PACKAGING | CONTENTS

As my model is from China, the packaging – at least when I ordered it – is significantly different. Aside from the packaging, there’s really only one small physical difference, which I’ll point out shortly. There is another aspect of the Chinese model that differs that should be taken into account if you’re planning on purchasing this model; Both models work with 100~240V AC @ 50/60Hz, although the Chinese version only lists 220~240V AC. This is almost certainly due to it not being officially certified to work with 110~120V AC, which is the standard in North America and other places, like Taiwan in my case – Why bother to certify a product for a voltage it’s not going to be used for? It’s just something to be aware of, as the international models will be officially certified for both voltage standard in their respective regions, unlike the Chinese model.

There’s not a lot to see in my case, as it’s a simple brown box, and although it’s sturdy enough, with foam inside to protect it, there have been a couple of reports of broken diffusers, so just be aware of this possibility.

The T1M is pretty large, and is in fact the largest ceiling light I’ve owned to date, albeit by literally only one millimetre! The Mi Smart Ceiling Light 450 is 458mm in diameter to the T1M’s 459mm (review HERE, Video HERE). The former only offers warm to cool whites, and doesn’t support Apple’s Adaptive Lighting functionality, although to its credit, the LEDs do have a super low brightness feature, that the T1M isn’t capable of.

To stop the ring light from bleeding into the main light, and vice versa, there’s a white border around the edge of the main light to prevent such light leaks.

Aside from the light, there are three long screws and corresponding rawl plugs for mounting the ceiling light, and for the international model, you also get a bracket with wing nuts that allows you to affix the T1M where the same type of fixture has been used. This bracket is not provided in the Chinese model.

The main light comes with a large array of white LEDs – separate cool and warm ones – to provide most of the standard lighting as well as make use of the previously mentioned Adaptive Lighting. This feature, if you’re not aware, allows the light to adjust the colour temperature based on the time of day; so warm white in the morning, gradually changing to cooler white, to make you more alert and productive (I assume) with the light slowly heading back to warm white in the evening, so you can unwind before sleep. Once activated in Apple Home, you don’t need to do anything, it just works automatically.

The edge of the T1M is what allows it to stand out from most standard ceiling lights, which is the multicolour ring of colour LEDs (labelled as an “Auxiliary Lamp” in the Aqara app). This is essentially the company’s T1 LED strip, although it comes with 26 separately addressable zones, compared to the T1 Light Strips less impressive 10 zones (or 15 if you add a 1 metre extension). This ring light, whilst capable of warm and cool white (via the RGB LEDs), isn’t able to utilise Adaptive Lighting, even if the Apple Home app shows it’s capable of such a thing.

On the inside of the light there’s a small rubber grommet that allows you to pass your wires through to the connector. If you don’t have an earth/ground wire, that’s ok, but you will require a neutral and live wire, which is definitely going to be present even if the light switch connected to the light doesn’t have a neutral.

As far as fitting the T1M goes, you get the aforementioned screws and rawl plugs, and, as also mentioned, the bracket if you have the international model. Whilst you can use the bracket by itself, I’d recommend also using the screws, as the main body of the T1M isn’t as light as you’d imagine, due to the metal body.

IN AQARA HOME

For the T1 in the Aqara Home app, the main screen is separated into two main sections, one for the white light, and one for the ring light. The first of these allows you to control the power to both lights or just the main light itself. Brightness is for the main light only, and below that you have ‘effects’, although with white light, these effects are in some ways a little limited. The Tuneable White tab allows you to control the colour temperature and brightness, and that’s it, in essence.

When it comes to the UI for the ring light (née Auxiliary Lamp) there’s a fair bit more to take in just by nature of the fact we’re dealing with colour and multiple zones. So again, there’s a brightness slider and power button, with tabs for ‘effects’, ‘RGB Palette’, and RGB Spectrum. The latter two are just different methods by which to select your colour.

What’s neat about the main light is that with the Effects tab, you have the option to create a sort of ‘wake up’ lighting effect, so you can have the light gradually turn on over a period of time, to gently wake you up. There are more options, but I’ll leave you to experiment with those yourself.

Onto the colour LE ring light, and the ‘+’ tab gives you two options – Static Effects, and Dynamic Effects. The first of these allows you to colour the 26 different zones to any selection of colours you like, using the LED strip image at the top to do so. On the other hand, Dynamic Effects allows you to create a selection of colours (26 in total), and have them ‘animate’, for want of a better word, to create a sort of light show, with colours shifting and blending into each other. To animate these colours you have six different sync effects to choose from, with each providing a different type of motion to the colours. If you’re using Aqara’s T1 Light Strip, this will look very familiar.

IN APPLE HOME

In Apple Home, things are a little more organised, although you don’t get control of nearly as many aspects of either the main or ring lights, as you may have come to expect by now. you can have the T1M show as a single tile with both sliders together, or separately, as shown above. You get the standard sliders for each light, and as you can see, the main light has an ‘Adaptive Lighting’ option. You might also notice the ring light does too, and you’ll see it as an option in the colour picker screen. However, the ring light is not capable of this feature, even though it can produce white light.

THE T1M INSTALLED – MAIN LIGHT

I’m actually in possession of three of these lights, with two from China, and an international model, although currently, only one of these is installed right now. Where it’s situated, there was no wiring for a ceiling light, so instead, I fed a power cable to it, from an outlet hidden behind our cove lighting area.

Above are pictures I took of the light in three different colour temperature settings – cool, warm, and a mix of the two. Although the images don’t fully capture the look, in general I’d say the cools are about right as they’re shown, whilst the warm white is probably not quite as warm as is seen in the image above.

In terms of the representation of the brightness, the same applies with brightness levels; the light at 25 and 5 per cent, is probably going to be brighter than it’s shown in the images, but it’s here to simply demonstrate its dimming capabilities.

RING LIGHT

Many have asked if the ring light is enough to light a room, and of course that really depends on the size of the room. Still, the bottom line is that whilst this will be enough for you to not worry about tripping over things in the dark, it’s not going to be adequate for decent illumination on a day-to-day level. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as it’s really to augment the main light, or in reality, for accent lighting and notifications.

As stated before, this ring light is capable of up to 26 different individual colours along its circumference, although in the Home app, you can only control solid colours, unless you resort to other means involving the Aqara app’s scene export feature. However, the colours are pretty accurate compared to the swatches in the Apple Home UI, and are really nicely saturated. Of course, colours are going to provide less illumination than whites or yellows, but they still look great.

Dynamic lighting effects are going to be hard to show in a written review, but for the sake of completeness, here are three effects selected to give you and idea of what they look like. For a better idea of the options, check out the full video for the T1M below;

IN DAY TO DAY USE

As already stated, I’ve had this light running for a good eight months, and so I can categorically say that in that time I’ve not encountered any issues so far. Problems with connectivity or even colour accuracy tend to show themselves pretty early on, but as this uses Zigbee 3.0, connectivity has been flawless. Colour accuracy for the ring light is really spot on, and with Adaptive Lighting for the main light, as well as coming in at 3,450 lumens when set to 100% cool white, this is more than enough for decent sized rooms.

The ring light animations are something that you might think are a gimmick, and I’d agree, as I don’t tend to use them except for the odd festive occasion. I did use a green and red scene I created specifically for Christmas, and a similar one for Chinese New Year, but beyond that, I’ve tended to stick to solid colours. I usually put the ring light to use for notifications, so if someone rings the doorbell (Aqara G4), or someone is using the shower, then the light will turn to an appropriate colour. That’s it really, but it works well for the limited purposes I’ve assigned to it.

Do I like it? Yes – it’s bright, reliable, and offers the extras I find useful (Adaptive Lighting, ring light). I’m extra happy it uses Zigbee as opposed to WiFi, and even if I think Thread would have been great, I’m pretty happy the way it is. Fitting it wasn’t massively difficult, although drilling into my concrete ceiling was less than straightforward, but with the bracket for the international model, it might be fairly easy for others.

As with any dedicated light fixture, there will of course come a time when the LEDs will eventually fail, and as such the whole light needs to be replaced. This is the same for any light fixture of this type – smart or not – but LEDs are designed to last a pretty long time, and even if you used this light for 8 hours a day, every day, you’re going to get around 8 years use from it based on a 25,00o hour lifespan. By that time you’re going to probably be looking to replace it for something new, and with Thread possibly, so I don’t think the concern is as valid as it might appear.

All in all I’m glad that Aqara has gone big when it comes to launching their first proper international lighting product, when they could have just gone with releasing their T1 light bulb to the international market, so let’s hope they continue to add more lighting products to their inventory, so we can all enjoy more Aqara lights.

The post Aqara Ceiling Light T1M (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

“The purpose of bias lighting is to reduce the perceived brightness of the display as a result of the contrast with the slightly illuminated area around it. This reduces the eye strain and fatigue that occurs when viewing a bright display against a very dark background for an extended time, and increases the perceived blackness, perceived highlights and overall contrast of the display.”

Whilst a smart light strip might be of even more use, I felt that along with my recent purchase of my very first 4K TV, it was time to go a step further than that and try out something that could provide not only a smart strip experience but also utilise ‘screen mirroring’. This function is designed to extend the viewing experience beyond your screen with lighting that matches what you see on (the edges of) the screen in terms of colour and brightness, changing and adjusting in real time. There are a few products out there that support this kind of function, although not many are also HomeKit compatible, or if they are, they tend to be quite expensive – the Hue Sync Box, for example, is currently selling for US$177 for the box alone, before you’ve even paid for compatible lighting products.

This is where Nanoleaf has stepped into the arena, with its own take on this feature, called the 4D Screen Mirror and Light Strip Kit. I’ll be taking a look at this product and offer you my thoughts on how easy (or not) it is to set up, any pitfalls that I encountered that you might too, and whether bias lighting is actually enough without the screen mirroring functionality.

PACKAGING

I’ll give it to Nanoleaf – they do make decent packaging when it comes to both presentation and getting everything in place and well-protected. The front demonstrates exactly what the ‘kit’ is designed for, along with the version purchased, as there are three separate options available;

• Screen mirror + Light strip Kit for TVs up to 65″
• Screen mirror + Light strip Kit for TVs up to 85″
• Screen mirror kit, with no light strip, only the controller and camera

The back features a lot more detail on what the kit is capable of, and one end of the sleeve shows a closeup of the camera and mount, which helps the kit determine what’s on screen and how to interpret that to the strip and/or lights. This also shows that the kit is not only compatible with Apple Home but also Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, and IFTTT.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?

The box contains a ton of stuff, all of which is going to be of use to some degree. Aside from a manual that also includes QR codes for Apple Home and Android, there’s a small envelope containing double-sided stickers. The strip is included if you went for two of the three available options (I have the 65″ option), a power supply, a controller box that does much of the processing for the screen mirroring, a camera to monitor your TV screen, which plugs into the controller, a bracket designed to sit on top of the edge of your TV, and four corner brackets for the strip.

A CLOSER LOOK

The strip itself feels a fair bit chunkier than other strips I’ve had, which I also found to be the case with their Essentials strips. What’s more of note here from other strips is that although it connects to the controller, it does so with a USB-C cable, which is then connected to the strip. Usually, you’d see some sort of proprietary connection or at least a coaxial connector. The strip has plenty of cut marks that allow you to cut the strip to the desired length more finely than most other light strips. This is due in part to the fact that this is designed to go behind TVs, where you need to cover a more accurate area, generally speaking.

Most consumer light strips come with a controller that has, at a minimum, on/off controls and lighting modes. In the case of the 4D, this is replaced with a controller that looks more like a set-top box. The top of this box has one main button for power, along with three buttons grouped in the centre to control the different screen mirroring modes (off, 1D, 2D, 3D, and 4D), Rhythm mode (music sync), and scene modes. You can’t tell from the image above, but the panel with the 3 buttons is rubberised, so when pressing these buttons there’s a little ‘give’. The power button is a standard ‘click’ type button.

The underside has rubberised pads so it won’t slide around, along with two QR codes; one for Android users, and a HomeKit code. The front of the unit has nothing of note, but the back has three ports; a coaxial port for the power supply, a USB-C port for the light strip, and a USB-A port for the camera to plug into, which we’ll look at next.

Along with the controller, the camera is probably the second most important part of the ensemble, given that it’s this that analyses the image on your screen. The camera lens is purely for this function and can’t be accessed as a regular camera, at least by the user. As it’s going to be pointing at the TV, I’m not really concerned about privacy, although I guess it depends on what you’re watching! If you are concerned about protecting your privacy, the camera does come with a magnetic lens cover that just snaps into place. The camera also has a built-in stand that allows the camera to be angled to point up towards your TV screen, although this is not of use if you plan to mount it from the top of your TV.

Mounting it from the top of the TV isn’t as cumbersome as you might think, and in my case, it was very straightforward to set up, although I’d still prefer to use it sat facing up, as it’s a lot more discrete in my opinion. The counterweight at the back ensures it won’t topple without some help, and does a good job of holding it in place. The camera simply sits in the holder, with the USB cable fed through a small gutter in the stand to keep it tucked away.

The final pieces are four corner brackets to aid in getting the strip around the corners of the back of the TV. If you’ve ever tried to get a strip fixed to the back of your TV, you’ll know that getting the strip to pass at a 90º angle isn’t as easy as some would think, and as a strip like this is even more inflexible than standard strips, these corner brackets should help. They work by forcing the strip to angle itself by 45º in the horizontal plane, so it essentially helps the strip navigate the corners in a more natural way.  These brackets are made up of segments that make the brackets flexible at sticking to surfaces with a bit of a curve too.

PHYSICAL INSTALLATION

It might come as a bit of a surprise to many that until a few weeks ago, I was using a 1080p Samsung TV from 2013 – shocking, I know…! Because I wanted to give the strip the best chance of delivering on its promised functionality, as well as preempting the inevitable demise of my old TV, I opted for something well within my budget. Xiaomi in Taiwan is offering their 55″ 4K A2 TV for just NT$12,000 (approx. US$375), down from NT$20,000 (US$625), so at 40% off, it was too good to pass up and perfectly timed. Needless to say, coming from a 42″ screen to 55″ screen is a bigger change than you’d expect, but the size was right in the sweet spot for the Nanoleaf 65″ kit.

Before the strip or the TV arrived, I knew there would be issues with fitting the strip, which in this case was due the bottom section for the back of the TV. This section sticks out from the back, presenting you with what I’ll call a ‘chin’ for want of a better word. This means that if I were to fit the strip as is, with the corner brackets, the position of the strip on the bottom half of the TV would be closer to the wall than the top part of the strip. In hindsight that probably wouldn’t have been as noticeable as I’d imagined, but for now, in order to keep the strip evenly distributed, I opted to use some spare pieces of high-density packing foam I had lying around. This allowed me to balance the position of the top and bottom parts sections of the strip.

The issue I did encounter was one that I’ve found before when it comes to LED strips and the backs of TVs, in that the strip’s adhesive is usually just not strong enough, especially when it comes to the corner brackets, which the strips had a hard time keeping stuck to. It’ll do for now, but I may revisit this setup again at some point.

The only other thing to do once I had the strip in place was to power up the controller, connect the camera and strip, and I was ready to go. I initially set up the camera looking up at the TV from below but changed that to using the stand afterwards.

HARDWARE/SOFTWARE INSTALLATION

I started off the process of adding the device via the Nanoleaf app, as I was sure there’d be a firmware update waiting for me. As I’m using HomeKit, I used the QR code that appears on the manual and the controller. Adding was easy enough, with a connection to my WiFi network using the 2.4GHz band. I’m not entirely sure why Thread isn’t used in this instance, but it could be possible the controller is destined to act as a Thread Border Router, like the company’s Shapes and Lines products. I then placed it in a room within the Home app, and named it, as is standard for a HomeKit device.

Once installed, you’re taken to the setup, which involves a few simple steps. First off, you need to select which position the camera is set to – from the bottom looking up (below), or from the stand looking down (above). The next step involves calibrating the strip by identifying the corners, so the strip knows its overall position around the TV. This is where things initially “went south” with the setup, as this second step didn’t appear during the process, even though I’d seen it in various other videos. I soldiered on anyway, which took me to the camera feed, which isn’t live but merely a snapshot. This section allows you to move six dots around the screen to outline your TV’s own screen. You can also go full-screen if required. The missing calibration option did eventually show up after I’d gone through a reset.

Despite the process not quite being complete, thanks to the missing calibration page, I was then presented with the option to include other Nanoleaf devices to work alongside the 4D strip, although as you can see above, none of the bulbs in the same room are currently compatible. There should be an update to include those too, but I’m doubtful it’ll be necessary. We shall see.

Further issues ensued when I attempted to perform the required update to the 4D. After pressing the ‘update’ button in the app, and waiting for what seemed like an eternity, I gave up and force-quit the app. Upon relaunching, it still showed there was an update, but when looking at the updates page, it showed no ‘update’ button, with the firmware number still listing the older version. A couple more force-quits and it finally showed that it had indeed updated the firmware. I don’t use the Nanoleaf app for anything more than updates usually, and if I didn’t need it for that, I’d be more than happy, as their app is pretty buggy and unstable. I’ve had similar issues with updating bulbs, strips, Shapes etc., and it never seems to get fixed. Unfortunately, the app is required to some extent for the 4D to be controlled unless you leave it on one setting at all times. Luckily, the strip will stay on whatever last setting was deployed when you turn it on via HomeKit.

4D OPTIONS IN THE NANOLEAF APP

The 4D will show in the Nanoleaf app as a single selectable tile, which once pressed anywhere other than the 4D icon will open up to the main opinions page. On this main page, you can turn the strip on or off as well as adjust the overall brightness levels of the strip. Below that you can choose from three different options;- ‘Basic’, ‘4D’, and ‘Scene’.

• Basic – This option allows you to use a single solid colour along the length of the strip, which is also the same as you’ll find in the Apple Home app.
• Scene – This third option allows you to select from a series of preset multicolour animated effects.

• 4D – This is the main option for screen mirroring functionality, which is broken up into further sub-options
  • 1D – This option simply provides simple ambient back lighting in white, which will adjust its brightness in relation to what’s on the screen
  • 2D – This second option is like 1D, except it uses colour instead of white, and will adjust its colour and brightness based on the dominant colour on the screen
  • 3D – This option isn’t as clear as to how it differs from 4D, but in my experience, it seems to replicate the colours around the edges of the screen, like 4D does, but in a more ambient way, so in essence less accurate.
  • 4D – This is the one you’d be using if you want to extend the colours beyond the edge of the TV screen. With this (and the 3D) option, you get a further three options to choose from;
    • Cinematic – This gives you what 4D is designed to do, but with less vibrancy, so whilst it follows the colours, it’s slightly more muted. This is probably of use if you’re in a darkened room, but don’t want the effect to be overbearing, which can be the case with some action-based Sci-Fi movies, for example.
    • Vivid – This is the same as Cinematic but with brighter and more saturated colours. This might be of more use if you want the 4D effect, but the room isn’t as dark, maybe due to you watching a film in the daytime.
    • Custom – This option sort of speaks for itself, allowing you to adjust the dynamic colour range, saturation, and overall white balance of the strip.

You can also activate the ‘Rhythm’ option alongside all the 4D options, which will then adjust the brightness and colour based on both the sound and image from your TV, as well as any external sounds. I’m not sure about having Rhythm activated alongside the 4D effects, as it could end up with a bit of sensory overload, but it’s your call.

NANOLEAF 4D RESULTS

I should preface this section by explaining that where we have our TV placed (in the bedroom), there’s not enough wall behind the TV to perfectly demonstrate the entire strip. As you might be able to make out from the image above, there are shelves built into the wall. That said, the colours are still pretty visible even if they don’t hit a light, blank background in this area. This is less evident in the following photos and video unfortunately, but where the colours do hit the wall, it’s fairly clear that the screen mirroring works – to a greater or lesser degree – depending on various contributing factors.

First of all, here’s a video demonstrating the on-screen colour-tracking. It works better than I expected, although it can vary, especially with darker images;

As previously explained, the camera didn’t quite pick out the colour that emanated on the left side of the TV, although you can see it on the bottom and top left corners. What these images do demonstrate are the relatively accurate colours, bearing in mind the colours are representative of the screen colour along the edges, not the inner parts of the image. They also show that when there’s little to no colour – like can be seen in the images of Earth from space – that light doesn’t show at all, for obvious reasons.

What I did notice on occasion, when either there were dark areas, or when the screen went momentarily dark via a scene cut in a film or TV show, some or all of the LEDs wouldn’t turn off (to match the blackness of the screen), but instead show a random colour in parts (often times red) or freeze on the last selection of colours until the screen was lit up again. It didn’t happen all the time, but it’s clearly a bug of some sort that I hope will be addressed down the line.

Speaking of bugs, I also noticed that quite often in the Nanoleaf app, there was a delay in turning the strip on, before settling into the correct mode in the app. So once the strip was on, the setting for the strip was supposed to be on a particular mode, but after maybe 5-10 seconds, the modes would rapidly change, as though it was catching up with multiple presses you’d initiated, even when you hadn’t touched anything.

There is one issue that I’m sure affects all other light strips that have the screen mirroring functionality, and that is to do with aspect ratios. Many TV shows and some older movies will be filmed in the 16:9 aspect ratio, thereby filling the screen, and thus allowing the screen mirroring to work as intended. However, many films are filmed with an aspect ratio that essentially has black bars at the top and bottom of the screen, which means the LEDs at the top and bottom of won’t be showing any colours, because they’re seeing black. Heck, even some older movies with a 4:3 ratio will produce black bars on the side of the screen, so I’m not sure what can be done in cases where the screen isn’t completely filled with imagery.

IN APPLE HOME

As you can guess, there’s no specific way to control the multicolour or screen mirroring effects in Apple Home, which is the case with all strips. You get the one tile that can turn the strip on or off, along with a slider to control the brightness and a single solid colour of your choice. The good news here is that if you have the 4D set to Screen Mirroring already in the Nanoleaf app, once turned on via HomeKit, that mode should be active by default. When it comes to multicolour animated preset ‘scenes’ in the Nanoleaf app, these can be exported to HomeKit, although I’ve never bothered with it so far, as you could end up running out of space for your own custom scenes in Apple Home.

You’ll also note that there’s no option for Adaptive Lighting, which is something you get with the HomeKit over Thread versions of the company’s Essentials lineup – the A19 bulbs and the light strip. I personally don’t think it’s necessary to have adaptive lighting for a strip that’s essentially going to replicate what’s on a display, as the chances you’re going to be in a ‘productive’ or ‘winding down’ state whilst being entertained by what’s on the TV are probably close to zero. If the option was available, then it would negate the whole purpose of screen mirroring to begin with – n’est-ce pas?

SUMMING UP

For the price, I think with HomeKit compatibility, the Nanoleaf 4D kit is actually at a decent price point. This is made more favourable when you consider that if you don’t want the strip, you can just purchase the camera and controller to use with Nanoleaf Shapes or Lines that you may already have.

I’ve found, after a fair bit of tweaking and taking into account some of the product’s limitations, that it works at least as well as I’d expected. This is especially true when you consider that a seemingly fairly low-resolution/budget camera and controller are doing quite well at translating what’s on screen. I personally don’t like the camera mount idea, in much the same way as I don’t really dig retrofit (Heath Robinson) type options these days (switchbot bot is one such device, sorry), but I imagine if the bottom placement option doesn’t work as well, then I’ll probably get used to the camera mount eventually.

The one area of real frustration is the app itself. I, and many others, find it frustrating to use for only a short amount of time, so I think an overhaul is long overdue, but get the bugs fixed too please Nanoleaf!

The post Nanoleaf 4D Screen Mirror and Lightstrip Kit (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

Aqara continues the minimalist theme for their packaging, with the light strip on the front, and not a lot more. It notes that you do need a Zigbee 3.0 Aqara hub, as the strip uses Zigbee 3.0, which is absolutely fine by me right now. The rear makes a suggestion on how you could integrate the strip with other Aqara devices for using in automations too, which is something they’ve pushed for a while now.

The front edge panel features the specifications, which are;

• Model: LEDS-K01/LEDS-K02
• Rated Power: 5W/m (30 x 5050 LEDs (0.2W, RGB), 60 x 2835 LEDs (0. 2W)
• Input [LED Strip): 24VDC ≤0.25A/m
• Color Temperature: RGB+2700K-6500K
• Input (Power Supply): 100-240V-50/60Hz 1.2A Max
• Wireless Protocol: Zigbee
• Dimensions: 2000 x 12 x 2.8 mm
• Operating Temperature: -10°C ~ 40°C (14°F ~ 104°F)
• Operating Humidity: 0 – 95% RH, no condensation
• What is in the Box: Light Strip (2m) x 1, Power Adapter x 1, Controller x 1, User Manual x 1

One side simply states a strapline in various languages, which is probably the most extensive amount of translations they’ve done so far, covering EN, IT, RU, FR, DE, ES, JP, CN, KR. The other side lists the features of the strip, which are;

• Multi-colour or Tuneable White
• Gradient Lighting Effects
• Compatibility and Matter* Support
• Smart Home Automations
• HomeKit Adaptive Lighting
• Music Sync Mode

Of these, the only ones of real interest are Gradient Lighting Effects, Matter support, and Adaptive Lighting; Of the two ‘enticing features’ I mentioned at the start, the first is that the strip can do multiple colours along the length of the strip – ten different colours on a two-metre strip, to be precise. Whilst there are quite a few strips capable of this, the T1 does offer an ability which not all ‘multicolour’ strips offer, which I’ll go into in a bit.

Matter support is asterisked due to it not being directly compatible with Matter, only through an Aqara hub that has been updated to use Matter and added to your smart home using Matter. Some have said this is misleading, although I do have to disagree to some extent. The exact same thing could be levelled at any Aqara Zigbee product in terms of their compatibility with Apple Home, for example, but I don’t see people making that very argument, as it’s a given that they need a hub. The same applies to Philips Hue light bulbs – they need a hub, but require the Hue Bridge for HomeKit support, so I don’t really buy this complaint regarding Matter, sorry.

Lastly, we get to Adaptive Lighting, which is only offered by a few other light strips that I’m aware of – Nanoleaf (HomeKit over Thread), Eve (WiFi), and the T1. So if Adaptive Lighting has beenuseful for you, this is a tangible bonus in my opinion. If you’re not aware of Adaptive Lighting, It basically tunes the type of white light throughout the course of the day, with warm white in the morning, gradually changing to cool white to aid productivity, then gradually back to warm white in the evening to help you unwind and relax before sleep.

The packaging contains the 2m strip, a power supply with a coaxial connection on the end of the cable, an LED Strip controller, a manual in multiple languages, and two plug adaptors. These adaptors clip into the power supply. Depending on where you buy the strip from, you should get a pair of these adaptors, so in North America, you’ll most likely get a Type A adaptor (US) and a Type H Adaptor (AU). If you’re in Europe, you’ll get a Type B adaptor (EU) and a Type G adaptor (UK). The power supply connects to the controller at one end, with the other end of the controller connecting to the strip itself.

The strip can be cut as long as its trimmed along the lines indicated. As you can see above, the strip contains separate LEDs for colour and whites, with CW representing the cool white LED, and WW for warm white, flanking the RGB LED.

I should briefly mention the controller which connects the power supply to the strip. It comes with three large buttons, the first of which is for power. If you press and hold it for more than fie seconds, it will factory reset the strip and remove it from any hub it’s connected to, as well as Apple Home.

The middle button cycles through the three white modes (cool, warm, mid) and onto colour or multicolour mode, whichever it was last set to.

The final button is solely for activating or deactivating the music sync mode.

IN APPLE HOME

Unsurprisingly, the T1 strip is a pretty standard affair in Apple Home, at least on the surface, with a single tile and controls to adjust the brightness and colour. There’s the Adaptive Lighting option too of course. Even though this strip is capable of multiple colours at once, you can’t access them directly from the tile, although as I’ll show you in a bit, the T1 does have a way around this.

IN AQARA HOME

Equally unsurprisingly, control in Aqara Home is a lot more extensive. The main page offers control for the power, brightness, dynamic scenes presets, music sync, and light grouping. From here you can also access RGB and white light controls with three separate options – RGB Palette which offers preset colours in boxes, RGB Spectrum which offers fine control of RGB, and Tuneable White which allows control over the colour temperature of the white LEDs.

The plus icon located after these options will allow you to create either a Static or Dynamic effect. The difference between the two is simple; Static effects basically don’t have any kind of animation, so no light changes. Dynamic effects offer different types of light animations.

Note: the basic 2m strip will come with ten individually colour addressable ‘zones’, with five additional zones available with the 1m extensions the company sell. In my case as seen above, I connected three additional extensions, but trimmed the last one, bringing the strip to 4.4m, which in turn gave me a total of 22 zones to play with.

So, you can colour each of these zones individually using RGB palette or spectrum options. Each zone consists of six LEDs. The app also offers combinations, which in my opinion feel like a bit of an afterthought. These offer four, five, and six section combinations.

When it comes to static effects, this is where the Aqara goes a little further than some other multicolour strips that offer animations, but don’t allow you to simply colour parts of the strip yourself statically. There are other companies that offer this kind of feature, notably one of my favourites, the Onvis Kameleon K1 strip, which offers a very in-depth way of controlling your strip. You can read the review HERE or watch the video HERE.

Dynamic effects offer animations presets as seen on the main page, and custom animations, although this is limited to colour selection and speed. The app currently offers eight different types of animations – Breathing, Rainbow, Chasing, Flash, Jumping, Rainbow 2, Flapping (?), and Running. You can copy and edit the existing presets, or you can start from scratch with your own.

There are a few settings you can tweak for the T1, like power memory in case of power failure, dimming range, and a separate section for setting the length of the strip, which would only need to be set if you add extension and/or cut them.

Music Sync isn’t personally something I’d ever use, but you might like it. It picks up sound via a microphone inside a small hole on the side of the controller, that reacts to sound and animates the lights accordingly. You need to activate it, either via the app, an automation/scene, or via the controller, and once active you can choose between a limited set of options. This includes the mic’s sensitivity, and four different effects.

AQARA HOME | APPLE HOME (PART 2) | SCENES

I mentioned two possible options to sway potential customers into buying the T1 over other strips, with the first being able to colour the strip to your liking, without necessarily having to have it be animated. The second selling point here is that the Aqara app now offers the option to export Aqara Scenes directly to Apple HomeKit. This isn’t the first time this has been available, as LiFX, Nanoleaf, and Onvis all offer this. The difference here is mostly down to Aqara’s much larger ecosystem compared to the others. So even if this option is available via other manufacturers, the sheer amount of additional functionality you can get with virtually all of Aqara’s product lines, many of which just aren’t possible to achieve directly within HomeKit, makes it a very compelling feature.

so what is it again? Well, as you know, in the case of this light strip, HomeKit control is limited to solid colours not multiple colours – the option is simply not there in the HomeKit framework. With the Scene export feature – as I like to refer to it – you can create scenes that make use of the multicolour presets, and simply export them to Apple Home, where those scenes can be used and triggered in regular HomeKit automations.

In The Aqara app, you tap on the Scenes tab, tap +, and add an action. You then select the device you want to perform an action, in this case, the LED Strip T1.

Once the T1 is selected, you get a series of actions to choose from, and as you can see above, there are a lot! From simple on/off, to setting a particular brightness level, turning music sync on/off and more. In this case I’m going to select ‘Set dynamic RGB Effect’ and from there, I can choose the specific effect – ‘Rainbow’.

with that done, I now have a basic scene that can be triggered or used in automations in the Aqara home app. I name it, give it an icon, and it’s now listed with my other Aqara Scenes. To continue this process I then tap on ‘Edit’ at the bottom of the screen.

I can then select my scenes, at which point three options appear – ‘Move to a Group’, ‘Add to Apple Home’, and ‘Delete’. Selecting the second option takes you to a second page where you choose a hub. I’m not sure why this part is necessary, but I’m sure it is. Incidentally, the Aqara G4 doorbell also appears as an option, even though it’s not technically a hub, so it would seem that most devices that either act as hubs or are directly connected to your network using WiFi are options. The only one I can think of that may not appear but use WiFi is the FP2 presence sensor, but that has a lot of work to do all by itself.

Selecting your hub then quickly shoots that scene over to HomeKit, where it becomes a standard HomeKit scene, effectively. You can test it out on this page, or just press ‘Done’. As you can see in the Home app, my ‘Rainbow Strip’ Scene now appears alongside other scenes.

One thing to note is that regardless of where your Aqara device is located, the exported scene will appear in the same room as the hub you selected during the scene export process. Luckily for me, the strip and the hub I chose are both in the living room, but it’s worth pointing out if you can’t find a scene connected to a device that might not necessarily in the same room.

LIGHT STRIP IN PLACE

There are many locations one could place a light strip, and I’ve done that to death, but in our living room, in front of the kitchen area, we have a set of cupboards running the length of the Kitchen island. Luckily for me, there’s a sort of gutter that runs the length of these cupboards uninterrupted, so the strip can cover the length pretty easily. Even though I had the 2m strip and three 1m extensions, I only needed 4.4m in total to cover everything, but I think it’s fair to say it works well.

It seems logical to test the basic solid colours, and as you can see above, I’ve gone for red, green, blue, yellow, and pink. All work well enough, although due to the placement in this case, it’s really for accent lighting only. That’s fine as we have more than enough main lighting in this area. The colours are pretty accurate.

As it’s accent lighting for the most part, the Adaptive Lighting option is probably not going to get a lot of use, but here is cool, warm, and mid white at 100%.

Given that this is a written review, it’s not really easy to show you animated effects, although you can check them out in our accompanying video review. For here, and this last set of images, we’ll focus on the option to ‘paint’ the strip yourself. The first of the three images shows the french tricolour – red, white, and blue, demonstrating the ability to colour sections of the strip to your liking. The second image show the strip made up of colours of the rainbow, with each zone a different colour to the last. The last of these images demonstrate every other zone either set to 100% blue or turned completely off.

THE T1 IN USE

In general I’m loathe to review light strips these days, and have turned down the chance to review strips from a couple of other well known companies. The reason is simple, what more can say of them that hasn’t already been said a dozen times before. If that’s the case, why am I bothering with the T1 you might ask. Well, I like Aqara products, and whilst I’ve been very happy with the Onvis Kameleon, it was yet another strip I was keen to replace due to it using WiFi. All other strips have since been replaced with Nanoleaf versions that use Thread, and as the Aqara uses Zigbee, that Kameleon is one less WiFi device in the home. I know that sounds a bit draconian, but I’m really on a mission to cut out WiFi devices wherever I can.

Aside from that, the strip itself works really well, as you would expect of a Zigbee device. The new option to export Aqara scenes to HomeKit is a plus, and I’m always happy to see Adaptive Lighting included. I don’t really take the brightness into account for light strips, generally speaking, as I often consider them only as accent lighting. The strip seems around as bright as other strips though, although clearly not as bright as either the Eve or Nanoleaf when it comes to whites, both of which also offer Adaptive Lighting*.

What is slightly disappointing is the amount of zones; The T1 has 10 zones on a 2m strip, with 6 LEDs per zone. When you compare that the Onvis Kameleon’s 20 zones and 3 LEDs per zone, it’s a little bit of a let down. It’s not the end of the world, but when it comes to animated effects, there is a slightly visible difference between the T1 and the Kameleon due to the amount of zones. Still, the T1 is compatible with all platforms, whilst the Kameleon is only compatible with Apple Home, so if you use other platforms in addition to HomeKit, the Aqara is the one to go for. As for Matter, as previously stated, this is compatible via a suitable hub, which once again is not the case with the Onvis.

In conclusion, what could have been a bit of an ‘also ran’ for a light strip, has turned out better than expected, mainly due to the features available in the Aqara app, and the fact you can paint the strip without the need for animating them too.

* Only the HomeKit over Thread version of the Nanoleaf Essentials strip offers Adaptive lighting

The post Aqara LED Strip T1 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING | CONTENTS

The Yeelight Cube Smart Lamp exists as three separate models; the ‘Panel’, the ‘Spot’, and the ‘Matrix’. Each of these is the same in terms of size and shape, but each offers something distinct. They can all work together, however. More on the differences in a bit.

To slightly complicate things, each cube can be bought as part of what you might call a basic starter pack, which includes one cube and a base, which both power the Cube(s) and connects to your network, or as an ‘extension’, meaning you get the cube by itself, without the base to power it. In the case of the above, you can see this is the pack that includes the base and one ‘Panel’ cube.

The box for the ‘starter’ pack is larger due to the included power supply and aforementioned base unit.

Starting with the base, which is actually the part that both connects to your smart home and your network. To connect to your home network, it uses standard 2.4GHz WiFi. It would’ve been nice to have seen Thread used here, but Yeelight doesn’t seem to have gone down that route, instead sticking with WiFi and Bluetooth Mesh for some of its other products. The base matches the cubes in terms of two of its three dimensions (square, essentially), with a touch-sensitive indent acting as a multi-function button on the front. The back of the cube is home to a coaxial port for the power supply, and the upper face houses a recessed circle containing four metallic rings. This is what transmits power and data from the base to cubes connected to it in series. The relevant information is etched on this surface as well, which includes not only basic electrical specs but also the Matter QR code. Yes, if you weren’t already aware, whilst this can work with HomeKit, it does so via Matter, so there’s no HomeKit code as such. As regards the aforementioned rings, each cube also has one of these sets of rings, along with an ‘opposing’ connection to pass on the power/data to successive cubes, which I’ll show you in a bit. The underside, which you’ll only see if the base is stood on its side, houses a stylised version of the Yeelight logo.

Onto one of the three cubes now, and as already mentioned, there’s an instance of the four recessed metallic rings on one end. The opposite end features a raised circle that’s home to four retractable pins. These, in case it isn’t obvious by now, correspond to the four rings. The back of the device is blank, and the front with the LED display has nothing of note unless it’s powered up, which we’ll see later.

Finally, the power supply is of a design used by Yeelight many times. I’ve got the North American (Type A) version here, but the power supply has a removable plug, which can be switched out to one of three versions, depending on where you purchase this or where it’s shipping to, so you’ll get either a European adaptor (Type C) or a UK adaptor (Type G).

THE THREE CUBE VARIANTS

I’ve got all three variants here, starting with the…

• PANEL: you can see it’s one large colour…panel, although underneath the diffuser it still has 25 individual LEDs like the Matrix. The diffuser merely blends the lights so that they create a uniform look. As it has 25 LEDs, it can display multiple colours at once.
• MATRIX: This comes with the name for obvious reasons, and with this display, you get 25 dots each capable of producing different colours. As there’s no diffuser as is found with the Panel, you can create graphics and other images very clearly.
• SPOT: This option is only capable of one colour at a time, as it’s one large and powerful LED, with a built-in reflector to maximise brightness. What it does offer is the ability to act as a light to shed colour onto a wall or a ceiling, but it can also be angled to a certain degree.

PUTTING THEM TOGETHER

As you can see from the promotional image above, these can connect using the rings and pins I showed earlier, with a maximum of six cubes of any type connected to one base at any time. If you want more than six cubes, then you just set up another base unit, and add cubes to that base. Each Cube has magnets to help keep them stuck together.

The base unit, as previously stated, is what connects the Cubes to your smart home platform of choice with the included Matter code. In my case, I added the base unit to the Yeelight Station app, which is a new and separate application from the standard Yeelight app. This is specifically for the Cube at this time, but I’m sure it’ll be home to future smart home lighting products of this type at some point later.

YEELIGHT STATION APP

In the app, the main screen will show each base unit you have in a separate block, so in the example above there’s only one base unit. From there you can turn the base (and by extension any Cubes connected to it) on or off, or select one of thirteen preset ‘modes’ as they’re labelled, although I’d tend to refer to these as preset themes. Tapping anywhere else on the main device panel opens up more options, so the same 13 modes are available as floating ‘bubbles’ (spread over two screens) that give you a better idea of what each mode might look like, along with the descriptive name. Each mode also comes with an edit button to allow customisation of each mode. Depending on the mode’s theme, you can edit overall or individual colours, the speed of the animation, and change the direction of the animation, where available.

As the Yeelight Cubes are modular, allowing for a mix of types and amounts, you do need to let the app know the layout of the set of Cubes. Within the Device Settings menu, the Module Splicing option does just this, with a visual UI to allow you to add or remove different Cube types, rearrange the order, and select the orientation of the base unit. As previously stated, the maximum amount of Cubes you can add to a base unit is six. I assume this is due to power constraints, although if you set these to be upright, like a tower block, then any more than six cubes is likely an accident waiting to happen, which at worst, could injure a toddler if one of these cubes landed on their head (they’re not light and the corners are reasonably sharp) or at the least could leave you with a damaged, non-functional Cube.

The touch-sensitive button on the base unit serves three main functions;

• a single tap turns the unit and the Cubes on if they’re off.
• a 2-second press turns the unit/cubes off
• a 5-second press factory resets the base unit
• a single tap when the unit is on, cycles through up to eight different modes

By default, six of the modes are already assigned, but you can assign any of the modes as well as your own designs if you wish. This is achieved via the ‘Custom Button Switching’ option.

For a few other settings, the Device Settings panel allows for firmware updates, LAN control, and Pairing Mode for Matter. Even though the base units come with a Matter code, once that code has been used for one smart home platform (in this case Yeelight’s own system), it can’t be reused to add the device to additional platforms, so in my case when the base unit was added to the Yeelight Station app, in order to get it into HomeKit, I needed to generate a new code, that I could then paste into the Home app when adding it to HomeKit. This code changes each time the Pairing mode has been activated.

If you were to add the base unit to HomeKit first, you’d use the provided Matter QR code, then enable Pairing mode in the Home app for other platforms. This appears to be pretty much the same arrangement with Google Home and Amazon Alexa, although, at the time of writing, you can’t add Matter devices to these two platforms unless you do so via an Android phone.

Even though the Cubes come with some nice preset modes, you can create your own, so in the case of both the Panel and Matrix, you can draw your designs on a 25-dot artboard, with each dot representing a colour LED in both of these Cubes. The UI allows you to colour each ‘dot’ individually, which you can see easily reflected on the display for the Matrix, although less so on the Panel, as it has a diffuser, so the dots are far less obvious. The Spot is a different story, as it can only do one colour at a time, so it’s really just a case of selecting a colour. There’s also a ‘Dynamic Effects’ option that can be applied to both preset modes and your own creations. These are;

• None (off basically)
• Translation – scrolling from the top, bottom, left, or right
• Breath – the brightness of the Cubes pulsates slowly
• Flashing – the cubes turn on and off
• Accumulation – the design is gradually built up with the relevant LEDs turning on bit by bit

In addition to the option to create your own visuals, you get a large selection of presets that are grouped into different areas;

• Graphics – these consist of icons of all types, like arrows, patterns, hearts, and even those ghost creatures found in Pacman
• Alphabet – this is simply the 26 letters of the English alphabet
• Numbers – zero to nine basically.

These all come with preset colours, although the colours can be changed simply by selecting the ‘edit’ button at the bottom.

And finally, you get some presets designed to work best with certain dynamic effects;

• Transition
• Horizontal combination
• Vertical combination

These allow you to set up a set of Cubes (using only Matrix Cubes for the best effect) and have them move in sequence to create a sort of animated effect, as the designs roll either vertically or horizontally across all of the Cubes.

CLOCK FUNCTION

Many people asked me on social media if the clock feature would actually work once these were released, and I’m happy to say it works as hoped.

There’s nothing you need to do other than to turn the feature on in the Yeelight Station app, although to be clear, this feature cannot be activated unless you have at least four Matrix cubes available and set up in the app. Once that’s sorted, you can then just turn the option on and the current time will immediately take over from whatever was there previously. Tapping on the clock theme opens up a second screen that offers a choice of 8 preset colour options, ranging from multi-coloured, tinted, or regular colours. These cannot be altered, other than for brightness, so if you don’t particularly like the choice of yellow in the particular preset, that’s too bad.

You also have the option to choose from just the time, the date, or both date and time. The latter option switches between time and date every few seconds. If you add other Matrix or Panel Cubes to the lineup whilst the clock is active, they won’t do anything and will be inactive. The Spot is the exception to this and will beam a solid colour in the same hue as the clock, and at the same brightness.

IN THE HOME APP

If you’ve ever owned any multicolour devices before (like the Onvis K1 Kameleon light strip for example), you’ll know that HomeKit is confined to one colour at a time, so if you choose a colour in the Home app UI, all the cubes will change to this colour. Any special designs will also be replaced by a solid colour, whether it’s the Panel, Matrix, or Spot. You can adjust the brightness as normal, and in fact, if the Cubes are set to a specific Yeelight Station ‘Mode’, turning the cubes on within Home will retain that design, and even allow you to adjust the overall brightness of that design, but the moment you choose a colour, the design is gone. Companies like the aforementioned Onvis get around this by allowing you to create multicolour designs in their own app and save them as ‘Scenes’ which also show up as scenes in the Home app, thereby allowing you to recall these multicolour creations within automations etc. Yeelight’s app is not currently capable of such a feat, at least not right now, which is a shame.

This points to the larger limitations of the Yeelight Station app, as you don’t even have options to trigger the cubes to turn on or off via schedules. Even if the app was only capable of turning a design on or off at specific times or days, it would be something, but it can’t do anything like that, which means a lot of these changes have to be performed manually, via the app or the button on the base unit.

Hopefully, based on my conversations with Yeelight so far, this will change with future updates to the app, that’ll add more functionality, and likely even more ‘Themes’, so we’ll have to wait and see. It’s also entirely possible that even more types of Cube will be released down the line, although what form these would take I’m not sure.

MATTER

When it comes to Matter, things worked fine when it came to adding the base unit to HomeKit, and it was pretty much like adding any natively HomeKit-compatible device. That said, when it came to adding it to other platforms, it was – as you’ve probably seen is the case with some other reviewers – a bit of a mixed bag. I currently have devices from Google, Amazon, and Samsung* that will all allow Matter over WiFi devices, although in the case of the former two, you can currently only add a Matter device via their respective Android apps. This was a success when it came to Alexa, and I am now able to control the Cube lights via Alexa or the app – even on iOS now that it has been added to my account. Sadly it wasn’t the case when it came to Google, for whatever reason, but I’m not going to dwell on it for now.

*I have yet to set up the Samsung SmartThing Station…lazy

IN USE

I’ve had a fair bit of fun exploring the options available, and generally speaking, I think Yeelight has scored a large win with this set of lights. The obvious comparison to the recently released Twinkly Squares can’t be ignored, although they are in many ways quite different products – the Twinkly offering is designed for being wall mounted, whilst these Cubes are meant for a desktop or shelf. The Twinkly Squares do offer a higher ‘resolution’ if you can call it that, as they offer an 8 x 8 matrix, which gives you a total of 64 individually controllable LEDs compared to Yeelight’s 5 x 5 matrix (25 LEDs), but importantly, Yeelight offers three different models, not just a matrix-type tile. Both use WiFi, but if you were ever concerned about futureproofing, then Yeelight, with its Matter support offers local control for all compatible platforms. Both offer Razer connectivity, and even though I don’t have a PC, for any gamer out there, these would undoubtedly be a welcome addition – not just for gaming, but music and video too.

The build quality is in all honesty, second to none. The cubes are really well manufactured, and just by holding one in your hand, it just feels really premium. Likewise, the colours are richly saturated and bright to the extent they need to be, and as it uses WiFi, you generally get fast response times, although I’d really have liked to have seen Thread in use here.

My only frustration is the lack of any form of automation or scheduling options within the Yeelight app, so I do hope they come up with something in this respect, even if it’s basic, as without this, it can be tiresome to go into the app or get up to turn the Cubes on or off.

Some have said they don’t see the point of these, and whilst I get the argument, I think as I’ve already said, these work best when paired with a PC, but I think there’s a lot of mileage still to be had with these. Sure, it’s a bit of a novelty in many ways, but then I’m not Amish, so I think I can afford to experience some colourful smart lights once in a while without the need to question its role in society!

If you’re looking for functional lighting, these are almost definitely not for you, but if you have kids, like to entertain, or play games on your PC, these are some of the better products on the market right now.

The post Yeelight Cube Smart Lamps w/ Matter (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

THE LAMP

The L1, as I’ll refer to it hereon in, comes in a rather plain box, but you can be reassured Aqara have made the packaging strong enough to protect the contents. Aside from the line drawing on the front, there are some basic specs, all of which are in Simplified Chinese;

• Model: ZNXDD01LM
• Rated power: 24W (48 x 1W LED modules)
• Rated input: 220v~ 50/60Hz
• Wireless connection: Zigbee
• Colour temperature: 2700~6500K
• Operating temperature: -10~40ºC
• Operating humidity: 0~85%RH
• Weight: 1.23kg
• Dimensions: ⌀350 x 60mm

Aside from the lamp, there’s a basic manual, three screws and corresponding rawl plugs. As for the specs, it’s interesting to note that whilst it’s listed as “220v~50/60Hz”, it actually works perfectly well at 110~120V. This also happens to be the case with the T1 version of their smart bulb, which also doesn’t list the other voltage standard. This is most likely due to the lamp not requiring certification outside of China, where they only use 220-240V. This is not to say I’m endorsing anyone using this in a way other than as described on the box, but in my case, it does work on 110-120v.

The box is not the only thing that’s devoid of much to look at, but then it is a lamp so I’m not sure I can hold that against it. The diffuser is plain translucent plastic, and as the name would imply, the lamp is 350mm or 13.78 inches in diameter. With the diffuser removed, you can see the 48 LEDs, which are split into cool and warm white LEDs.

The underside of the lamp has three holes for affixing the lamp to the ceiling, as well as a separate hole for passing the power wires to the connectors inside the lamp.

The lamp has connectors for Live, Neutral, and Ground/Earth, and at the centre is what you might consider both the brains of the device, as well as the transformer to convert the power for the LEDs. The 48 LEDs are arranged in two rings, with the cool and warm white LEDs evenly distributed. The Mijia 450 Ceiling Light I reviewed a while ago looks pretty much the same, and is manufactured by Yeelight, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if this was also made for Aqara by Yeelight, or possibly Opple, with whom Aqara has cooperated before.

Just like the Mijia 450, the diffuser can be removed quite easily with a simple quarter turn. The diffuser and lamp are held together with three ‘clasps’ (I’m not sure what the actual term is). Aside from that, the only other distinguishing feature is a silver band that is more than likely just decorative. I’m not so keen, but then if it’s high up on the ceiling, it can’t be seen. Speaking of appearances, on the whole, the quality of the lamp belies its relatively low price, which is something of a feature of Aqara products.

 IN AQARA HOME

As the L1 uses Zigbee, you need an Aqara hub, and as it’s officially designed for China, you’ll need the app set to the China server, with a Chinese hub. You can see in the second screenshot that all my hubs are listed as compatible, even the G2H. If I sign out and use HomeKit mode in the Aqara app, the L1 even lists the original M1 Aqara hub as compatible. Whilst it may be possible to add the lamp to any server, it’s quite likely that it would show up in HomeKit, but not the Aqara app, or vice versa, or even neither, so if you wanted to try it on a server/hub other than China, you’d have to find out for yourself…

In the Aqara app you have two controls for the L1 – Static mode, and Dynamic mode. In the former mode, you can choose between cool to warm whites, and select the brightness, as expected. Below that are preset ‘scenarios’ or scenes, so all pretty standard stuff. Dynamic mode, on the other hand, allows you to create ‘dynamic’ scenes which are essentially animated light scenes that can be recalled within automations.

You can choose a name and an icon to best represent the scene you’re creating and then choose one of three ‘circulation’ modes. Once these are set you can go about setting up separate ‘light statuses’ which involve the colour temperature, brightness, as well as the transition time and duration of that status. The transition time is only relevant when you have more than one ‘light status’ set up of course. these dynamic scenes can be used in a variety of ways, but as an example, you could have the light pulse when the Aqara G4 video doorbell is rung, in cases where you might not hear the doorbell chime due to being in a room too far away, or because of loud music, or for those with hearing impairments. You could also set the transition, so that the light gradually turns from one brightness level to off, when you sit down to watch a movie, as part of a home cinema setup.

IN APPLE HOME

In terms of HomeKit integration, it’s mostly what you’d expect, with a single tile to represent the L1. The great news is that, along with other Aqara lighting products, the L1 is capable of using Apple’s Adaptive Lighting feature, which automates the colour temperature of the light for you, to match or replicate the type of light best suited for the time of day – mid-warm white for mornings, gradually changing to cool white to allow for more alertness and productivity, before slowly adjusting to warm white, to allow for relaxing before bedtime. To achieve this, you simply need to make sure the first of the six ‘colour’ options is set, which features the Adaptive Lighting graphic.

THE LIGHT

Here are some images of the L1 set to 100% warm white, at the following brightness levels – 100%, 50%, 25%, and 1%.

Here are some images of the L1 set to 100% cool white, at the following brightness levels – 100%, 50%, 25%, and 1%.

and finally, the L1, set to 1% in both temperatures alongside the lamp when it’s off, to give you a rough idea of how low the brightness levels are in reality. The L is capable of achieving a CRI* (Colour Rendering Index) of 90, which isn’t bad, although not as good as some lamps from the likes of Yeelight.

*color rendering index (CRI) is a quantitative measure of the ability of a light source to reveal the colours of various objects faithfully in comparison with a natural or standard light source. (source: Wikipedia)

What’s impressive is that when photographing bulbs, of which I’ve done a fair few, at low levels, you quite easily end up with a strobing effect appearing on the images you take. There seems to be none of that at any level when I took these images. Whether that’s due to the diffuser or some specific technology used, I’m not sure, but I think it’s a good sign.

PHYSICAL CONTROL

Assuming the L1-350 is going to be hardwired where a previous light fixture was located, it’s going to be connected to a physical switch too, but as most of you know by now, the minute someone flips that switch, thereby starving the light of electricity, leading to the light being disconnected from the hub and your smart home – very annoying. This means you’ll need to replace or disable that switch so the disconnection doesn’t occur, or at the very least discourage someone from using that switch to begin with. Aqara makes a ton of different wireless (and wired) switches that could possibly fit the bill, although many are the square ’86’ type, not the US size and shape. Still, the wireless versions of these switches can be placed anywhere without the need for wiring and can control the L1 quite well. In the accompanying video for the L1 (below), I demonstrate two such switches – the H1M wireless double rocker, and the H1 Rotary dimmer switch.

Pretty much all the functionality possible with the H1M is possible with any Aqara switch or indeed any HomeKit wireless switch for that matter, although Aqara switches in the Aqara app can be programmed to use one button/action as an ‘on & off’ without needing any fancy workarounds. The H1 wireless rotary dimmer, on the other hand, can both control the brightness and colour temperature via the dial, which is not exposed as an action in HomeKit, so the rotary dimmer is of key interest in this instance.

THE L1-350 IN USE

I’ve had this lamp for a while now, but I’ve not actually had it set up in the usual way just yet (i.e. mounted to a ceiling), with it being used in a more makeshift manner in the studio. Regardless of this, as I’ve found with almost all Aqara Zigbee-based products, this has been very reliable in terms of connection and simply hasn’t let me down once so far. I’m more than happy that it uses Adaptive Lighting, as the bulbs that it’ll eventually replace are the basic warm white Hue bulbs that aren’t capable of such functionality, and given the location is where I work from most of the time, I hope to feel the claimed benefits of Adaptive Lighting.

One thing I’m not so keen on, although I can live with it, is that the light doesn’t turn on or off instantly, by which I mean when it’s turned off, the reaction time is instant, but the LEDs dim from whatever brightness they’re set at, to off gradually, as though it were being dimmed – in actual fact it’s probably not more than a second, but it’s not ‘instant’. I guess this must appeal to some, especially when turning the lamp on, so as not to dazzle the eyes, but it’d have been nice to have the option for both.

Other than that minor quibble, I don’t think you can go wrong with this light, given the reasonably budget-friendly price, and the fact it works on 110-120v too. I’d say it’s decent enough for a typical-sized bedroom, although we have a rather spacious living room, and I’m not sure it’s bright enough for that. Just be aware that it may well not work on servers and hubs other than China, which also means no Alexa or Google integration.

The post Aqara Ceiling Lamp L1-350 (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

There are some companies that start out promising HomeKit support, only to not deliver (Wynd are one such example), whilst others start out with HomeKit support, but then start to lose enthusiasm for it, like Eufy (who’ve been in the news this week for other reasons). ZemiSmart are an example of a company that had no HomeKit products for years, but once they released their first Zigbee hub, have gone all in on restrospectively adding HomeKit to some devices, or just releasing brand new products, or version of them, with HomeKit out of the box. This is something of a pleasant surprise, given that HomeKit has always been accused of lagging behind. Not so, and today’s product we’re reviewing goes one small step further. Read on to learn more.

UNBOXING

ZemiSmart may have made some large strides when it comes to HomeKit, but presentation isn’t one of their strong suits. That being said, if the product is well protected (it is), and it results in lower prices (it does), then who am I to complain? In this case, you get a plain – but sturdy – cardboard box with stickers for the specs and the ‘Works with Apple HomeKit’ badge. In the case of the latter, you could be forgiven for assuming this isn’t genuinely HomeKit certified, but I can assure you it is, despite appearances.

To its credit, the specs are there for you to see in plain view. In this case, I’m reviewing the largest of the three sizes the company offers, which is the 15W model. All models have the same input voltage – 100~240v AC, the same beam angle – 120º, and all use 2.4GHz WiFi for connectivity. The model for this review is the brightest of the three, obviously, but all three are capable of the standard 16m colours, as well as cool and warm whites managed with separate LEDs, which is impressive in a world where cheap lighting products tend to lean on RGB to recreate the white colour temperature range. More on this later.

In terms of what you get in the box, it’s as minimal as you should probably expect; the lamp, connected to a driver, and a simple manual in English. The manual comes with a HomeKit QR code, with the box alone coming with two copies of the code. The driver for the lamp also has a QR code, so four in total. They’re all the same code of course, just in case you’re new to this…

As with nearly all downlights/pot lights/recessed lights, you get a couple of spring-loaded clips to hold it in place. The wires connected to the driver are decently wrapped in a material sleeve that feels sturdy, and the rear (or inside) of the lamp has an aluminium heatsink.

The driver, which regulates not only power to the lights, but also controls things like colour, is quite chunky but looks pretty substantial in terms of build quality compared to the ones connected to the lights being replaced. At one end of the driver are two simple connectors for the neutral and live wires to connect to. These wires are then held in place by the large orange clamps that fit on both ends of the driver. The other end contains a tiny reset/pairing button. This is probably the best option for preparing the bulbs to be added to your smart home, as the other option is to connect the lights to mains electricity as normal, then turn the lights on/off ten times via the switch they’re connected to. This wouldn’t be an issue for a single bulb, but if you did this process for one downlight, connected it to HomeKit, and then did the same for the second downlight connected to the same switch/circuit, you’ll essentially be resetting the first light again. You could also set them to be ready for pairing at the same time, though. I didn’t in this case, as I wasn’t sure if the pairing mode disabled itself after a certain amount of time.

IN HOMEKIT

As these downlights use WiFi, you can add them directly to HomeKit without having to use either the company’s Zigbee hub or the Tuya app. In the screenshots above, you can see I’ve decided to group the two downlights so they appear as just one tile. In the second screenshot, you can see colour controls, but what came as a total surprise to me is that these are compatible with Apple’s Adaptive Lighting technology. If you’re not aware of this feature, it basically allows compatible lights (they need cool and warm white options) to automatically change the colour temperature over the course of the day to aid the human body and mind to feel generally more comfortable. This might sound odd, but essentially, people are receptive to different colour temperatures, which has an effect on their mood, mind, and well-being (it is claimed). So when you wake up in the morning, the lights will be set to warm white, in order for you to adjust to the day and natural daylight. As the morning progresses, warm white eventually makes way for cooler whites, which help with productivity and alertness. As the afternoon progresses to the evening, the lights once again take on a warmer tone, to help you to relax and unwind before bed.

This feature can be deactivated simply by choosing a different colour, but s I’m using these in a room that I tend to use for work purposes, I think I’ll benefit more from whites than colours.

COLOUR

For colours, although these images probably don’t do them full justice, the colours really appear decently saturated or ‘rich’. Equally, the warm white (when used as part of Adaptive Lighting) isn’t overly orange like you find on some bulbs, and the cool white isn’t overly blue either. All in all, I was quite happy with the colour rendering.

IN THE TUYA SMART APP

You don’t have to use the Tuya app, as already stated, but you might want to, in order to take advantage of some of the exclusive features, as well as connect them to Google or Alexa if you like to control them via multiple ecosystems – at least until Matter becomes more ubiquitous. One thing that the Tuya app allows, is showing the lights both as a group and individually. This is also reflected in Google and Amazon. You also get control over the colour and colour temperature, as normal, although if you want to check that Adaptive Lighting is working, you can see the percentage directly in the colour temperature wheel, as seen above.

You get access to scenes, which make use of the bulbs’ colour-changing functionality, as well as schedules and timers. Power Memory is useful for setting the default state a bulb should turn on to, once power is restored after a power failure, and ‘Biorhythms’ is pretty much Tuya’s version of Adaptive Lighting, but possibly more customisable.

IN USE

I’ll be honest, and say that I didn’t have massively high expectations of these downlights. In fact, for a while, I was offered these for review and turned down the opportunity, as I wasn’t keen on taking on more WiFi devices. When I finally thought it was going to be something different enough for me, to review a downlight, which is something I’ve never really tackled before, I was first surprised at how much better the product quality was than anticipated. They were easy to install, even for me, not being exactly an expert on fitting stuff like this. But the surprise at finding these worked with Adaptive Lighting took these to a new level. They work well, although I’d prefer to use Zigbee or Thread eventually, using WiFi does make things easy to some extent, so I can’t really complain. The reaction times are good enough, and the colours are more than decent, as are the cool and warm whites. I really have no complaints, other than at this late stage, I’m hoping that these can be updated to support Matter. When asked about this with ZemiSmart, they were, unsurprisingly, non-commital. To HomeKit users, this isn’t going to make any real difference for a while, but given the company is working on Matter-compatible devices as I type, then we can but hope they do push an update anyway. Recommended – if you don’t mind more WiFi devices.

The post ZemiSmart WiFi Colour Downlight (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGING

Starting off with the box, eagle-eyed HomeKit fans might well recognise this from a lamp that was released earlier this year, finding its way onto places like AliExpress. One difference with that product is that it doesn’t feature the ZemiSmart branding, and whilst both this lamp and the model by CozyLife are HomeKit compatible, the CozyLife version uses WiFi, and not Zigbee, like the model we’re reviewing today. ZemiSmart does offer a WiFi version according to the box, but there’s no sign of it on their website at the time of writing. The CozyLife model also comes with a remote control. I personally try to avoid WiFi devices these days unless it’s a real requirement (cameras for example), so I’m glad to see the Zigbee version, even if it requires the company’s own HomeKit-compatible Zigbee hub.

One thing I should mention to put your mind at ease in terms of HomeKit compatibility is that whilst the box doesn’t have a HomeKit logo, with only Amazon and Google Showing up, this is 100% compatible, via the hub of course. This isn’t out of the ordinary, however, as even Hue lights won’t show the HomeKit logo, given that it’s the Hue Bridge that’s the HomeKit part, essentially. The box also goes on to let you know that not only is there a black-rimmed version, but there’s also a white version, which is the one I have here. The basic features are also listed, which include 16 million colours, as standard, scenes, schedules and timers (all via either HomeKit or the Tuya app), as well as the ability to have warm or cool white, courtesy of separate LEDs, so there’s no approximation of white light using RGB LEDs.

THE LAMP

The lamp itself has a very slim bevel surrounding the diffuser, although that bevel is deeper when viewed in profile. You’re unlikely to concentrate on that though unless you have very low ceilings or you’re over 8ft tall… The lamp is rather unadorned so if you like the plain look, this won’t disappoint.

The lamp has an interesting, if not entirely unique method of mounting the ceiling light; The underside has a removable frame or bracket that has two holes for screws that allow you to attach it to the ceiling, without the need to mount the whole unit in one go. This bracket has two wires that you would connect the wires from any previously installed light fitting, with those wires terminating in a couple of connectors.

These connectors then come into contact with a pair of pins on the main lamp body once you slide the bracket into place via the tracks on the underside of the lamp. it does make fitting the lamp easier than I’d found with the Mijia Ceiling Lamp 450 I reviewed a while ago, although Yeelight (who also makes many of Mijia’s lighting products) has different but equally useful methods of connecting the lamp to the ceiling.

One thing to note, however, is that the wires for the lamp aren’t especially strong, so you should take care to make sure they aren’t pulled or put under too much strain, as they could break from the frame. This is unlikely if you’re fitting it and leaving it alone, but it’s worth noting.

In addition to the lamp, you get two screws and corresponding rawl plugs. There’s also a very, very small booklet that doesn’t actually refer to the lamp, but one of their colour bulbs. Even though I’d say this look poor for the company, in actuality, it doesn’t really matter, as the installation is easy as long as you use the Tuya or Smart Life app;

• You power up the lamp, whereupon its brightness levels will pulsate
• In the Tuya app, you click the plus icon and select your hub
• The hub will then automatically discover the lamp and add it
• Once added, it’ll automatically appear in HomeKit

IN HOMEKIT | THE HOME APP

As you can see, the lamp appears in HomeKit just like any other colour lighting product. You get the slider control, along with options to choose your colour or colour temperature.

If you were in any doubt the lamp works with HomeKit, you can see that the lamp is connected to a bridge (screenshot #1), with the hub listed as the Zemismart hub (screenshot #2). Screenshot #3 shows the devices currently connected to the hub – a zemismart light strip and the lamp.

IN THE TUYA APP 

I don’t really use the Tuya app for anything other than updates or adding a device, but it’s actually a fairly well-appointed app, all the same. n the main page, you can control some basic features of the lamp directly without having to go into the dedicated page for the lamp itself. Apart from on/off, brightness, and colour temperature, you also get an option called the ‘Zigbee Light Link Threshold’. Although I’m not entirely sure what it’s for, it would appear to be of use with third-party Zigbee bridges, like Philips Hue, which this lamp is apparently also compatible with, although adding it to the Hue bridge won’t expose it to HomeKit. According to the manual (even though the manual isn’t specifically for this lamp…) the lamp can also work with Amazon Echo devices with a Zigbee radio built-in, as well as the SmartThings hub.

The app has the standard colour wheels for colour and colour temperature, as well as a ‘Scenes’ tab, which you’ll find in pretty much every ‘own-product’ app these days.

There’s a Music tab that animates the light based on the audio picked up from your iPhone’s mic (whoopee…) and a ‘More’ tab that lists options like Plan, Schedule, Timer, Rhythms, and Power-on behaviour. The latter two are of most interest in my opinion.

‘Rhythms’ is actually ‘Biorhythms’ and is designed to be used in a similar way to Apple’s Adaptive Lighting, so it adjusts the colour temperature and brightness throughout the course of the day, in order to provide lighting suitable for the time of day. This, apparently helps you to be alert and productive, or relaxed, depending on the time of day, and the colour temperature. Whilst Adaptive Lighting is all done automatically, in this case, you can program it yourself.

The ‘Power-on behaviour’ option, has more sub-options, so alongside the usual feature that allows you to set how the light reacts once power is restored to the lamp, you also get options to have the light brighten or dim gradually over a period of time. The Other option available is Do Not Disturb, but in this case, it allows the app to turn the light off, with the light blocked from being turned on -presumably via a wireless button – unless the said button is pressed twice. Clever.

LAMP COLOUR RENDERING

When setting up the lamp, I was pleasantly surprised at the colour generated by the LEDs. It’s not that the colours are especially rich, although they’re more than passable, but it was the evenness of the colour throughout the diffuser. There’s no way of detecting the individual LEDs, so what you’re left with is a really solid ball of colour. Personally, I think a ceiling lamp should really focus on decent whites, but for a child’s room, this would probably be more than welcome I imagine.

I mentioned at the start that this lamp has separate LEDs for cool and warm white, and as such the whites are pretty decent. The cool white setting is where you’re going to get the maximum amount of brightness. Warm white is pretty good too, with the white not being overly orange like I’ve found with some RGB bulbs.

WRAPPING UP

It’s fair to say that Zemismart seem to be trying its hardest to churn products out at a fast pace for us HomeKit users, so it’s hard to complain about minor issues that you might find with some of their products, especially for the price. In the case of this lamp, I was once again surprised at how well it performed. The minor negative points are build quality; With a lamp of this type, you’re going to set it up and largely forget about it, so even though the materials used feel a bit on the cheap side, essentially it shouldn’t matter too much. The wires used for the switch should be more robust in my opinion, but once again, as long as you don’t keep moving the lamp hither and thither, it shouldn’t matter too much. All in all, better than expected, even if it doesn’t offer anything majorly exciting or original, but then ceiling lamps are still relatively scarce in comparison to bulbs.

The post ZemiSmart Smart Ceiling light (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

PACKAGE | CONTENTS

Ikea’s stuff comes in the most basic of packaging, but we’re so used to this minimalist approach now, that it’s not something we tend to think about. As long as the goods are protected and survive the journey, that’s ok. The price justifies the lack of colour print in the case of Ikea.

What you do get on the package are the basics. The strip is only capable of warm white set to 2700K, but it is capable of dimming and gives me 530lm in total for 7.7 watts of power. As the product will need a driver to work, this is shown as excluded on the box, so you know you need a Trådfri driver for smart home use and the required power cable for the driver. You’ll also need the gateway, although as it can actually work without smart functionality, this isn’t explicitly mentioned on the box as a requirement.

Note: The light is ‘dumb’ essentially, with the driver being the smart part of the setup, but it’s also important to note that the driver communicates with the gateway using the Zigbee protocol.

Here I have the longest size they make, at 80cm/32″ in length, and as the Skydrag comes in three sizes (in most places) or four in North America, the basic specs will differ slightly.

Skydrag comes with a built-in proximity/motion sensor that can be turned off, which is just as well, as I couldn’t get it to perform adequately! When it’s set to ‘auto’, it should turn the light strip on, whilst ‘on’ is actually the sensor turned off, which seems a bit counterintuitive. As the sensor didn’t work for me, I’ll not dwell on it anymore, as I already had a different automation solution in mind anyway, which I’ll mention later.

OTHER PARTS

Ikea does a good job of making Skydrag as adaptable as possible by providing three different types of ‘brackets’ (my term) that allow the strip to be mounted in various ways. The Clamp brackets are designed for places where you might not have enough depth to use screws, so there are adhesive strips to go with these two clamp brackets, as I refer to them. You then have ‘extension brackets’ that allow the strips to overhang slightly. The final ‘angle brackets’ can be used to angle the light so that they’re not facing straight down, although this can only be achieved in certain locations. I actually used these in my wardrobe instead of the clamp brackets, as I had enough depth to fit screws.

You get the obligatory manual, which does explain how and where to use the different types of brackets, and you also get a pair of tracking strips to house the wire coming from Skydrag in order to keep everything tidy.

Finally, you get some double-sided adhesive strips to mount the clamp brackets and the cable tracking, as well as two pairs of screws and a Torx screw bit, which you should keep hold of, as the screws use this particular type of drill bit.

INSTALLATION

As previously mentioned, Skydrag requires a Trådfri driver if you specifically want smart control of your strip. Luckily, I already had one installed and set up, and because the driver is actually the smart device, not the light as such, there was no need for me to do much other than changing the location and the name/description of the lights to better represent what they’re being used for. No new installation was needed.

The Ikea app is ok, just not great, but you’re going to need it in order to set things up. Here are a few screenshots just so you get a feel for the app, and how it works in terms of its structure. As you can see, I currently have lighting in three rooms – some Mittled spotlights in the Kitchen, the Myrvarv light strip in the Wash Room, and the Skydrag in the Bedroom wardrobe.

IN HOMEKIT | APPLE HOME

Regardless of how many lights are attached to a Trådfri driver, you only get one tile per driver in the Home app. In my case, I only have the one Skydrag strip anyway, so that’s ok, but it’s important to note that if you have two strips, they’ll be treated as one – either in the Home app or Ikea’s own Home Smart app. This does have the benefit that all lights connected to a driver act as one, so there are no issues with getting them to turn on or off in sync, or ensuring the same brightness levels. This being the case, you get the one simple slider control to control these levels, and as it’s only capable of warm white, you get no colour temperature options.

As you can see in the third screenshot, I have a series of automations set up. Essentially these are used in conjunction with a couple of contact sensors – which I’ll go into in a bit – but I’ve created separate automations to set the strip to different brightness levels depending on the time of day;

• between 0800~2330 – set brightness to 100% when the sensors are triggered
• between 2330~0630 – set brightness to 30% when the sensors are triggered
• between 0630~0800 – set brightness to 60% when the sensors are triggered

I set these levels so that the light isn’t too blinding if someone happens to need to access the wardrobe in the middle of the night. Even though the strip has a maximum of 570lm, at night that can be too bright for many.

As the wardrobe has two door that open opposite each other, one sensor isn’t going to work for both doors, so I’ve added a Mijia contact sensor to one door, and an Aqara contact sensor to the other door (they’re basically the same, just different branding) both connected to the nearest Aqara hub.

As you can see, here, both contact sensors are set up in HomeKit, and both have the basic ‘on’ automations previously mentioned, but in addition, each has an automation for when the wardrobe closes, that is converted to a Shortcut automation (not to be confused with a Siri Shortcut). The reason for this is that at some point, you may open one of the wardrobe doors, then open the other, but close the first one. With a standard automation, you would end up having the strip turn off, once it detects the closed automation from one of the sensors, which isn’t what you want if you still have the other door open. You can create a ‘condition’ in an automation in apps like ‘Eve for HomeKit’, but in this case I decided to keep it all within the Home app using the ‘convert to shortcut’ option.

So, essentially, the automation works like this;

• When the initial contact sensor closes
• If the other contact sensor is ‘open’…
• Set wardrobe light to ‘on’
• Otherwise, set wardrobe light to ‘off’

That’s the logic for the shortcut, but for the sensor in the automation above it detects that the sensor has entered the ‘closed’ state, then checks to see if the other sensor is in the ‘open’ state. If it is, then set the light to ‘on’ as it means that the door is open and someone still needs the light on. If the other sensor is in the ‘closed’ state, it means that the other door is already closed, and therefore when the initial sensor has been set to closed, the light can turn off, as both sensors are now in the closed state. This shortcut automation is set for both sensors, basically looking at the state of the opposite sensor to itself, so it knows what to do based on the state of the opposite sensor.

IN USE

Having already used a couple of Ikea lights, I knew what to expect, and what I wouldn’t get, so in many ways, there was no excitement other than getting the strip fitted. Fitting was very easy and despite having to drill a hole or two to get the strip and cable near enough to my Trådfri driver, the installation itself was really easy. It did make a big difference that you’re offered different ways in which to mount these, which I think is a big plus.

I did hope the built-in sensor would be a great backup in the event my automations with external sensors didn’t fire off, but for whatever reason, I found the response to be hit and miss, so I decided not to waste any time, and just forego using this feature at all. Besides that, this wouldn’t allow me the opportunity to set my brightness level automations based on the time of day, so it was a foregone conclusion in some ways.

If you already have a Trådfri gateway  – or even a spare Trådfri driver for that matter – then I’d suggest these are definitely a better option to standard light strips, not only for the fact they have a built-in diffuser but also because they’re focused on white light only, as who really needs 16 million colour options for their wardrobe?

However, if you don’t have an Ikea gateway yet, it may be a good idea to hold off, as the company will be releasing a brand new gateway soon, that will not only have Zigbee (which is what the drivers use), but it’ll act as a Thread border router, and be ready for Matter when that arrives soon.

The post Ikea Skydrag Cabinet Strip lights (review) appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

Besides Apple HomeKit, the Makaron can also work with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Tuya SmartLife.

Specs:

• Input: 100-240V AC
• Power: 9W
• Max. brightness: 750lm
• Material: aluminium, plastic
• Standby power consumption: 0.5W
• Wireless protocol: Zigbee 3.0
• Zigbee repeater: Yes
• Working temperature: -20 ~ 45ºC
• Working humidity: <80%

you can buy this lamp on the company’s website – zemismart.com

The post ZemiSmart Makaron Downlight appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.

• Elegant design, perfect bedside companion.
• Control your smart ambient light from anywhere anytime with the Meross app.
• Works with Homekit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings.
• Adjust brightness, tune light appearance, and set from multiple RGB colours.
• Works with the Wi-Fi you already have. No hub required.

The post Meross Smart Wi-Fi Ambient Light appeared first on Homekit News and Reviews.