Reward Offered: Ikea Tradfri Wireless Dimmer Button compatibility

@seanburrage

No. Zigbee is the same frequency the world over. So you’re good!

1 Like

My lol was partly it's been discussed everywhere and I too had 5 Ikea remotes via deconz and HA but changed them to Hue Dimmers, which work well. Can be had on amazon for £12 from time to time.

I'd second @Ranchitat with the Opple buttons if you need more than just a dimmer.
Singles day is coming up in a few days so should be able to get a decent deal.

My final comment here - the ONLY person who would be able to claim the bounty would be Mike. What do you say @mike.maxwell :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin: :grin:

We can always hope though :slight_smile: I have plenty of these aswell used for IKEA blinds and some lights. I hope to be able to only have 1 and only hub in my house.

Finally killed off my ST hub with the new Samsung Remote driver. :smiley: Just Hubitat and Raspberry PI now.

Ok so after realizing/discovering that the IKEA Motion sensors are also destined for the trash I've decided to find alternatives, and I think this option you've provided with the Iris Buttons looks like the best. It's a real shame but will probably be best in the long run. Thanks for your help :slight_smile:

1 Like

I'm in the UK and I've successfully been using Hue dimmers where just for one bulb/group and osram smart+ 4 button switches where there are a few things to control. While all the switches are on hubitat, any bulbs are on hue and it hasn't let me down yet.
I've also got a few ikea blind switches which are just sat in a box hoping one day they might just work.

Yea that's all well and good if you're just using them for controlling a few lights. We were (with Smartthings) using the buttons for all sorts of complicated automations, like we had one above the bed which if you pressed and held would start a "panic" automation, turning on all house lights, closed all blinds, closed the garage doors and gates, and turned on the bedroom Samsung TV to CCTV input.

Would be really nice if this comes to frution. I have a few that came with these smart blinds (Awesome BTW) , it came with a Zigbee repeater too, (helps a LOT!) and now I have a dozen buttons, I check from time to time to see if a driver comes out.

I hate eWaste. good for you putting up some dough to get the ball running.. heres rooting for ya.

Can anyone enlighten me? Do these buttons show up in HomeKit if you join them to an IKEA bridge? Or do they need to be joined to a bulb in the IKEA bridge? I think I tried these a long time ago, but cannot remember the result.

If they do and you're an iOS/HomeKit user, then you could map them back to HE with Homebridge and HomeKit Automations. Yeah, it also requires an Apple hub like an Apple TV 4 or a HomePod Mini, but it's a fast and reliable way to get HomeKit capable input devices back into HE. I do it for Xiaomi buttons, motion, and contact sensors that are joined to an Aqara HomeKit hub. Works great.

1 Like

Mine work flawlessly in HE using the deCONZ Conbee II solution that @rocketwiz linked to.

1 Like

I think there is a way to get the buttons working on the Hubitat network but it doesn't exist right now. I think you could create a Zigbee device that the buttons are paired to. Then the firmware could update a cluster that is bound to Hubitat.

Nothing exists to do this now but I think something like the sonoff Zigbee bridge could be used. Probably the Tasmota to Zigbee firmware could be reworked . You could get back to the Hubitat over the zigbee network or over WiFi.

I have been playing with Zigbee2mqtt lately as I think the Hubitat zigbee implementation is falling behind (no inbound groups messages, no OTA updates). Also I think Zigbee2mqtt supports the join codes so I think you could have a fully zb 3.0 network if you have devices that support that for the added security (if someone wants that).

I guess it depends on what you're looking for, there's not a lot of point implementing ZigBee 3.0 stuff while the HE radio isn't ZigBee 3.0 itself.

Similarly "inbound groups messages" is something of a hack IMO ..... devices that use that are really designed for direct device-to-device communication. The fact that other hubs / software support it is nice, but it's not what it was designed for.

OTA updates would be useful ..... I've used that in deCONZ, but the reality is most manufacturers still don't officially release their firmware to third parties.

I'm sure HE will get there with some of these things eventually ..... but there's probably more important priorities on their todo list currently.

I'm not sure that is entirely true. You can update the SOC in the stick used in the C4 to a zb3.0 stack

I would guess the C5 and C7 can update their firmware (if they don't already run a zb3.0 capable version) also.

Just because it is a hack doesn't negate the need to implement it in order to stay competitive. Ikea tradfri is a entry level home automation system that has worldwide availability. At some point people may want to migrate to something better. Smartthings, Phoscon, and home assistant all support inbound groups. I would consider Hubitat to a competitor to these products.

My guess is Hubitat could get access to more since it would be a B2B relationship. Several vendors are active on the forum. It is in their best interest to provide firmware to Hubitat if it makes their customer's issues go away.

I agree, in the end it is up to Hubitat to prioritize what they feel will lead to more revenue.

Just to add one more comment. Im comming from Homey, where quite a time was stated that Ikea remotes integration is not possible. But recently after FW update, all remotes were supported. Just to not give up from this dream.
BTW, there is quite usable solution if you have IKEA bulbs. You can pair them with HE and with remote as well. This way, IKEA remote can be used to controll those devices directly (but nothing else) and devices can be controlled by HE.

It's not technically impossible, but it would require a change to Hubitat's Zigbee implementation (by staff, something users cannot do). They haven't said that it will never happen, just that it's not a priority right now. So, I wouldn't hold my breath, but in the meantime, there are workarounds like the one you describe--a good idea if that works for you! There are also alternatives, like pairing them to a DeCONZ network and using a community integration for that.

1 Like

You can pair the remotes with other Zigbee devices if they support touchlink. I paired an Ikea remote with an inner plug and it worked.

Actually you can pair a remote to non touch link Zigbee devices also but it's kind of a pain. I did it from the Conbee that I have paired to the HE network to map. I think in theory you could write some driver's to add add any Zigbee device to the group of the remote but I don't think anyone has done that. That should be possible with the current implementation in HE.

2 Likes

Could you tell me how to get a conbee paired to HE? would be interested in mapping the netwoek. Can't seem to find info on how to do it. Thanks

Admittedly I am struggling with a firmware update on this as we speak, but I have mine, relatively successfully connected via my Raspberry Pi, using the DeConz community drivers.

Not sure whether you can use it to sniff an existing network or not, if that is what you are intending to do.... Maybe there is other software you can use to achieve that, I am using it to achieve adding IKEA devices to my HE setup that either cannot connect to HE natively or have limited capabilities...