Here’s another one of those tutorials that I really shouldn’t need to write but somehow do, because despite dozens of tutorials already existing online, it was only a combination of things that got everything working for me. In short, I already have a Philips Hue lighting set-up and I wanted to add some IKEA Tradfri bulbs to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was in my local IKEA when I noticed that they had Tradfri E14 bulbs<\/a>. Tradfri is IKEA’s smart lightbulb range, introduced a couple of years ago, and it has become a cheaper option for automating your lights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The main source of light in the rear of my living room takes 5 E14 bulbs, and although the front half is already nicely Hue controlled, it was always just too expensive to do the rear. A twin pack of white bulbs costs \u00a340 on Amazon at time of writing, or \u00a325 for a single bulb. So I’d be looking at over \u00a3100 to make one lighting fixture Hue-controlled! (OK – other options include replacing the light switch, fitting a new light to my ceiling that takes fewer, cheaper bulbs, or just continuing to use the light switch like a normal person).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The key thing here was that the IKEA bulbs are \u00a37 each. \u00a335 (5 x \u00a37) is still a lot, but it’s much <\/em>more palatable than \u00a3105. Sidenote: I suspect that there is some kind of economic theory that explains why I’m happy to pay \u00a335 to automate a light, having previously worked out \u00a3105 as being the ‘regular’ price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, over the last year or so, IKEA’s Tradfri range has become more compatible with Philips Hue. Both use Zigbee<\/a> to connect together, but IKEA’s bulbs are designed for it’s own set-up out of the box, and I didn’t want to invest in that. In any case, I think with one or two hiccups along the way, Hue’s app and connectivity is excellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So in theory, it should have been simple. Read a couple of guides online. Watch a YouTube video and away you go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Well it wasn’t quite <\/em>that simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the key things I read was that when connecting a Tradfri bulb to an exiting Hue set-up, you should first power down all your existing Hue lights. For precaution, I also unplugged a couple of Meross power adaptors that I use (these tend to appear relatively inexpensively on Amazon, and are useful for controlling things like desk lights and fans).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then you need to do a reset of the IKEA lights by flicking them off and then on six times. This should<\/em> result in the bulb flickering slightly to show you that it’s ready. Despite multiple attempts, I couldn’t discern any flickering. I felt that I was more likely to blow a fuse than get the bulbs into reset mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nonetheless, I pressed on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then you need to make sure that the lit bulb and the Hue hub are within 30 cm proximity of each other. On YouTube people tend to use a lamp to temporarily set up their new bulbs. They dutifully place their lamp with Tradfri bulb close to where their Hue hub sits. But I don’t own a lamp with the right E14 screw fitting. So I had to fit a long network cable to my hub which fortunately is not too far from the router or the light in question. The hub’s power cable just about stretched too. This is all worth knowing in case you’re using an exotic bulb type and can’t place the hub near the light fitting in question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, I repeatedly failed to get the bulb to connect using the Android app. Simply searching for a new bulb should have found it. This was frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Solution<\/h4>\n\n\n\n