Ikea TRÅDFRI And SmartThings - Just Starting Out

[Heff27 (Graham Hefford)]

Hi

I am just about to venture into Home Automation with Smartthings hopefully using the Ikea TRÅDFRI bulbs as I am looking to replace all he bulbs to smart bulbs and this is cheapest way

I am a little confused as I am new to all this, that you don’t need the TRÅDFRI Hub if you using a Smartthings hub, that saves a few £, but I have read that Ikea have release new firmware for the bulbs, but you need the TRÅDFRI to update them.

Is it best to buy the TRÅDFRI Hub to update the bulbs or just use Smartthings hub using the existing firmware on the bulbs.

Also another question, sorry about these, is the Samsung Smartthing Door Sensor and Motion sensor any good for home security as I am looking to replace the old system so everything is integrated ?

Thanks Graham

[Core_Phx (Bill S.)]

Welcome! Personally, I would get the TRÅDFRI Hub just to be able to perform updates on the bulbs (security and such) in the future. The process would be as follows:

1. Pair the bulbs to the TRÅDFRI Hub.
2. Perform any firmware updates.
3. Unpair (reset) the bulbs and then pair them with the ST hub.
   3a. Supposedly, you can also pair them with a Hue hub, but I’ve not heard anyone have any success there yet.

Once you do that, you should be good to go.

ST as home security… That’s a loaded topic. Again, personally, I would not rely on ST to be your MAIN security system. It still has reliability issues from time to time and is nowhere near as stable as a locally installed security system. With that said, many people do use ST as their main security system and others use it as sort of a backup. I’ve been using the SmartThings door and motion sensors for years without an issue (aside from occasional dropouts and battery issues). Would I rely on them to notify me in the event of a break-in? Not a chance. But, for day to day alerting of doors and windows opening and closing and also motion events, they do pretty well.

@JDRoberts always has really good advice about using ST as a security system.

[JDRoberts]

We were just discussing security system issues and features a few days ago.

See the following thread (this is a clickable link)

Arlo Camera integration

Search the forum for security discussions and I think you may find that some of the features that you would expect a security system to have are absent from SmartThings. Just as an example, there are no entrance or exit delays; if the Internet is not available the system cannot send notifications and you can neither arm nor disarm it; there’s no concept of a master user so anyone you give access to, say, turn lights on and off can also change anything else on the system; and the company’s own official product usage guidelines tell you not to use it for anything critical. do not use SmartThings to control any device that may have an impact on health, safety, security, property, or financial interests, And they can and do push out updates at any time which can take your system off-lin…

[Core_Phx (Bill S.)]

Hence why I pulled you in, sir.