I’ve also bought some of the Ikea devices for testing.
- 1 KAJPLATS (E27 bulb)
- 1 MYGGSRPAY (motion sensor)
- 2 MYGBETT (door/window sensor)
- 2 TIMMERFLOTTE (temp. / humidity sensor)
- 1 ALPSTUGA (air quality sensor)
- 1 BILRESA (button with scroll wheel)
Overall I have a mixed experience, which might also result from a not so big Thread mesh network. I have “only” four Thread router devices added to Homey for a, what I would rate, a normal sized German house.
My basic test setup: Homey Pro on the ground floor. Ikea devices on the first floor across the house. On the ground floor there are three Thread router devices distributed and working fine. As with a lot of houses there is a reinforced concrete ceiling in between the ground and the first floor.
KAJPLATS - not able to connect on the first floor, but working fine on the ground floor. What I find quite interesting and I would have thought a powered device has stronger RF capabilities.
MYGGSPRAY - not able to connect on the first floor, but working fine when closer to a Thread router. Reliable and fast.
MYGBETT - not able to connect on the first floor, needs to be closer to a Thread router device. Battery lifetime: Pffff… mixed experiences. One sensor which is partially covered (hidden in the window frame) gave up after approx. two weeks. The other, in the open, but not as close to a Thread router is still working. Now and then it triggers wihout the window beeing opened. Maybe due to a poor connectivity to the Thread network? Don’t know. I now want to put the other sensor closer to the router and not covered to see if I experience the same false trigger alarms. I have four Aqara Matter over Thread door sensors that work much more reliable with better connectivity even on the first floor, partially covered.
TIMMERFLOTTE - able to connect on the first floor. Working fine and reliable for now. I like the design and the fact that the temperature / humidity is displayed when the button was pressed.
ALPSTUGA - not connecting to the Thread network on the first floor, needs to be closer to a Thread router.
BILRESA - not connecting to the Thread network on the first floor, needs to be closer to a Thread router. The design of the scroll wheel is questionable. Trying to turn it can be sometimes difficult.
My plan is to buy one GRILLPLATS per room to build a stable Thread mesh network once they are released.
Reading through forum posts It seems that the Thread network implementation from Homey is not the best (as with Zigbee). The Ikea devices are great for the price tag, but with Homey it seems a pretty dense Thread mesh network is needed.
Looking forward to the experiences from other users here.
