Please excuse what may be a dumb newbie question, but I’m trying to get my head around all of the connectivity options for sensors etc for the automations that I haven’t built yet…
I’ve read that the Ikea Dirigera is expected to get an OTA update at some point that will allow it to operate as a Thread Border Router. If/when that happens, does that mean that it should be able to connect to any Matter/Thread device, e.g. one of the new Aqara P2 door sensors? Would I be right to assume that, if that did happen, it would still retain the ability to manage the current Ikea devices as well?
One attraction of this to me is that my HA server is a long way from the centre of a large house, and a low cost ethernet connected device in the right place seems like the way to go.
When Matter will be enabled, it would operate as a Thread border router, if Thread Matter will be enabled. The radio is there, so possible.
But I don’t know what is IKEA’s vision on Matter compatibility. Will they only accept Matter devices inside their system, like SmartThings. Or will they share their devices only with other systems, like Philips Hue. Or will they have a both way integration, accepting other Matter devices in the IKEA app, and sharing the IKEA devices with other systems.
The Matter specification allows all the options above.
The Thread (Matter) border router is a different story, Thread itself capable to work with other Thread (Matter) capable devices and share their data across the whole Thread Mesh.
Wanted to share my success with adding Dirigera to my Home Assistant OS ver 2023.7.3.
I have been using IKEA Dirigera in my Apple Home environment since it was made available in Sweden. I currently have 12 devices there. I also have the old IKEA TRÅDFRI gateway connected both to Apple Home as well as to HA, with 19 devices.
Step 1: Document the location of each device in my Apple Home app
Step 2: Remove the DIRIGERA gateway configuration in Apple Home app
Step 3: Go to Settings / Devices and Services and Integration. The DIRIGERA gateway was automatically discoverd and I click Configure
Step 4: I enter the 8 digit number from the bottom of the gateway in format XXX-XX-XXX
Step 5: All my devices are show and I only need to chooe the location for each (that I had noted in step 1)
Next I will continue to migrate devices from the old TRADFRI gateway with the ambition to put into RIP and remove the old IKEA app from my phone (I will not miss it). The new app is sooo much better.
Edit: The Apple Home app is still my go-to app for automations and access to Google nest cameras around my house so I have as well added the HomeKit Bridge integration in order to expose all IKEA devices back to my Apple environment.
I do that by taking the opportunity to expose each device that I want to share back (knowing there is a limit of 100 devices via the bridge integration) as well as to name it properly.
Here is part of the configuration.yaml for this purpose:
So, I just bought the Dirigera hub as well, as an upgrade and to be able to use the air quality sensors from IKEA.
Just setting it up in the IKEA app is no problem. But I can’t get it to show up in Home Assistant. The Homekit integration is now split into ‘Bridge’ and ‘Device’. My understanding is that Bridge is when you want to show your HASS stuff in Homekit, and ‘Device’ is to couple a device via the Homekit protocol.
So we’d need the device option here. But when I click it, I don’t get the option for a Dirigera hub.
I’ve tried resetting, pairing and unpairing to the Apple Home, rebooting in between everything… It just doesn’t show up.
This is what I see when I try to add the Homekit Device:
I have a Z2M setup, a Wiser HeatHub and Philips Hue as well, all running side by side. But for no way would I move any of my Hue bulbs or switches off the Hue bridge. That is solid without any issues.
In my case there is only on device connected to it, a Zigbee Green Power 4 buttons kinetic switch (no power, no wire, no battery).
I’d really LOVE to remove that equipment that is a one device only gateway.
I can also flash my Sonoff GW3 with Zigbee2MQTT but I’ve absolutely no skill in soldering.
Now I understand your pain. I thought you have some Hue bulbs as well.
I really doubt that the Dirigera Hub will ever support 3rd party devices. It is due to the fact that most of the Zigbee devices have some quirks what Hub manufacturers are not willing to deal with.
For this reason you need a hub which can deal with all sort of devices, because it has code to handle these special cases, like a SmartThings (I am not sure that it supports Green Power either) hub or Hubitat or somethings similar, like Zigbee2MQTT running in your HA setup.
I don’t know what you meant by Sonoff GW3. I don’t know what device is it. For Z2M or ZHA you would need a USB Zigbee dongle.
If you meant Sonoff ZB 3.0 USB dongle, then I don’t know what you want to solder on it. They just work with Z2M as I remember. And they don’t cost a lot. You probably could sell the Hue bridge (if it is a v2) on ebay as used and buy from the money a dongle mention above. They don’t cost a lot, from Amazon.fr you can get it now for 31 EUR. From other source it would be less than that…
It is supposed to be “Green Power” ready if flashed.
But you need to solder headers on the board which I’m not able to do myself.
It is working very well today as Zigbee to Ethernet/WiFi bridge but not taking the full advantage of what is inside. Maybe even matter?
If want to use devices from other manufacturers than IKEA then highly recommend buy one (or) more CC2652P based Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter like the ITead’s “Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus” (model “ZBDongle-P”) as then you have the option to use either Home Assistant’s own native/built-in “Zigbee Home Automation (ZHA)” integration or the popular third-party Zigbee2MQTT solutions as your Zigbee gateway, or optionally you could even use/test both separately at the same time as long as they have their own Zigbee Coordinator USB adapter (but they will not be aware of each other in any way and each devices can only connect to one of them, however you can use devices from any of those inside Home Assistant and integrate such devices there if needed, still the general recommendation is to only use a single Zigbee solution if possible as consolidatiing all Zigbee devices on one common Zigbee network makes better use of its network mesh capabilities).
Also, since you will be starting from scratch to create a new Zigbee network do make sure that you start by adding all your mains-powered devices before adding any battery-powered devices, (since most mains-powered devices will likely act as Zigbee Router devices).
PS: Personally I use the ZHA integration right not though I have used Zigbee2MQTT to and recommended both, just be aware that they have different pros and cons, so suggest you do some more research or just test both before deciding which
I already have a lot of Zigbee devices, door sensors, water leakage and temp/humidity mainly connected to the ZB-GW03 gateway and all light bulbs and remotes to the Tradfri gateway.
I bought a Green Power switch “Friends of Hue” because it was meant to be in a room with no electrical connection. Long story short, I divided a room into 2 and one part still have a ceiling light but the switch is now in the other part of the initial room, so I bypassed the switch and put that “no power” switch.
I thought that it will pair no problem with the ZB-GW03 but no, not without flashing it.
So I bought a second hand Philips Hue bridge just for that particular device.
So, right now, I have 3 “zigbee gateway”: tradfri, ZB-GW03 and Hue Bridge. If I can remove one I’d be happy. I have to find someone to solder the header on my ZB-GW03. Then I can think about replacing or removing the Tradfri GW.
P.S.: I tried to move my Ikea light bulbs and remotes to the ZB-GW03 but it was showing in HA with a that I did not like.
I finally figured out how to make it work again with the HomeKit Controller/Device integration. For everyone still struggling with the HomeKit based setup, try it this way:
It seems like a firmware update hid the auto-discovery of the Dirigera Hub behind a setting in the app. To trigger auto-discovery in Home Assistant you need to go to the hubs partner service settings in the app and try to connect it from there with HomeKit. But then don’t scan the code in the back of the hub with your phone! Instead now go to Home Assistant integrations page and enter the code there once asked for it while adding the discovered HomeKit controller. Keep the QR scan dialog open on your phone until setup in Home Assistant is complete.
that I did not like.