hrmmm I have to go to IKEA soon as well. I keep checking the website to see if they're in yet but we haven't even gotten the RGB bulbs last I saw...
Were in a IKEA store and hesitated on these outlets the other day. Can now go back and buy a bunch after reading this. Do you know about their motion sensors ? can they be integrated as well?
If you don't have one, could you also pickup one of the E12 or E26 bulbs? Would be nice to know the statistics on them as well. Maybe someone doesn't really want to install an outlet or doesn't have a wall outlet in the needed location. They might potentially be able to use a Trådfri bulb to repeat. Would be nice to know if this is actually working as a repeater too, as has been suggested. Not sure if it was actually mapped before, as opposed to having simply been suggested to be working like my test.
Honestly I'm totally set on smart bulbs with all my Sengled Element Classic bulbs, and they cost $3 less a piece (or even cheaper during flash sales) for nearly identical specs (the main exception being 800lm vs the Trådfri's 1000). Also, looking at reviews of the Trådfri, apparently the lowest dim level is still quite bright, and the only reason I'd be buying more E26/A19 smart bulbs now is to get ones that dim to a really low brightness level.
Sure of course. I meant a buy and return type scenario once the test is completed. IKEA listened to the consumer complaints and is now packaging their bulbs, plugs and sensors in non-hermetically sealed packaging you can just lift open.
The motion sensors don’t pair with the hub, but are designed to pair directly with the light bulbs and the outlet. So you could use them in that way to know when they have activated and thus control other things.
However, if these outlets work reliably as inexpensive Xiaomi repeaters, the Xiaomi Aqara motion sensors are much smaller, faster, nicer looking, cost less, measure ambient light in lux that reports back to the hub ( not the simplistic react/don’t react approach of the IKEA motion sensor), and Xiaomi do pair with Hubitat.
Did you get your hands on one? Any info to share?
I had mine drop and take many devices offline. As soon as I unplugged it, several came back online, but a few had to be re-paired. However, I’m not blaming the plug at this stage, but rather the Trådfri bulb I decided to add back to Hubitat to see if it was helpful in routing. I think I got my answer.
That bulb is closest to the hub, so my hypothesis (with no way to actually map yet) is that the other devices had decided the Trådfri plug was an efficient route, and the Trådfri plug decided its brethren the bulb, was a good route back to the hub. The bulb fumbled the ball and I lost some good players in the process.
So far so good with these outlets. Too soon to know if they're helping, and no Zigbee mapping for me until Canada post delivers my Xbee. No clue when that will be. Don't seem to be hurting. The drop I'm almost certain was due to the Trådfri bulb I foolishly paired directly to the hub. So far, things are stable now that the bulb is back on the Hue bridge.
@veeceeoh, assuming you couldn't get them from your local Ikea ?
Oh, I got one on Sunday, but was too busy to pair it and investigate until today.
On initial pairing it doesn't grab ZigBee end devices like the XBee or Iman Haryadi's custom sensor/router.
So I need to wait for the dust to settle and hope one or more of my Xiaomi devices decide to migrate their connection to it.
1 Like
Thanks. There's always my Xbee when it eventually arrives and I have one of Iman's nice little sensors too.
Fingers crossed for the Trådfri though.
IKEA now has them online for "small parcel shipping" ($9 in the US, so quite a lot if you're just getting one but can still be reasonable if you're combining it with other item as I planned to--and a lot less than than the "large parcel shipping" I noted it went for just a few days ago...and even though this shipping is still quite a bit, even if you are getting one, it's still cheaper with shipping than any other ZigBee outlet I can find!). I already have an XBee but my second one, a XB3-24Z8PT-J, also just shipped from DigiKey after a 3-4 month wait, so I'll have a few new toys to play with soon.
I'll try getting a Xiaomi device (or few) to route through an Ikea plug, see what my XBee says, and note if it seems to stay connected. (How long to people have to wait to see problems, by the way? Just one or two of the hourly-ish checkins? I'll keep an eye on mine for a few days before I say anything, probably, but I'm not sure how people actually figure this out.)
1 Like
The last time I had an issue, it was definitely the outlet, because it went away as soon as I unplugged it. That was after two days. So I think it’s been three or four days and it’s been fine. The previous issue was almost definitely the Trådfri bulb that I connected. So far nothing has dropped with the bulb now removed from the hub, but that’s not unusual, even before I have the outlets (two installed at the moment).
Running blind without anything to map the network. You’re going to know the answers before I do most likely. 
Edit: ok got it working! Great deal. Little tiny hole on the side hides the pair button. Seems to work great.
2 Likes
From what I was able to figure out, you’re technically supposed to connect this with some sort of remote to a tradfri hub.
However holding down that button (with a particularly thin paperclip btw) factory resets it and allows any (?) zigbee hub to find it.
Only hiccup I ran into was I had to wait 5 seconds or so after the reset to look for it, if I had the search running while resetting it nothing was ever found.
1 Like
Reset and wait 6 seconds is normal Trådfri behavior. They even document this.
You can even pair the outlets to the Trådfri bridge without a remote by putting them into pairing mode and holding down the pairing button on their bridge with their app running. You then quit the app and when you restart it shows the outlet under “disconnected devices”. You create a room, move the outlet to it and it’s then controllable from the app. Not remote needed. Unfortunately, for someone I guess, the outlet isn’t supported in HomeKit.
But while it was an interesting experiment, it isn’t really useful, and their bridge normal price is just expensive enough, and the software is so bad, as to not make it at all worth owning vs a Hue bridge if you’re a Hubitat owner. I only care that the Outlets work with Hubitat and seem so far, to be repeating my Xiaomi devices. No drops yet.
I actually only have a single Tradfri outlet (intended for use with a Christmas tree currently.) The extent of the included instructions are a couple paragraphs about pairing with a remote, and otherwise says push a pin into the pinhole for 5 seconds to factory reset.
I don't know if there are more extensive instructions with the hub/bulbs/remotes but the included
instructions for the bare outlet are pretty pitiful.
That said, its a fantastic little device for $15 once you get it paired.
1 Like
Wow I paid $10. I went in person though.
Oh, right. $15 Canadian, so currently $11.35 usd.
So slightly more expensive, but that's life in Canada. Prices tend to get marked up to the next nearest "whole" dollar amount. or sometimes even higher. We do occasionally come out on the better end as the dollar fluctuates, but more often than not we pay a few bucks more (or occasionally, much more.)
3 Likes
We sometimes still do slightly better on Philips Hue pricing. But yes, generally screwed.
Yep, that's all they say with the outlet instructions. The 6 second wait time I've seen in their steering device and dimmer instructions. I've found that many of their devices, if not all exhibit this same behavior.
