Conbee 2, Ikea Tradfri, can't pair bulb

Configuration Zigbee
#1

I can’t seem to get my Conbee 2 USB stick to locate my Tradfri bulbs. I’ll give you a breakdown of my setup:

So I started with a Tradfri Hub, a remote and 2 bulbs (the Ikea starter kit). I was able to pair these things up the traditional way and was able to get the Ikea Tradfri integration working fine to control the bulbs through HA.

I’ve decided to use a Conbee 2 USB stick instead of the Tradfri Hub in order to cut down on the number of hub type things I have to run, and to keep the bulbs off of the cloud.

Anyhow, I’m running Home Assistant in a Docker container (using docker-compose to spin up the container)

On my Docker Host, the Conbee Stick is located at /dev/ttyACM0, and I added a line in the docker-compose.yaml to pass that device through from the host to the container.

I use the configuration UI to add the ZHA integration and select the Conbee stick during the setup of the integration.

I tell the integration to add a new device and then turn the bulb off/on 6 times to put it into pairing mode (I suppose? it blinks and pulses for a while)

After the default pairing duration in HA (60 seconds I think) nothing happens. HA can’t seem to find the bulb.

I’ve physically located the bulb about 8 feet from the USB stick.

Am I missing a step somewhere? Anyone have some tips to help me get these bulbs paired with HA/Conbee 2?

If it’s important, the Tradfri Hub is still powered up and connected to the network, but the bulbs are no longer paired to it.

Would love some help!

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#2

Here are my notes on what works for me (based on finding notes from other users here). Hope they help.

  1. Pair the remote with the lamp:

  • Turn on the lamp,

  • Hold the remote closely (30cm)

  • hold the reset button on the remote until the lamp stops flashing. (No hurry, let it complete.)

  1. Dim the lamp to minimum (this makes it easier to make sure the lamp is successfully reset in the next step)

  2. Turn the lamp on/off 6 times - QUITE QUICKLY - leave it on the 6th time.

  • It will blink and then go to maximum brightness.

  1. The lamp is now reset to default (fast)

  2. Leave the lamp on.

  3. In deconz go to change timing to 3mins

  4. Then go to Lights>Add new light

  5. It should be added within approx 30 seconds,

  6. if it doesn’t show up then turn the lamp off and then on with the manual switch

  7. Deconz will now find your lamp within seconds.

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Conbee II - Can't find lamps, what am I missing?
#3

I found some of the Tradfri bulbs to not want to pair with Conbee 2, and they sometimes required several attempts.

you could also try getting the bulb into pairing mode by turning it on and off, and then start looking for devices through the ZHA integration. I think that is what finally worked for some of my more “difficult” bulbs.

it will work, just keep trying.

#4

At this point, I’ve tried both the ZHA integration several times w/ my 2 bulbs, and I’ve spun up a Deconz container and tried pairing them that way too. No luck so far. :frowning:

Is distance from the Conbee 2 stick an issue? I’ve tried pairing a bulb plugged into a lamp about 10 feet away from the USB stick. I’ve also tried pairing one that was on a different level in my house, a few rooms away. Still nothing so far. I might try a different machine (maybe not in a container too)

Thank you for reaching out.

#6

Did you try plugging the Conbee stick to a USB extension cable? It seemed pointless to me in theory but once I got the USB stick a little bit away from my device, it worked great.

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#7

This also seems pointless to me too, but I’m willing to try anything at this point! I guess I never really considered the placement of the USB device in relation to the rest of my house. It lives plugged into a Dell mini tower inside a cabinet in my TV stand in the living room. I guess the cabinet/position/temperature could all be obstacles. Thanks for the input. I’ll try an extension and report back what my results are.

#8

Insane, but it totally worked. I bought a 12’ USB extension cable and it totally worked like a charm with the ZHA integration. thanks for the advice.

#9

Doesn’t make much sense, but I’m trying the USB extension next…

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#10

I have been fighting with my ikea devices for like a month now and this USB extender trick finally seems to have fixed it. The Conbee II just seems to not like being near the pi, bloody weird.

#11

I can confirm the 6 times on/off thing worked for me with 2 different Ikea CWS bulbs.

#12

I don’t know if this is relevant, but I’ve found(with the help of Google) that Conbee II with Raspberry Pi4 has a bug which leads to the device not being recognised. Something though the supply of power???
RP3 does not have this issue with the Conbee II.

Anyway a USB hub in between solves the issue, like in your case.

Do you happen to run HA on RP4?

Anyway, my HA finds the bulb, but I can pretty much only control on and off.
I have 2 more enteties, but they do not take effect until I’ve toggles the device.

I’ve got no colour control yet.

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#13

It’s not weird. It’s RF interference. like how you can hear mobile noise when too close to speakers… if that happens with radio comms then lots of messages will be corrupted or missed (in simple terms)

#14

I have issues with two of my Ikea with ConbeeII after switching from phoscon/deconz to ZHA as well (TRADFRIbulbE27WSglobeopal1055lm).

They go in to pairing mode and are added as devices in ZHA. They stay connected for about 15 seconds and respond to commands. After 15 seconds they go offline and do not reconnect.

They were paring and working fine with phoscon/deconz.

Edit: It seems to be working now. Flick the switch 5 times to go in to pairing mode

#15

Was using a Conbee II before, switched to Sonoff with Z2M and with both coordinators I had the same ‘problems’ that IKEA bulbs are a little difficult to get them into pairing mode.

  • make sure you use an USB extension cable!
  • from a guide that I used:
    While pairing, keep the bulb close to the coordinator (adapter).
    What works is to use (very) short “on’s” and a little bit longer “off’s”, where you kill the light as soon as the bulb shows signs of turning on. Start with bulb on, then off, and then 6 “on’s”, wait in the 6th ON state. (If you try play safe and go for 7 “on’s” the reset sometimes fails.)
#16

I have Floalt panels with a Tradfri driver (Driver voor draadloze besturing, TRÅDFRI, smart grijs, 10 W - IKEA) which has a reset/pair pinhole.

When I try to pair, it seems I can only pair one device (remote, deconz) at a time. How can I pair with both? The power cycle describe here, does not seem to work.

#17

Are you trying to pair the remote directly to the LED driver or via your coordinator?

#18

How have people found this Tradfri smart bulbs? I bought one as a trial and use it in a a fan/light combination and it flickers all the time. Not sure if it is a problem with the fan provided light socket (although the previous non smart bulb worked ok in it), the IKEA Bulb or a combination of the two.

#19

@jasonc I have about 50 Trådfri bulbs at home. They are good. I find that every 4 months or so 2-3 of them have lost the network. This may be because they are all on wall switches which turn them on/off. I have had about 4 of them die on me (flickering) but IKEA replaced them after a bit of arguing. The color temperature is great, but the colors are not.

#20

Is there a dimmer on that fan?
I had one bulb flickering too when it was behind a dimmer.
On the other hand, I wonder what if the vibrations from the fan can influence the bulb…

When I started using zigbee and went for smart lighting, I bought them from IKEA because of the price/easy to get and the fact that they sell OK stuff.
I’m using 8 bulbs, of which 4 are filament and they work fine.

I had one issue a few weeks ago: after a power outage the bulbs acted crazy which would be cause by ‘badly’ written firmware.
After cutting the power for about 20secs, they all work fine again.

#21

I found this guide online Setup Ikea Trådfri with deCONZ in Home Assistant – Lucas TechBlog and that helped me getting it set up. Thanks for thinking along.