Just set up two of the new Ikea Vallhorn motion detectors to replace the older Ikea Tradfri motion sensors because I’m tired of coin cell batteries. (The new ones use AAA which should last longer and I’m more likely to have them on hand.) Unfortunately, both devices are frequently detecting motion when there is none. About 3-5 times an hour. One is in a storage room with no heat or windows so I don’t think it is being tricked by heat or sunlight. Unfortunately, I am experiencing the same issue with both devices and I never had this problem on my older motion sensors. I know these devices are brand new but if anyone else has them, are they working correctly for you? I’m using ZHA on a conbee stick.
1 Like
I’m experiencing the same issue, having 2 Vallhorns, and I’ve tried it 3 different spots, but the ghost motions seems to never stop. Mailbox (outdoor), bathroom and kitchen.
In some cases it triggers on motion every 30-40 second-ish (20 seconds specifying motion until returning to clear for 10-20 seconds, then repeats). Suddenly it stops registering motion, and it takes anything from 5 minutes to 1 hour before it’s going nuts again.
It can detect me, so I’ll guess it’s just over-sensitive. Not sure if it’s an bug in the Z2M implementation or if it’s an IKEA firmware issue, but I can’t find any firmware files posted online either.
Was unboxing the first Vallhorn when I sat near my Pilskott pendant lamp, resulting it to start blinking and unpair from Z2M automatically once I put in the batteries. Had it connected and working for like 5 minutes while I’ve fiddled with it trying to pair it to Z2M instead (no instructions in the manual, had to google and factory reset the thing to get it paired to Z2M).
Can’t tell if the issue was still there while connected directly to my lamp, but I’m not willing to test it again either, had to unscrew the lamp from the sealing just to push the pair button again, after Vallhorn hijacked it wirelessly…
Anyone else having the same issue, or is it working as intended? Couldn’t find any other posts on this topic, I’ve googled this for 3 days straight…
Glad to know it’s not just me but also sorry to hear that it’s not working as intended for you. I was wondering if it was a specific issue with ZHA but since you are using Z2M, I guess we can rule that out and saves me the trouble of switching over to Z2M (at least for now). Hopefully an OTA update will solve this but until then they are pretty much unusable for me. I’ll keep searching for a solution and post here if I come up with anything.
Yeah, I’ve disabled mine too. They’re still connected just in case an OTA appears, but they don’t do anything anymore.
Tired of switching off the lights manually every 5 minutes in the middle of the night 
I’ve now fixed both of my Vallhorns, ironically I’ve changed from yellow IKEA Alkaline AAA batteries, to two other brands (one cheap and one expensive brand).
They was all new, but I’ll guess my IKEA devices doesn’t like IKEA batteries
They don’t sell IKEA Alkaline batteries anymore, but this was the variant they sold until recently when they switched to selling rechargeable batteries only.
Not sure if other battery brands are affected as well, or if IKEA is aware of this embarrassing issue, but there’s an chance this might not be fixable over an OTA firmware update at all.
2 Likes
Interesting find about the batteries. I have two Vallhorn, one is very well behaved while the other one signals bogus movements. The one that works fine has older store-brand batteries, while the other uses brand new Energizer batteries from Home Depot. I’ll try to switch them around and see if the behavior reverses.
I was a bit skeptical about this but I gave it a try. I changed out the batteries to rechargeable Eneloops. Pleased to say that this did solve my problem…for one of the Vallhorns. But the other Vallhorn is still falsely triggering. Almost like clockwork. All day yesterday it would trigger every 54 minutes.
So thanks for the tip, I was able to make one of them usable. Maybe the other unit is just a dud. It’s a shame because I was hoping to replace my old tradfri sensors because I’m so tired of coin cell batteries. As of now I would advise people not to buy these for use in Home Assistant. Now I’m also not sure if I will buy the new Ikea Parasoll water leak detector for fear of similar issues.
*Edit: Looking at the manual for the Vallhorn motion sensor (not included in the box). These do, in fact, call for 1.2v AAA batteries not the typical 1.5 v Duracell or Energizer.
1 Like
Wow…glad I found this post (and this is my first HA post :-)…just switched over from Homekit/Homebridge to HA a few weeks ago and loving it! Have about 70 devices–37 of which are zigbee devices from Ikea, Philips and Aqara).
So was super excited to get the Vallhorns as I thought these would be available starting January and ran into the same issue for 5 of the 6 I got. After seeing this post, I’ve tried a bunch of batteries and found that switching to the Amazon Basics rechargeable has resulted in zero falso positives (over 1 evening, mind you) for 2 sensors which were regularly triggering false positives. I have a Battery Daddy caddy (lol) with tester and it “seems” like the batteries that have the highest voltage like the Kirkland AAA+ seem to generate the most consistent false positives. This is only with one evening of testing and swapping out batteries in a few of the sensors. The Nanfu generics seem to do the best for non rechargeable batties but I still had a set that generated false positives so I switched them out immediately with the Amazon Basic rechargeables.
Thank you all for the help and I’ll post updates if it helps. I am concerned in the long run on reliability but let’s see how these go. I mean $9 for a motion sensor that can do indoor / outdoor is hard to pass up and makes me want to outfit every room. I have 5 Hue Outdoor motion sensors and those have been rock solid once I allowed the ZHA unsecure rejoin.
2 Likes
This is one of the sensors that stopped having false positives after switching out batteries around 1am. Sorry for the un-pc labeling of “master closet”. I went with a few default room names eons ago and wished I didn’t.
1 Like
Update: all 6 motions sensors have been working well since switching to 1.2v rechargeables, with no false positives noticed in a few days. Previously I had the false positives as others have reported each hour.
I just bought a few sets of IKEA Ladda AAA batteries to use alongside the Eneloop and Amazon Basic rechargeables so that now all the sensors run on 1.2v batteries. Hopefully battery life in the long run isn’t too bad
2 Likes
does anyone know if these support direct binding to bulbs?
I just installed a vallhorn sensor (via ZHA), but if I try to set up a automation using the built-in blueprint “motion-activated light” by Home Assistant, I don’t get the sensor in the list of “motion sensors”: am I missing something? thanks!
I pressed the button on the back and switched it from 1 to 5 which seems to have fixed all my issues.
@diodorus I changed the devices type from occupancy sensor to motion sensor in the settings for the entity.
2 Likes
thanks! by the way, do you know what is the point of the “opening” sensor entity that is also created by default?
Nej, I have no idea. I only just setup the HA container a few weeks ago.
I bought 2 Vallhorn motion detectors last week in Ikea.
I powered both with 2 IKEA “Alkalisk” non-rechargable AAA batteries.
One sensor shows a lot of false positives, the other works fine.
I’m now testing the faulty one with LADDA rechargable batteries.
Using it with Ikea Ladda rechargeable batteries - no false positives
3 Likes
Same here for 2 days now
For me it seems to have worked by changing from a 1.5V to 1.2V battery
1 Like
It does say to use 1.2v on the website…
“Batteries are sold separately. We recommend 2 x LADDA rechargeable batteries HR03 AAA 1.2V.”