IKEA Symfonisk Sound Remote Gen 2 (E2123) — buttons unresponsive, power source shows “unknown”

Hi, I’ve been using the Dan Danache IKEA Symfonisk Sound Remote Gen2 (E2123) driver successfully for quite a while on a Hubitat C-8 Pro with multiple remotes, but recently a few of the remotes have stopped working entirely for reasons I can't suss out. Currently running platform 2.5.0.143.

Here are the major symptoms I've noticed:

• All buttons unresponsive

• Power source shows “unknown”

• Re-pairing succeeds but doesn’t resolve the issue

• If I hit Configure and then Refresh immediately after pairing while the device is awake, power source briefly shows “battery” but then reverts to “unknown” after appx. 3 seconds

• Last RX does not update when buttons are pressed — only when the hub polls the device

Has anyone seen anything like this recently? Could a platform update have affected how button events are received from sleepy end devices? Any ideas what might be going on, and how to rectify it?

Occurs to me that I should have tagged the great @dandanache in my original post, as the author of the Symfonisk zigbee driver and many others.

These are symptoms of a failed pairing that happens when the remote is not paired directly to the hub, but via a nearby repeater.

If this is the cause, the fix is simple: Pair the remote 5cm near the hub; or use the Advanced Zigbee Pairing feature of the Zigbee Map app.

Thanks for this, Dan. Your first suggested solution -- pairing 5cm from the hub -- I tried multiple times before posting. I wasn't previously aware of the Advanced Zigbee Pairing feature in the Zigbee Map app, so have now tried that multiple times today. It failed completely when I tried to use it for re-pairing the device, timing out without finding the remote as an existing device or otherwise.

I then removed the remote from my zigbee network and hub and tried to use Zigbee Map to pair it as a new device, at which point it failed in a more interesting way; it got as far as displaying "Found a Zigbee device, initializing..." but then timed out before successfully adding the device. I managed to get that far maybe half-a-dozen times, but not farther. It's confounding. I'd welcome any additional ideas.

  • Change the batteries.
  • Double Luck voodoo - if you have a C-8.
  • Shutdown hub, pull the power cord for 5 minutes, re-pair.

Thanks Dan. I'd previously tried changing the batteries (although I did it again) and DLV on my C-8 Pro. I tried the full shutdown, power cord for 5 mins, then repair, and at first thought it was successful, as the device fully re-paired, then initially reported battery and other statuses correctly. But the buttons were still unresponsive, and the battery report quickly reverted to "unknown."

I then tried DLV again, but substituting pairing using Zigbee Map 3.0.4 Hub Only pairing for pairing while avoiding zigbee 3.0 repeaters. Same result, initial appearance of success but then reversion to unknown.

I have quite a few zigbee devices in my network, and it occurred to me that maybe I'm pressing up against some limit of the overall number of zigbee devices that can be connected directly to the C-8 pro, as opposed to through a repeater. So I also tried changing my zigbee antenna power level from 8 to 4, to try to limit which zigbee devices were connecting directly to the hub, and then tried the various other approaches again, with the lower power level. Pretty much the same result, although the re-pairing to the network did seem to go more smoothly at the lower power level. Still, power source quickly switched to unknown, buttons unresponsive.

Am I right to suspect that there's some sort of limit on the number of directly connected devices? And, if so, is there a way to tell exactly which devices are connected directly to the Hubitat? I've tried the zigbee neighbors map but it's difficult to tell exactly how many and which are connected directly. And, further to that, is there a way to force a device that is currently directly connected to connect instead through a repeater? That is, essentially to make sure that there's room for the Ikea remote to connect directly?

I appreciate your (and anyone else's) continued thoughts on this conundrum. These remotes have worked very well for a while before this recent problem and, at risk of turning them into a white whale, I'd prefer not to abandon them.

I feel your pain. Things really shouldn’t be this hard :slight_smile:

From what you described, I can think of two scenarios:

  1. Something in the hub’s current Zigbee implementation is causing issues with IKEA battery‑powered devices. The fact that they need to be paired right next to the hub is a Hubitat quirk, not an IKEA one; they pair just fine at a distance on Home Assistant.

    Test with another IKEA remote or sensor (if you have one) to confirm whether this affects more IKEA battery-powered devices, or just this remote. Share your hub model (C‑8 or C‑8 Pro) and firmware version so other folks can test if this is reproducible or is something unique to your environment.

  2. It’s also possible this particular remote has simply failed :skull_and_crossbones: These things do die from time to time.

If you can, posting a Zigbee Map screenshot might reveal some odd routing or neighbor‑table weirdness.

Ha, thanks Dan. It really shouldn't be. Interesting that this is a Hubitat quirk -- I've been silently cursing the wrong party. In response to your two scenarios:

  1. I have a Hubitat C-8 Pro, firmware version 2.5.0.143. I have four of these Symfonisk remotes, with three having recently failed in this identical way. The fourth one seems fine so far, but I have been giving it light duty since this started with the others. I also have some Ikea Vallhorn motion sensors and some Badring moisture sensors. I haven't noticed problems with any of those. I'd welcome hearing from anyone else who's experiencing anything like this.

  2. My first thought was that it might just be the one particular remote, until the other two went down in the exact same way. So I'm leaning against this at the moment.

I'm not near my hubitat at the moment but will look to see if I can post a Zigbee Map screenshot later, when I am. Are you aware of a way to see the neighbor table displayed as a table, instead of the map visualization? I would like to try to figure out exactly which zigbee devices are connected directly to my hub.