT of Ikea devices including the E1746 Zigbee repeaters: [RELEASE] IKEA Zigbee drivers

And this one explains how to update most of these devices natively using the Hubitat hub: [GUIDE] IKEA Firmware Updates

All thanks to @dandanache and the good people at Ikea and HE!