TRADFRI shortcut button - zigbee2mqtt - pair & update

I was searching around for tips on adding and updating the Ikea Shortcut button ( E1812) using zigbee2mqtt and while I found bits here and there, I couldn’t find a one-stop shop. So I thought I’d offer a dummies guide for people like me.

I have the Sonoff USB Dongle and it was already up and running with some other Zigbee gear.

  • Pairing was fairly simple after putting the battery in. It requires 4 quick presses of the button inside the battery compartment. While I have read it is 4 in 5 seconds, I found it would not go into pairing mode unless the presses were done in less than 1.5 seconds. The red light on the edge of the compartment will flash if you get the timing right.

  • Then after clicking the “Permit Join” option up the top of the Zigbee2mqtt page in HA, it’s a wait. I found I had to 4-click the button a couple of times before the interrogation/handshake began.

  • Initially mine came up a partial pairing and said it was unsupported. Be patient. It can take a couple of minutes for all the protocols to be sorted out and then it will show the IEEE address, manufacturer, model, etc. Click the little blue pencil & pad symbol on the right to change the name to something friendly and if you want that to show up in HA.

  • Now to the firmware update (OTA) Select OTA from the menu at the top. In the search criteria put the friendly name. (I used the IEEE and nothing came up.) It might take a while for the button to be checked, so it might not show up initially.

  • In the meantime, it is useful to expose the update sensors. There are two - update-available and update_state. I found the battery_condition and link_quality were also disabled. (You expose those by going to configuration/entities and search for the friendly name: eg: Ikea Button - enable the one you want)

  • Have a look at the state (in Developer Tools) of the “update_available” sensor and it should tell you whether an update is ready.

  • Go back to zigbee2mqtt and select OTA - hopefully it has by now recognised the button has an update. Click on the physical button to make sure it is awake and then you should be able to click on the option to download the firmware (BTW - make sure the battery sensor is showing 100% - this is power hungry)

  • Nothing will happen for a couple of minutes so don’t copy me and start clicking on things. It just stops the process.

  • Check the log - you can search for the button friendly name and when something starts happening, it will give you updates every couple of minutes. The OTA page will eventually do the same. You can also see the state change of the update sensor on the Developer page

  • Mine took two and a half hours, so go and have lunch, dinner, a holiday. The log and Developer Tools (state) page will give you a percentage process and the number of minutes left. The OTA page gives the progress in a more user friendly hours and minutes.

  • When it gets to 100%, it will fluff around for another minute or two, but should then settle down and give you info. BTW, you will need to click the button in the various options to expose their states - ie -1-click, double-click and hold/release. When mine first updated, it was missing states. The best place to check is the log. Trying to check in the State or “Exposes” will be confusing because it sends a null string immediately after the click, so it looks like it has done nothing.

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I just got one of these this week. I have it set up with the awesome blueprint The ikea firmware upgrade server was down for a bit, but this morning it is showing an update. . Is there any benefit to doing the firmware upgrade, or is it better to not fix something that ain’t broken?

PS: your advice to be patient is the key to pairing IKEA and Sonoff 3.0, nothing seems to be happening, then everything starts working great. I also bought an IKEA range extender, and it speeds up pairing. The devices initially join the network on the extender, then pop off to an optimal route a few days later. Patience is rewarded in zigbee apparently.

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I used the Awesome Blueprint as well. It is a nice setup. I had to experiment with the double click a lot to get it to work.

I don’t really know about the firmware upgrade. It worked before the upgrade - and after. There is something about binding to groups-only with old firmware and binding only to devices after. That is supposed to give you smoother operation and the button will work (apparently) even if HA or the coordinator is down because it is talking directly to the device. I don’t see how that works without the automation, but I haven’t explored it.

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Ok, thought it was a loss of functionality. Anyway I’m getting errors trying to update again, I’ll try later.

Thank you so much for this efficient procedure. I’ve trying before for long so long without success.
Clear and works perfectly.

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Thanks for this guide! I had given up getting my buttons to pair and put them on the shelf for a while. I brought them back out today and was able to follow this guide to get them paired and updated.

One thing I noticed, and you mention it, but I wanted to make it even more clear - you need fresh/new batteries in these things to get them to work. The batteries mine came with, and even the first batch I ordered from Amazon did not have enough voltage to get the stock firmware to work predictably. When I put new (fresh) batteries into the buttons, then everything was good! Hopefully one of these firmware updates makes it more reliable as the battery wears down.