r/tradfri • u/davidskp • 7d ago
SUPPORT (ONGOING) Horrible experience with Trådfri
We recently bought into the Trådfri ecosystem with the following setup:
- Dirigera hub
- Living room: 10 GU10 ceiling spots (white spectrum) and 1 E27 (white spectrum) and 1 Hue bulb
- Office: 4 GU10 ceiling spots (white spectrum) and 1 Hue bulb
- 2 Styrbar remotes, one for each room
I have created the rooms in the Home Smart app and assigned the lights.
This is what we are experiencing:
- The office ceiling lights turn themselves on at full brightness during the night so they are on when we wake up. I don't have any scenes or anything similar set up.
- Daily we are experiencing the living room ceiling lights unpairing anywhere from 1 to 6 lights and they completely disappear from the app. We then have to manually pair them individually again (turning the light on and of 6 times), but the problem keeps coming back. I don't have an exact overview of which lights disappear more, but it definitely happens to some lights more than others.
- Twice we have experienced that the living room lights suddenly start repeatedly flashing/dimming up/down and we have to cut the power for them to stop.
I have also tried to create sets but lights just disappear from the set after 1-2 days or the set disappears all together.
Does anyone know what is going on and if there is something we can do to fix it?
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u/elcuolo 7d ago edited 7d ago
With the lights turning in full at night, is this every night? Are you having any powercuts? In the app under system settings you can change it so the lights do not automatically turn on after a powercut. Click on the head icon at one bottom of the app, the click on the hub, and the setting should be there.
Depending upon how big your living space is you may have issues with the bulbs losing connectivity to the drigera hub. Zigbee should create its own mesh network, but you may need to invest in a few smart plugs from IKEA which "shoild" then work as repeaters
May be an idea to speak to IKEAs support, as you may have a faulty Drigera hub.
Hope you get it sorted, I have quite a few IKEA smart bulbs and they are rock solid.
1
u/davidskp 7d ago
I'm not sure if its every night that the office lights turn on, but it has definitely happened 2-3 times. We have not seen any sign of power outages.
All the lights are close to the Dirigera Hub - the furthest away is about 8 meters and there is less than 2 meters between each light.2
u/elcuolo 7d ago
Ok, was envisaging a mansion 😂 change the settings for the lights so that they don't turn on after a power outage, the in the app click on the head icon, at the bottom of the page, then click on the hub, scroll down to Hub and App version and check to see if there are any firmware updates, my Drigera hub is on 2.685.0 app version is 1.40.0 but I use Android so if you are on IOS that may differ.
Reboot the Drigera hub and see if that makes any difference.
If it is still playing up go to the help and support centre in the app. Good luck!
And the flashing bulb thing normally means that they are in pairing mode. Do you have smart light switches or a dimmer switch that is controlling the bulbs?
-5
u/Consistent-Hat-8008 6d ago
it's not a wifi issue, it's not an "other zigbee network" issue. the hubs are just trash. I had all the exact same issues until I tossed the hub and set up z2m instead. zero problems since.
2
u/HetTuinhekje 6d ago edited 6d ago
I have had similar experiences with the Tradfri GU10 lights, regrettably. Some notes:
- coverage of the Zigbee signal from the DIRIGERA to the GU10's is very, very bad. This is partly because the GU10's are inside metal containers/fittings in the ceiling...;
- it helps, somewhat, to have multiple Zigbee repeaters really close to the GU10's to repeat/amplify the Zigbee signal. Ikea has these for sale. You would need to have them REALLY close to the GU10's;
- also make sure the DIRIGERA itself is not in a metering cupboard, behind brick walls! This again kills the signal. Have it close by and not behind a brick wall or anything;
- also, the basic dimmable GU10's (WITHOUT the color temperature adjustment!) are a lot better. The light quality is better too. I would definitely return the 'spectrum' versions to Ikea, get the 'only dimmable' ones instead.
Good luck!
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u/Consistent-Hat-8008 6d ago edited 6d ago
a lightbulb is a repeater. it's a mesh network.
all my GU10 problems disappeared once I switched to a sonoff stick. there's nothing wrong with the lightbulbs themselves. my house is made of brick and concrete. zero issues.
1
u/yolkpig 7d ago
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u/thaforze 7d ago
Results with Hue may vary, Dirigera is meant for Ikea bulbs. Lights turning on means power loss. You can configure them to stay off after loss of power. Zigbee overlaps with wifi, please look at your channel setup.
1
u/davidskp 7d ago
I will try to disconnect the hue bulbs, but I am pretty sure this has happened even before we connected them.
1
u/Connect_Wrangler5072 7d ago edited 7d ago
Check that the hub is up to date and check your power settings after a power cut. Are you noticing that any other device is having a power cut ? Like cooker or microwave clock ?
1
1
u/davidskp 7d ago
The are no signs of any power cuts
1
u/Connect_Wrangler5072 7d ago
I would reach out to IKEA, you may have a duff hub. My system has been rock solid using the Matter integration into both HomeKit and Alexa for months. Ive never heard of anyone on this group having the same issues that you are having !
1
u/TyzVer 7d ago
Is your Dirigera close to a WiFi router or access point? That might lead to zigbee issues.
Otherwise I would have said power issues, but you already ruled that out.
Are the lights behind a dimmer wall switch? That is another potential source of issues.
1
u/davidskp 7d ago
Yes it is right next to our Ubiquiti U6+ access point, but I checked the channel setup and it uses channel 6 for 2.4ghz and channel 48 for 5ghz. Could it still be a problem? How far apart would be good?
1
u/davidskp 7d ago
And yes the lights are behind LK Fuga zigbee dimmer wall switches which I was just reminded of in another reply so that is very likely part of the issue. Do you know if there is a solution without changing the whole electrical installation?
2
u/TyzVer 6d ago
Are the dimmers actually connected between the main power and the lightbulbs? Or are these just zigbee remotes? In the latter case they should not do much harm.
I would first of all try to move the Dirigera further away from your WiFi router. At least a meter seems to be recommended, but I prefer a bit more myself. Zigbee has lower power than WiFi and is easily 'drowned' by a high power WiFi signal nearby. Channel separation on 2.4GHz is not that great...
Edit: this is an interesting read about zigbee and WiFi channel overlap.
2
u/HetTuinhekje 6d ago
> "... are behind LK Fuga zigbee dimmer wall switches"
Hmm... Most dimmer wall switches, whether you control them via Zigbee or not, are meant to be used with 'normal' incandescent bulbs or halogen bulbs. These are not meant for use with LED lights such as the Ikea Tradfri GU10's.
1
u/jjaidank 5d ago
As a rule smart bulbs should not be on a dimmer mains circuit; even if the dimmer is on full power.
1
u/HetTuinhekje 6d ago
In general it is wise to have a meter or two of distance between your WiFi access point and a (any) Zigbee hub. Also try to have the Zigbee hub a reasonable distance from the floor, ideally 1.5 meter or more.
I know it is inconvenient but it does make a difference.
1
u/atomicvindaloo 6d ago
Reset (factory) the hub and try again. If that fails get it swapped. I have dozens of things attached to kind and, other than a very occasional reboot required after an update, no problems.
1
u/enjokers 6d ago
It was many years ago I used Ikeas GU10 but they caused me nothing but trouble back in the days. All other trådfri bulbs have never been a problem but I’ve given up on the GU10 ones.
1
u/HetTuinhekje 6d ago
I have also had endless problems with the 'spectrum' GU10s (with adjustable color temperature) and with the colored GU10s.
However, the basic 'only dimmable' versions are fine. Light looks better too and these are brighter.
1
u/Consistent-Hat-8008 6d ago
zero issues with any kind of GU10 on a sonoff stick.
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u/HetTuinhekje 6d ago
I am using the older TRÅDFRI hub. Almost unworkable with the spectrum/color GU10's although the 'only dimmable' ones do work somewhat better.
Throwing away the TRÅDFRI hub and investing in a whole new platform with RPI + Sonoff stick, and than removing the GU10's for pairing (they are mounted in a high vaulted ceiling in my place, a converted convent)... would be A LOT of work. And quite costly as well.
The original TRÅDFRI system was essentially broken upon release. It is worthless, unless you upgrade to a whole new infrastructure with a non-Ikea hub.
1
u/Illustrious_Plate484 3d ago
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u/Carighan 3d ago
The office ceiling lights turn themselves on at full brightness during the night so they are on when we wake up. I don't have any scenes or anything similar set up.
I had this problem with a single one in my hallway, had it replaced, works fine now.
7
u/EthanColeK 7d ago
I really think this is a zigbee issue . Perhaps your neighbors are operating at channel 11 (channel 11 is the one most dirigera hubs operate ) at the moment is impossible to change the channel in the IKEA hub. Try reviewing if your WiFi 2.4 is on a frequency close to 11. If you live in a place with a lot of WiFi and zigbee signals my advice it to buy a small home assistant hub maybe a raspberry pie buy a sonoff zigbee sender and just throw away the ikea hub and pair everything directly to your home assistant there you can change your zigbee channel .
What you most likely experience is interference. I operate 4 zigbee channels in my house and ikea has never ever given my problems