Ikea Blinds Remote Connected but not Working

SmartApps & Automations
1

So I have the square Ikea button that comes with the blinds and was able to connect it to Smartthings and make an automation to have the blinds open/close when the corresponding button is pressed. But, when I actually press the button nothing happens. I’m not sure what I could be missing. Any advice?

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2

Battery died.
There is a bug. It drains battery in less than 24 hrs

It’s not Ikea, it is SmartThings.
If button is not connected to SmartThings it last forever, as soon as you connect it to SmartThings starts draining.

Place new battery, reconnect, and check battery in 10 minutes. It will drop 5-10%

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3

The problem actually is IKEA, it’s just that they don’t have the problem with their own gateway so they aren’t super motivated to fix it.

The problem has been reported in forums for many different hub brands, not just smartthings.

I first saw the problem reported in a home assistant forum back in December.

It started showing up on Hubitat in the spring.

It’s been reported in some MQTT forums as well, with different Zigbee coordinators.

So it’s one of those annoying problems where it does seem to be something that IKEA is doing, but since it works with their hub, they don’t care. :disappointed_relieved:

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4

But if the battery was dead would it still let me put into pairing mode (pressing button near battery 4 times). It’s not like I connected the button, it worked, then next day it stopped working. I actually paired it with ST and setup automations right away but button presses would never do anything. But I’ll go look for a replacement battery and see if that does anything.

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5

It is what one of the article has in heading, it will consume battery fast, and it will become unresponsive even after you change the battery. You will have to pair it again to work for a day, and and repeat this all over again next day.
Don’t waste batteries. I have stopped after 4th battery, thinking that i had bad batteries. All my Ikea buttons behave the same.

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6

So sounds like there’s no fix for this either, so what are some button alternatives? I haven’t been able to find smartthings buttons or the Aeotec buttons in quite some time.

7

The Aeotec buttons were only recently released in most regions, and they have gone in and out of stock.

As of this writing, Vesternet does have them in stock in the UK

What country are you in? The device selection does vary somewhat.

8

I am in the US. I’ve checked around for the Aeotec button but nothing that I’ve been able to find. New or used all seem to be out of stock.

9

If you’re OK with Zwave and a rocker switch format, the new Zooz zen34 battery-operated switch seems to be pretty popular.

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I think @Automated_House has some of these, he might have more to add.

10

These look interesting I’ll have to look into them some more.

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11

I’m loving mine still. great device for a great price IMO.

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12

That’s good to hear! I’ll have to order 1 to try out and go from there. Did you just stick yours to the wall? One thing that intrigued me about these is that it seems like I can blend them into my existing switches so it’ll look like it belongs.

13

I can’t remember if used the face plate they sent me or another I already had. But mine is just stuck to to be wall with double sided tape. You should be able to buy a faceplate one gang bigger than your current and add it there too.

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14

I know I don’t see very well, so maybe this is just me, but I can’t tell which side is up in your picture. :thinking:

On the other hand, you just gave me an idea: the Zen 34 switches might be really good for an under the desk foot control switch. Or even one for a service dog to step on. :sunglasses::dog:

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15

The repeater is a necessary part to help operate the blind (it will not work otherwise). It helps the blind and the remote control to communicate.

16

Well that’s because the picture originally loaded sideways :joy: just fixed it. My bad!

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17

@Automated_House can they just stick to the wall? I have a 2 switch wall gang and want to add this next to it and use a 3 switch plate but would like this remote to just stick to the wall, would that work?

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18

Yup, that would work

19

Good to know, I got some blinds yesterday and noticed my remote had stopped working. Tested the battery and it was completely dead, figured I just got a bad battery.

I also noticed when I paired the remote there was no option for Holding a button so I just removed it from ST and paired back directly to the blinds.

Now I’m wondering if I should just get the Ikea Hub and use that to connect to my Echo instead of trying to connect them to ST directly.