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Configuring an IKEA wireless light switch: Saving you the pain
I’m writing this guide because doing this was painful, and I wish this guide existed. It would’ve saved me some sanity.
What I was trying to do
I have IKEA lighting in my wardrobe. It uses the Tradfri
power driver (“the driver”), which has an option to connect a wireless light switch, called Rodret
(“the switch”).
What the instructions say
- Hold the “sync” button underneath the switch for at least 10 seconds.
- While doing so, hold the switch near to the driver (<5cm)
- The switch will start to flash
- When it stops flashing, they will be connected
BUT
- When I held the sync button for any length of time, nothing happened.
- Repeat attempts at this process did not connect the switch to the light.
What worked
I saw on Reddit that you should factory reset the driver. I did this by pushing a paperclip into the reset hole.
I don’t know what impact this had if any, but worth doing if you’re having trouble.
People also said that taking the batteries out of the switch, and then putting them back in, helps.
Again, I’m not sure if this had any impact.
It’s doing both of these steps to start.
Then:
- I rapidly pressed the sync button 4 times. On the 5th attempt at doing this, the switch finally came to life and started to blink.
- Don’t touch the switch until it has finished blinking. Once the light on the switch goes out, continue.
- Only now, hold the sync button on the switch down, and hold the switch very near to the driver. I had them touching.
- The switch should start blinking again.
- After about 15 seconds, the blinking became rapid, and then the light went out.
- Now, they were connected, and I could control the driver’s lights with the switch.
- NOTE: If you have lights with a motion sensor built in, make sure the lights are not in “auto” mode, otherwise the switch alone will not be able to turn them on.
For what it’s worth, the connection has been robust since connecting. The connection has been robust to unplugging the driver and removing the batteries from the switch.
Good luck.