Hue + Ikea Tradfri + Homekit: a walkthrough

Hey everyone. Just joined Steemit and I thought; why not share how I got my Ikea smart lights (Trådfri) working with Philips Hue Bridge and Apple Homekit.

I already had 3 Philips Hue white bulbs in my master bedroom, and in the kids' bedroom. Working fine with a Hue Dimmer switch so I don't need to unlock my phone every time I need to turn the lights on quickly. The bulbs are connected to a Hue Bridge 2.0.

In my living room I have a lowered ceiling with 9 x GU10 halogen spots, connected to 2 x 230V dimmers by Gira. One of the dimmers stopped working, so I would have to replace the dimmer. I had thought about buying Hue GU10 bulbs before, but I find them to expensive at the time. Then I thought about Ikea Trådfri. I read somewhere that those lights should also work with Hue. So, off to Ikea I went.

After doing some research, I bought the following:

1. 1 x Trådfri Gateway http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00337813/
2. 9 x GU10 LED bulbs http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60365266/
3. 1 x remote control http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20303317/

First thing I had to do was setting up the Ikea system like it's supposed to be. So hooking up the gateway to my modem and, with the remote, pair the lights to the hub. This is required to update the firmware on the bulbs. The firmware should be at least 1.2.214 (for the single color GU10 bulbs that is).

After that was done, I removed the bulbs and the remote from the Ikea Gateway (in the Ikea Trådfri app), and I switched the lights off and on 6 times, to reset the bulbs without removing the updated firmware. (I temporarily hooked them up to a simple off-on switch).

Now comes the tricky part.

In order to pair the bulbs to my Hue Bridge, I downloaded an app called "Hue Lights" on the App Store (https://itunes.apple.com/app/hue-lights/id762009425?mt=8), so I can use 'Touchlink" (http://www.huelights.com/faq.html). I connected the Hue Bridge to a long ethernet cable and held it close to a single GU10 bulb, while using the Touchlink feature in the Hue Lights app. Eventually, the Hue Bridge would find the bulb. Sometimes it took one try, sometimes five, but I managed to connect all the bulbs to the Hue Bridge. Great! So that was working. One thing that didn't work though: Apple Homekit.

When the bulbs were paired to the Ikea Gateway, Homekit worked great. When paired to an Hue Bridge, not so much.

After doing some research online I came across Homebridge (https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge) and I had an old Raspberry Pi lying around. That should work.

So, I installed Homebridge on the Pi (https://github.com/nfarina/homebridge/wiki/Running-HomeBridge-on-a-Raspberry-Pi), installed the homebridge-hue plugin (https://www.npmjs.com/package/homebridge-hue) and made Homebridge start on bootup (https://timleland.com/setup-homebridge-to-start-on-bootup/).

Now when I say "goodnight" to Siri, the lights in the living room go out. And that for only $71.91 (€62,91), roughly the price of a new 230V dimmer.

I returned the Ikea Gateway and remote control, since I had no need for those anymore.