TRADFRI remote control battery consumption when paired with ZHA

Hardware
#1

Did anyone experience high battery consumption of the TRÅDFRI remote control (the round one with 5 buttons)?

I use a Nortek USB stick (Zigbee and Z-Wave) and ZHA. After I updated the stick’s Zigbee firmware to fix my TRÅDFRI Shortcut Button behaviour (it was dropping from the network but was still working when I clicked it), my TRÅDFRI remote control started going through batteries as they were candy (they are lasting just one week)

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#2

There were lots of reports of this with Z2MQTT - but it seems updating to the latest TRÅDFRI button firmware fixed it for most including me.

I have 2 - both have been going for months on the initial battery - and that’s after the big drain of doing firmware updates.

#3

@zoogara, could you please check the firmware version you are using? I keep OTA updates for Ikea always on for ZHA, so I don’t know if the last drop was caused by a firmware update.

My remote is on Firmware: 0x23080631

#4

Not sure how ZHA presents firmware compared to Z2MQTT - but this is mine:

Firmware build date: 20190401
Firmware version: 2.3.080

So 23080 looks like it matches yours… Bummer.

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#5

Thanks for checking I will try the traditional solution: Delete the device from HA again and pair it once more while standing in the same spot it will be installed on the wall.

Something made the controller unhappy, maybe the second time’s a charm…lol

#6

Some updates on the issue:

What I tried and didn’t work:

  • I bought new batteries from another brand, and I am still facing the issue.

What I am trying now:

  • “Luckily” I bought 2 of those, so I am now trying the second one to check if the same problem happens.
  • I also tried to force adding the controller in ZHA through an Ikea Zigbee lamp that stands next to the controller
  • I repaired the old one next to the ZHA hub (Raspberry PI 4 with Nortek USB stick)

As soon as I have more news, I will post it here.

#7

Hi did you ever get this sorted. I’m using ZHA with a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus and have the same firmware version on my TRÅDFRI Shortcut buttons. They drain a battery in about 12 hours!

#8

I gave up using the Nortek USB stick and bought a Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus, but I updated the firmware when I got it.

Here is a video explaining it: Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus - How to upgrade the firmware - YouTube

#9

i think there are some “confusion” in regards to the software-versions above, and in general, on ikeas 5-button remotes. Also there is no mention of whether they are “controlling” lights through the Ikea-Driver or not
Anyway above mentioned firmware is “OLD” , in 2022 they released a firmware to address the battery draining( which helped the most people ) thou obviously if some don’t use the ikea-update, or follow-up on firmware-updates, they don’t get it

#10

Nice catch @boheme61, I just checked ZHA and I am using the new firmware as I have it set for automatically update.

@pierslawson, try first enabling ZHA auto update first as it is an easy first troubleshooting step: ZHA OTA Firmware Update / Upgrade

It is not worth to say that I had it working fine on firmware 0x23080631, with Sonoff stick using the CC1352/CC2652, Z-Stack 3.30+ (build 20220219) firmware.

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