Zigbee Button + Groups - Alpha Test

So it’s basically useless to have multi-button button, other than setting those extra buttons for scenes or running routines?

I’mean, in this situation that I want to achieve, I should have 3x 2-button button, each for it’s own group?

Not useless, it just doesn’t fit your usecase ( the design from IKEA never intended it for that usecase either - I remember on the tradfri Reddit people asking IKEA whether it could do what you are asking when they first came out and the answer was no. The intention is that one remote is for one group of devices. Using st and routines you can extend that further but ultimately not in the exact way that you want.

Ikea’s implementation uses the scene buttons to change the colour of the lights, I’m just not quite sure how they do that.

There would be nothing stopping you putting all the lights in a room in a single group that can dim and brighten together, but then have your left and right buttons trigger some ‘common’ it ‘favourite’ scenes or setups that you use often.

Also, if you haven’t realised a long ‘hold’ of the middle button while used in a group with IKEA bulbs will return all of the bulbs to synchronisation ( warm colour, full brightness) if you do use them out of sync

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It doesn’t have to be Ikea button, it’s just that they are available everywhere in the world and ti works (ok, the fact they are cheap also helps :slight_smile: ). I had home automation for several years, before zigbee, z-wave etc became globally available and affordable, but I really hated the fact that for every automation I want to change and/or upgrade I have to call, schedule and pay programmer. Not that I don’t value their work, but you know, I was getting on their nerves with constant changes and requests. What we have today gives us ability to play ourselves with minor changes. And those minor changes get our lives easier imho. And I had those things before… and now I don’t.

For example Aeotec’s WallMote Quad looks good, it has 4 buttons with 3 functions for each and I wanted to use them as well, but now if I cannot use it for more than 1 group of lights, I think I’ll stick to Ikea - they work, are available and cheap.

Ah, yeah, I know I could group all lights in one room and control them together, but whole point of having several different lights/groups is to use them for different situations. For example I have wall lights for wall paintings, but I don’t want them dimmed together with main light in room. Setting up scenes does help but you loose ability to change scene easily.

Never mind, I’ll figure out a way that suite my household :slight_smile:
Well it was worth a try.

Thank you for explaining.

The Wallmote is a zwave device, not zigbee like the Ikea Tradfri devices. Zigbee and Zwave have different methods for grouping devices, and an Edge Driver that works with zigbee won’t work with zwave.

If you want a single handheld device that can control lots of different devices outside of the scene paradigm, though, the most practical current option is probably just an inexpensive WiFi no contract phone. Run the SmartThings app or one of the third party dashboard app and you’re all set. Swipe between rooms or groups, control scenes or individual devices, all that. :sunglasses:

IMG_1242

Of course it won’t run locally and it won’t have tactile differentiation, but it can definitely handle pretty much any control combination you can think of.

Ok, I knew wallmote is zwave but I had no clue that edge drivers don’t work with zwave :roll_eyes: and dimming is one of major things that should be executed locally.
I read some thread about developing edge drivers for shelly devices, so I thought if it works with zigbee and it works with wifi devices, why wouldn’t it work with zwave. Thank you for that info.
And to be honest, I thought about setting up some dashboard, same as you described, but I just wanted to simplify things, and since I allready have nest hubs, my wife will kill me if I add another screen to rooms :sweat_smile:
Unfortunate for me, nest hub doesn’t allow much personalisation so I cannot set it up as I would prefer. I’ll think about it a bit more anyway.

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Sorry for any confusion. There are definitely some edge Drivers that work with Z wave devices, it’s just that an individual edge Driver works with Z wave or with zigbee but not with Both. The same was true of the Groovy DTHs. You can’t use a DTH written for a Z wave switch to control a Zigbee switch, or vice versa.

So since the specific driver that this thread is about is for Zigbee devices, it can’t work for the Walmote.

Hopefully in the future there will be a different edge driver that does.

Ok, that is not a problem. If I have zwave button I’ll have to find zwave driver for it… or wait for it.

Then in any case my idea up there wouldn’t work because I have in same room 3 different protocols, and they have different methods for grouping devices. I mean it will work, just not locally and not in terms of drivers and grouping options this topic is about, right?

Sorry for off topic.

A zigbee group Will only work to have a zigbee device control other zigbee devices.

“Zwave direct association” Will only work to have a Z wave device control other Z wave devices.

But the good news is that a “SmartThings scene” can include devices of any protocol that works with your smartthings account and you can mix devices of different protocols in one scene.

And once the new architecture is complete, the scenes should also run locally for all your hub connected devices.

So you will actually have more flexibility to accomplish what you are describing with scenes. It’s great to have the option for Zigbee group control for people who find that useful, but for what you are describing, mixing devices from different protocols, you will have other choices that may work better for you. Choice is good. :sunglasses:

I have made an update to the driver today to add direct device binding.

This functionality works in a similar way to the groups functionality but instead of specifying a group you provide an identifier for each device 1 at a time that you would like to control (you can still control multiple devices)

From a functionality perspective this works the same as groups, you get the same control of devices directly from the remote control. The main advantage of device bindings over groups is you don’t need to do anything to the device you are going to control (e.g no need for it to be an edge device running a special driver - it can be any zigbee device that supports control and it can be running edge, dth or stock local drivers)

I have added 2 new preferences to facilitate this, one for adding devices, and one for removing them. The devices bound will be written to the history tab. You must use the force bind setting to add or remove devices ‘bind on button presses’, and then press at least one button to complete the bind. Don’t forget to turn the setting off afterwards.

You will also see the bindings between the hub and the remote in the list printed to the history tab - please don’t remove the bindings to the hub as it’s possible that you will lose the ability to re-add those back because button presses will no longer go to the hub. If you do this you would need to reset your device.

So far for me this is only working on the STYRBAR remote, but I have a feeling from reading posts in other home automation forums newer firmwares on the other ikea remotes supported this too. Unfortunately mine don’t have new firmware. So please try this and let me know if it works for you. (research suggests you need firmware 2.3.75 or above on the 5 button ikea remote to support device binding)

In summary

  • You will need the device you wish to controls IEEEAddress - I will write a follow up post on how to get them (Zigbee Button + Groups - Alpha Test - #30 by lmullineux)
  • You add them one at a time - you can add more than 1 device to a remote
  • It is possible to use this alongside groups e.g 4 lights in a group, 1 plug using device binding
  • For me this only worked for Styrbar, your experience may be different - also i haven’t tested this with all the possible devices obviously but it works with the ikea lights I own.
  • Devices you control don’t need to be running special drivers
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How to retrieve the device address

If the device is running stock or using an groovy dth

  • Log into the IDE in your region
  • Navigate to devices and find your device
  • The device address is labelled ‘Zigbee Id’

If your device is running an edge driver

  • We will need to call the api to get the details, if you have used it before then you know what to do otherwise follow below
  • Go to SmartThings. Add a little smartness to your things. and create a token to use, selecting appropriate scopes - make sure you save your token somewhere safe
  • Use https://reqbin.com/ or any other api tool to call the devices endpoint (see screenshot)
  • Grab the zigbee ui for the device you want to control - you might find it easier to copy the response from the api into a text editor so you can easily search for your device by name

Update: I have a new app that makes getting the zigbee eui easier - see here [RELEASE] Simple Device Info Viewer

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I just tried using this driver with the Ecosmart remote. I saw an earlier post that it wasn’t working for this remote so not sure if…
A. it is still not working
B. I’m doing something wrong with adding the groups

Hi @Terri_Baker

@milandjurovic71 was testing the ecosmart, last update I had from him was that the group functionality was not working for this remote. I’m not sure if he has yet tested the direct device binding - hopefully he will reply here and confirm either way.

Or you could try the direct binding to see if you can get it to work

Louis

@lmullineux I have not tried direct grouping yet. I was busy with my job, and had some life events, that took my free (Smartthings) time away. I’ll be able to look into that in a day or two.

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@lmullineux
Thanks for your effors, what is the use of add device and remove device?
How to do the settings for option 3 (best of Both)
Sorry for this question but i am not able to understand the settings very well?
Also I have seen in remote layout press 1, doble press, 3 press …etc but not anymore able to see this again, how to active it?

Add device and remove device are for experimental direct device pairing. It works the same way groups does, but the only advantage is the device you are controlling doesn’t need to support groups, or in fact run any custom driver. See my post on 3rd Feb for more details.

If you’re seeing the double press option, that is a Samsung bug. You shouldn’t see it

2022-05-01T20:08:08.792738313+00:00 INFO Zigbee Button Groups <ZigbeeDevice: ccc37b2d-54fe-4a48-9c94-06f0c93a8f46 [0x6D68] (IKEA Remote Control)> received Zigbee message: < ZigbeeMessageRx || type: 0x00, < AddressHeader || src_addr: 0x6D68, src_endpoint: 0x00, dest_addr: 0x0000, dest_endpoint: 0x00, profile: 0x0000, cluster: 0x8021 >, lqi: 0xE4, rssi: -43, body_length: 0x0002, < ZDOMessageBody || < ZDOHeader || seqno: 0x7E >, < BindRequestResponse || status: 0x00 > > >
2022-05-01T20:08:08.812730313+00:00 TRACE Zigbee Button Groups Found ZigbeeMessageDispatcher handler in zigbee_button → ZigBee multi button - Groups → IKEA Sweden
2022-05-01T20:08:08.818484313+00:00 INFO Zigbee Button Groups Executing ZdoHandler
2022-05-01T20:08:08.824611647+00:00 PRINT Zigbee Button Groups Zigbee Group is:44592
2022-05-01T20:08:08.836988647+00:00 PRINT Zigbee Button Groups Adding to zigbee group: 44592
2022-05-01T20:08:08.845459647+00:00 FATAL Zigbee Button Groups Lua: deserialize error: invalid value: byte array, expected a string
Traceback:
stack traceback:
[C]: in function ‘coroutine.yield’
[string “coroutine”]:9: in function ‘wrapped_coroutine_resume’
[string “cosock.lua”]:210: in field ‘run’
[string “st/driver.lua”]:731: in method ‘run’
[string “init.lua”]:100 : in main chunk

sorry guys, i don’t understand what drive use with my square 2 buttom dimmer ikea :slight_smile: Name

Zigbee Button Groups or Ikea Styrbar Remote?

This one, if you want groups functionality.

The standalone styrbar driver, is only for styrbar and is to be considered legacy as this driver fully supports styrbar and all of the other IKEA remotes

sorry I’m not able to understand you. what drive i need imstsll to use this bad sqare 2 buttom ikea with edge? with Dh the battery finish in one week,i want try change with edge before put in trash can :slight_smile:

Do you plan to use group capability? This is experimental functionality that allows you to directly control the bulb without the ability to customise the commands at the hub.

If yes, then you should use the custom edge driver in this thread

If no, then you should use the official Samsung ZigBee button driver, provided by Samsung.

Ps… I have never experienced battery drain like you have regardless of the integration method used. So I can’t say whether this will solve your problems. It seems more based upon luck, or maybe IKEA firmware versions