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Home Automation — IKEA Trådfri Gateway with LiDL Smart Plug
International supermarket chain LiDL recently announced their smart home line of products. Among other things, it includes a Smart Power Socket (a.k.a plug) that works on Zigbee 3.0.
Just like the other Home Automation ecosystems in the market, LiDL has its own smart Gateway that acts as a bridge between the smart devices and a LiDL Mobile App. Furniture conglomerate IKEA also has its own line of smart appliances and its own Gateway. I own an IKEA Gateway and some associated smart appliances. And like many others I hate the idea of buying gateways/hubs even though the devices more or less use the same communication protocols (Zigbee, BLE, WiFi). So the idea was to cross-connect Lidl Smart Socket with an IKEA Gateway.
Although the LiDL Smart Socket pairs with the IKEA Gateway, the IKEA Home Smart App does not allow operating the Socket. In order to get the Socket working, we need another integration that can relay the commands to the Socket to turn it ON or OFF, through the IKEA Gateway. There could be other ways, but I was able to get it done with “Google Home” as well as with “Home Assistant”. This article is a brief of stitching all this together.
Pairing with IKEA Gateway
IKEA’s Trådfri appliances like bulbs have to be paired with a steering device (e.g. dimmers) before they can be associated with the IKEA Gateway. When connecting the IKEA Gateway to the the LiDL Smart plug we do not need such a steering device. I tried pairing it with an IKEA dimmer first, but soon realised it was futile and unnecessary. To pair the LiDL Smart Socket with the IKEA Gateway, plug it close to the IKEA Gateway. Now open the Gateway lid by twisting it.
Beside the 3 LEDs, there is a button labelled with the picture of a chain-link. Ensure that the LiDL Smart Socket light is blinking. If not, press the power button on the Socket for a while until it starts blinking. Now press the chain-link on the IKEA Gateway for a few seconds until the light on the LiDL Smart Socket stops blinking. Open the IKEA Home Smart App on the phone and you will find that the device…
