Written because it pissed me off. I hope this helps you in your hour of need.
- You have to do one bulb at a time. If you plug in multiple bulbs and try to pair them, it won't work. I don't know why.
- You will need a portable lamp - or some other way to bring the bulb as close as possible to the hub.
- Open the Hue app, go through the "Add Device" sequence.
- The app changes regularly and may be different depending on your phone.
- Get to the screen which says "Searching for lights".
- With the lamp off, plug in the bulb to the lamp.
- Turn on the lamp.
- After the light has come on, you need to
rapidly
switch it off then on again
6
times.
- This means 12 switch flicks in total. Off, then on.
- After flicking the switch 12 times, the bulb should be on.
- The bulb should start to dim then brighten. It will keep doing this.
- If it doesn't, switch it off. Then switch it on. Wait a moment, then repeat the rapid toggle.
- Try doing more than 6 toggles.
- Bring the bulb as close as possible to the Philips Hue Hub - touching it if possible.
- After a moment, the bulb should stop pulsing and go to full brightness.
- If it doesn't stop pulsing, use the app to "Add Device" again.
- All being well, the app will tell you that it is paired.
- Continue the set up in the app.
- Once done, you can switch off the lamp.
- If it doesn't work, switch off the lamp, have a drink, try again - making sure to read all the instructions thoroughly.
- Continue the set up in the app.
- Repeat for all other bulbs.
Once done, the Trådfri lights work flawlessly. The colour is good as is their dimming curve. They are very expensive. Personally, I'd go for the ultra-cheap ZigBee lightbulbs from eWeLink.
FAQ
juST use A ligHTswiTch
Our kitchen is big. The lightswitches are far away. Also, I don't want them covered with cake-batter when I'm cooking.
gEt a sMarT LIGhtSWItCh
Most UK homes don't have a neutral wire to the switch. That makes it hard to use smart-switches. The ones which work without neutral don't work with dimmable bulbs.
PRIVaCY AnD secuRItY is iMpORtAnt
Yes it is. ZigBee bulbs don't have a way to "phone home" and are relatively resistant to being hacked.
11 thoughts on “Howto: Connect IKEA's Trådfri Zigbee Bulbs to a Philips Hue Hub”
@Edent I’ve been running Tradfri lights with a Hue hub for years now. I continue to do so because they’re so much cheaper, but they are *not* flawless.
- Tradfri lamps won’t change colour/tone and brightness at the same time, so transitioning between settings can sometimes leave them with only one of the settings changed
- recently purchased GU10 lamps (two of them) stop responding to commands altogether, and need power cycling a couple of times a week (often enough to be annoying)
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@Edent
- I have a room with 8x GU10 in a group, and every now and then when you turn them on they’re all dim, despite having previously been at full brightness. This only happens with groups of lamps, and I think is to do with sending multiple commands over zigbee too quickly
These are all niggles, though, and I’ll continue to use the Tradfri lamps, although I may get a Tradfri hub when the last of my original Hue lamps eventually die
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@Edent lastly: if you have a variety of different lamp fittings (GU10, ES, SES, etc.), a long Ethernet cable for bringing the hub to the lamp can be easier.
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If you're in the market for new smart bulbs and have something that can act as a Thread Border Router, I would recommend the Matter over Thread bulbs. The ones I've tried have a simpler commissioning process than Zigbee.
I appreciate that you wrote this because those were the bulbs that you had.
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@blog Vesternet and Candeo ZigBee dimmers work without neutral and with dimming LED bulbs.
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@ZS @blog I came here to say the same thing! I use these at home with my Hue hub (though they’ve gone up in price!) https://amzn.eu/d/f5w6Aer
They’re slightly wider than my dumb dimmer dials, which meant it was a tight squeeze on the three-wide panel I have.
Low quality LED dimmer bulbs flicker below ~12%, but that’s plenty dim enough for us.
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@byjp @blog I used these, hidden behind a UK light switch. I used a momentary push switch, one click on/off, click and hold for dim up/down.
https://amzn.eu/d/b8mlKrr
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@WiteWulf I can’t get the GU10 Trådfri to work with Hue at all. It’s so infuriating. They’re paired, but after 12 hours stop responding to commands until I reboot them.
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@Edent There are lots of reasons these may not suit you, but FWIW I use Lightwave smart light switches (in the UK) because they work with dimmable lights and don't require neutral. I mix with Hue integrating via Home Assistant (which has proved 1000% better than the native integration).
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@squeed yeah, pretty much exactly what I see with the new mirror finish ones. Sometimes they get stuck on, sometimes off, and a power cycle sorts it.
The old white plastic ones worked fine except for the intermittent low brightness at power on issues I mentioned.
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@bensmithuk @Edent I use Lightwave too! big fan of them. I do have a handful of Trådfri dotted about though for colour changing purposes.
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