Waiting for the update to start…
The buttons, they do nothing!
Edit: update successfully finished, but now I’m going to die:
The list of supported values is still the same as before the update - even after switching the driver:
Unknown, good and unhealthy.
If you want, you could delete the device and add it back again to enforce a re-scan, @Declankh . I’m not at home right now.
Maybe , not tonight though 
Not a massive deal for me but it looks like the Alpstuga clock doesn’t seem to keep time very well. I’ve set it a couple of times since I got it and have looked later to find it hours out, and not even whole hours out, random hours and minutes.
New IKEA Matter devices have been available in Poland for some time now, though not in all stores. There are also significant discounts on Zigbee devices. I decided to pick up the BILRESA dual button and scroll wheel, as well as the KLIPPBOK water leak sensor. I’m still waiting for the TIMMERFLOTTE temperature sensor to be back in stock. All of these devices work perfectly over the Thread network via my Nest Hub 2.gen (I have the SmartThings V2 Hub).
Just yesterday I received notification that the BILRESA sets of three colored buttons or dials have become available in Germany.
I have KLIPPBOK water sensors, a selection of tuneable-white KAJPLATS bulbs, BILRESA, and MYGGSPRAY. No complaints so far with SmartThings itself; exposing a BILRESA to Alexa for shared ownership is quite unreliable though. I’ve succeeded for one of them after many tries (but once done it’s stable), have never been able to add another. Sharing other things (like the KAJPLATS bulbs or a Heiman CO sensor) did work just fine, so I’m pretty sure this is BILRESA specific.
I get what you’re saying, however I think a button is the least useful to have on both platforms since you can only use it to trigger events based on keypresses and you’d typically only need to do that on one or the other platform, not both.
If you need it on Alexa and not SmartThings it might be worth trying deleting it from SmartThings and pairing it with Alexa alone (while still using the SmartThings thread network).
Interestingly I have an Alpstuga air quality sensor and have it on Alexa twice (once via the c2c integration from SmartThings, once paired directly using matter). The matter instance has more functionality than the c2c instance, but neither have all the capabilities that are shown within SmartThings.
My use case is a bit weird - I have a Thread network with good coverage through all the rooms on the SmartThings hub, but then I also have quite a few Bluetooth lightbulbs that connect to the various Echo devices around the house. The majority of those Echo devices do not have Thread, so using their network for the buttons is not an option.
So I need the ST hub’s Thread network to have good signal to the smart buttons, but I need Alexa to natively see the button presses.
Once ST and Alexa can actually merge their Thread networks into one this nonsense shall stop - but for the time being, it’s a working solution.
Your suggestion - pairing it in Alexa but using the ST Thread network - does not work. Just once did the Alexa system ask me which Thread network to connect to, and then wouldn’t take the ST Thread network’s passcode. Even after deleting all the Thread passcodes in my Amazon account it never asked again.
If anyone knows a way to make ST talk to these Ledvance/Sylvania/Osram BT bulbs directly, be my guest.
Cheaper than it used to be, but still nowhere near tempting.
Those Bluetooth bulbs “VolksLicht” were less than 1 euro each at 806lm 2700K, I have about a dozen in use in difficult to reach places all around the house inside and out, just as many spares because I thought at that price they can’t possibly be reliable. (Actually, they are, 0% failure rate in 2.5 years thus far.)
I’m also not going to rebuild all the groups and automations they’re in.
Wrestling BILRESA to share from ST to Alexa was the way easier and cheaper task, even though I have yet to recreate how exactly I did this on the first one.
Previously I’ve been using a Sonoff hub that would export Sonoff zigbee buttons to both Alexa and ST via cloud service - and conveniently ST didn’t also export them into Alexa - but that was notably slow, the sole Sonoff hub wouldn’t reach all the places, and running yet another wireless network just for a few buttons didn’t make sense either.
Now I have a working solution, and one less wireless hub running, and it’s good - just not as good as it could be if ST and Alexa were to merge Thread networks.
I’ve actually done this, so it’s possible, maybe there’s an issue/instability/blocker for you.
I actually tried it expecting it to fail and was surprised it worked. Are you sure you are using the correct passcode for the thread network. I only have one thread network (via SmartThings hub) and my alexa devices are too old to support thread (echo dots) so Alexa is definitely paired to the ST thread network.
Might be worth rebooting your st hub and trying again?
That is not the same thing. Making Alexa use the ST hub as a Matter Thread Border Router does work, but that is not the same thing as making a Thread-capable Echo directly use devices that are at the same time also connected to the ST Thread network.
In the one case, the Echo uses WiFi to access the ST hub; in the latter case, the ST hub makes the Thread device re-enter pairing mode with a secondary passkey, and the Echo pairs into the device itself.
Thread devices can support the latter, the BILRESA tries to but is not very reliable in configuring the 2nd agent (which would be the Echo).
Point being that the Alexa system does not import stateless buttons from ST at all, or ST does not export them. The Sonoff system did, such was my previous workaround for buttons, and now the dual-agent Thread connection to ST and Alexa is.
What I’ve found with all the new ikea battery-powered sensors when attempting to pair to multiple ecosystems is that it helps to keep them awake. Press one of the buttons a few times whilst pairing, open/close the contact sensor, etc.
So you have been able to pair initially through the Alexa app?
My experience, similar to posted here, has been that Alexa shows me my 4 options for TBR, and then on selecting asks for the Thread key. On Apple Homepod and Tuya I don’t know where to find these, while on Smartthings and Eero after selecting and then pasting the Thread keys Alexa tried twice, asking for the key again on each ocasion before showing error.
Pairing, and sharing, with zero issues on Apple, Tuya and Smartthings apps.
Yep, I tried pairing on Alexa first and it worked , it asks for the network key and I used the key in the hub->thread section in AWA.
It does work that way, not sure if it’s any different to pairing in SmartThings first and then clicking on the device and sharing it with Alexa though.
I suppose there’s a scenario where you might only want the device to appear on Alexa and not SmartThings device list, you could only pair on Alexa in that scenario.
That’s what doesn’t work for me, using the key from the AWA as you did, nor would it work with my Eero TBR for which I also have the key. Guess this has to be an issue with my Alexa setup
Works perfectly, but as said the Alpstuga shows almost nothing on Alexa.
Try rebooting hub first, if that doesn’t make a difference
The thing is, after ST has generated the passkey for secondary pairing of the BILRESA, and handed over to Alexa, and Alexa tries everything to pair it and ultimately fails, you end up back in ST - and then instantly, you get a popup message that ST has just found another BILRESA. ST hasn’t dropped its original pairing in this moment, it actually detects the secondary pairing that it started for Alexa to pick up on.
So the device does keep sending the pairing beacon even with no buttons pressed, but somehow Alexa has a perceived success rate of 1 in 300 tries with this one.
I’ll try this again upstairs near the Echo Show 8, maybe it works better there than downstairs on the Echo Gen 4.
Interesting. While I have been tinkering with the new ikea stuff, I have little experience with Alexa’s Matter implementation.
I know it is just how things are right now but I remain frustrated by how few resources we have available to troubleshoot our thread networks.
Mine is built through Apple and I’ve done everything “by the book” when building it out, as far as I can tell. And yet I still have recurring issues with random mains-powered devices dropping offline. And when that happens, I’ll see a couple sleepy end devices drop as they lose their main line of communication to the hub.
While the routing device typically reconnects within a few minutes, the end devices sometimes take quite some time to reconnect as they are asleep.
I don’t feel like I have a thread mesh in the same way I had a zigbee mesh, where everything is working together to stay online and available.
All that being said, my thread network is still fairly modest. I am still working on building it out, but I do have around 8 switches, 7-8 plugs, and about the same number of bulbs. And they are pretty well spread out between floors and rooms. Then probably around 25-30 end devices. Plus 5 Apple TBRs and about 5 from other brands that have joined the same thread network.
Maybe when I finish adding switches I should just wipe the whole thing and start over.
Ps - I know this went off topic from what we were discussing. Sorry for the tangent. I’m really just venting at this point.