I’m still getting a week battery life on ikea rechargeable batteries. tried eneloop pro’s and didnt improve either. about to purchase some ebl’s from amazon and ill see how they go. whats the firmware version of your sensor?
Firmware 10.0.19… i don’t think the problem is firmware, but the IKEA software in homey, my battery last about 3 months. Still using IKEA batteries, and updated software in homey.
ons. 25. dec. 2024 kl. 00.19 skrev Peter via Homey Community Forum <notifications@athom.discoursemail.com>:
i’m hoping its just an issue with the ikea homey software. i’d actually be happy with 3 months considering its rechargeable batteries.
I am also experiencing a significant power drain of my Parasoll sensors. Did anyone find out what is causing the problem? Does it make sense to buy the IKEA hub to update the firmware of the sensors?
dont think so. not sure if anyone has even tried adding the parasoll sensor to an ikea hub to run any firmware updates.
i havent found anything online yet as to what the latest version is.
I tried it about 3 months ago but there was no new FW then
Zero Parasoll entry’s:
https://ww8.ikea.com/ikeahomesmart/releasenotes/releasenotes.html
Thanks to both of you for the replies. Then it to me that the Parasoll sensors are just cheaply manufactured. 
i suspect its an issue with the ikea homey app i believe i saw somewhere here that someone did add this to an ikea hub and tried it for a period of time. battery life was better.
just curious has anyone logged a support ticket with homey/athom yet?
been using the EBL rechargeable batteries for a week now and they havent died. with the ikea batteries they would die within a week. meaning i cant even re-insert the batteries or press the button. i’ve even tried 3 different ikea batteries to rule out i had a faulty battery. these are all new ikea batteries. i’ve even tried an eneloop battery with no success.
the odd behaviour with the EBL batteries is that it appears it lost a zigbee connection to homey for about a day or so. pressing the button on the sensor the light comes up meaning there was power. i had to run the repair to re-establish the connection. this 2 nights ago that i had to repair the connection.
honestly running out of ideas other than logging a support ticket to homey or the possibility of buying an ikea hub to do some testing.
As stated earlier within this thread I switched to using the Ikea hub and connected about 30+ Parasolls to Homey via the HomeKit Controller App. Battery lifetime has improved to several months.
When Parasolls are running low on juice they still tend to just stop responding even before the ikea app or the homey app report a low battery warning, which remains an inconvenience.
I would think that ikea does some magic with their Zigbee implementation.
Or Homey’s Zigbee implementation is just not very optimal.
1 Like
i’ve got a few different zigbee devices of varying brands. i’ve only come across the parasoll with issues. i wouldnt think its a range issue as the zigbee mesh network i have is overkill and have no problems with other zigbee devices. but i then i wonder if theres some sort of compatibilty issue with a particular zigbee router. i might install another parasoll right next to the homey pro hub as i’m planning to install one there to turn on the light when the door opens.
with the recent issue i have now with the EBL batteries i wonder if at one point it just doesnt wake up. i assume all zigbee devices go to sleep and would randomly get pinged or check the connection to the hub.
wouldnt be a big deal for me to buy the ikea hub even just to do firmware updates if there is one. i actually suggested my brother to get an ikea hub for his new place as he wanted something simple on a budget.
i suspect its the ikea app on homey that may need tweaking. from what i read so far when ikea released a few new smart devices it was only the parasoll that had issues. im fairly sure someone had said that somewhere on the homey forums.
ill see how i go with adding another parasoll next to the homey pro hub. just running out of ideas at this point where i may just log a support ticket.
just reading your response here after posting about zigbee devices going to sleep. its got me thinking now whether it struggles to find its path back to the homey pro hub. ill do a bit more testing.
There was also an issue with the Vallhorn motion sensor. Non-homey-specific. It gives many false positives if used with standard batteries rather than rechargeable ones, due to the 1.5v of the former vs 1.2v of the latter. But doubt if that applies here
I have several Parasolls that i am waiting to install but have held off due to this battery life issue. Am likely to just return if i don’t see that this issue is resolved.
I have various other IKEA items almost working fine Bulbs, Rodret and Styrbar remotes.
There is an issue with the RGBW bulbs whereby after installation one has to go into the Homey developer maintenance and “Inspect” each, otherwise they will not show colour
So I think whoever owns and develops the Tradfri app for Homey needs to thoroughly go over it and test it and sort it out
I do not want another hub as I want Homey to be “The one box that rules them all”. If not i would rather buy another brand even if more expensive. I have Hue, Sonoff, Aqara and Switchbot and some Ikea without using their hubs.
A shame if, ingeneral, this integration is flaky as the items are cheap, easily available, a wide range, and are capable. But not in a flaky environment.
these newer ikea smart devices require the specific type of batteries noted on their product page as they wont work properly giving false positives.
battery life still an issue. i haven’t been bothered to log a support ticket yet with athom yet as i dont have the time to do any ongoing troubleshooting which is suspect they will ask. from what i’ve read it appears to be the tradfri app on homey as some users have tried the ikea hub and had no issues.
i’ve still got a few parasolls sitting in a box collecting dust. too late to return and get a refund as i’ve had it for a while. just glad they werent expensive.
if anyone does log a support before me i hope they fix this via an update. i’m hoping its not a firmware issue as that will be very annoying that i’ll have to buy an ikea hub to do an update.
i even thought about buying an ikea hub if there is a firmware update for the parasoll.
