Light strips that add fun and color to your home

Light strips can be a great way to add color to a space in your smart home, or on their own as a night light. The problem is that HomeKit compatible light strips have often been very expensive until recently. I've been playing with three HomeKit compatible light strips that all sell for less than $50. Let's take a look at how they compare, and different ideas for how you could use LED lights in your smart home.
LIGHT STRIPS:
Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip Starter Kit: www.apple.com/shop/product/HP...
VOCOlinc LS2 Starter Kit: geni.us/PaTDrb [Amazon]
VOCOlinc LS2 Extension: geni.us/wlzVB [Amazon]
Meross MSL320: geni.us/9V3nWu [Amazon]
(Amazon links are affiliate links where I may earn a commission on sales at no additional cost to you)
TIMECODES:
00:00 Intro
01:12 Light strip basics
03:40 Nanoleaf light strip
07:26 VOCOlin light strip
10:15 Meross light strip
13:53 Sylvania SMART+
14:11 Wrap Up
FOLLOW ME:
Twitter: / ericwelander
Instagram: / ericwelander
MY APP:
Clean up your photo library with my iOS app, BestPhotos: itunes.apple.com/us/app/bestp...
This video and all of Eric Welander's channel is a production of E. Welander, LLC
ericwelander.com/company

[@adaml.5355]

I got my Nanoleaf Essentials light strip the other day. I simply love it. High quality white lighting and beautiful colors. Can't wait to build everything off Thread. No bridges for me! Also Nanoleaf ships with real 3M VHB adhesive and it is removable to add new adhesive down the line. Versus some cheaper ones just have a cheap sticky back and no removable adhesive. Not all adhesive is created equal.

[@EricWelander]

That's a good point about replacing it with. your own strips in the future. I was pleased with the Nanoleaf adhesive too. While not as strong as the Meross adhesive, it seems to be strong enough.

[@lukeanders6286]

Nanoleaf sounds awesome; thanks!

[@myHomeKithome]

Great video! I use a VOCOlinc LS2 as u ser-cabinet lighting for my bar and it works well.

[@jdb6284]

I just got my nanoleaf led strip in the mail today, god damn that this is bright indeed!! We'll be using this to brighten up dark spaces in the kitchen. I'm sure it'll work perfectly;

[@macdaddy9344]

Wife gave me a VOCOlinc strip for Christmas to use in the bunk in my truck... works as expected but not thread and I would prefer it to be a bit brighter... but it works ... I might check into a few additional options down the road.

[@mpetrides]

Eric, I really enjoyed this video when I watched it a month ago but I couldn’t get my hands on the Nanoleaf lightstrip at that time. However, my order will be arriving early next week, so I decided to review the video before they arrive. First of all, your point about Thread taking the load of one’s WIFI network is precisely why I ordered these. They will be replacing Phillips Hue lightstrips and specialty lights (Go and Bloom) because the 30 Hue bulbs I am replacing were taxing my WiFi. Second, a couple of quick solutions to your concern about not being able to move the lightstrips because of their integrated adhesive backing: One, you can elect not to remove the backing on the adhesive and instead use separate double-sided foam strips to adhere the lightstrip wherever you want it (this is the technique I use). Alternatively, there are mounting strips you can purchase to slide the lightstrip into and mount the casing instead. The latter supposedly have the advantage of diffusing the light, making it more uniform and less punctuate-particularly in places where the lightstrip is out in the open. In any event, great video with excellent “replay value!” Thanks.

[@Collective_Oilers]

Great review - finally managed to order Nanoleaf and hoping to stream for kitchen backsplash and TV back lighting.

[@EricWelander]

Thanks. That's great! I bet you'll really enjoy that light strip. Mine is still working well and I seem to be past the connection issues I mentioned in the video.

[@georgiospyrgiotakisphd4563]

I have the VOCOlinc and the extension. Installation was a pain but eventually it works well. But till that point was a pain. In particular installing the extension.

[@ModernDayTech]

Great stuff Eric. These are some of my favorites. But with RGB WW CC & Thread, Nanoleaf pulls ahead.

[@EricWelander]

Thanks Eric!

[@bestdrone1422]

0:47 my like button is white. But of course I liked.

[@OurAppleHome]

We just grabbed a nanoleaf LED strip, very excited to get it installed! I for sure love Thread over WiFi. Have you had any issues with the Vocolinc? We picked one up for a video on advanced automations with HomeKit and we couldn’t get it to stay connected to WiFi at all.

[@EricWelander]

The VOCOlinc connection has been rock solid for me over the past couple weeks, but it's about 15ft plus a wall away from an Eero pro access point. Have fun with the Nanoleaf strip!

[@VitoAD]

I have a Vocolinc and had to move it. Even after cleaning surface some sections still came loose. What I did was use command strips, small ones, and the strip has stayed in place. Enjoy your videos.

[@EricWelander]

Thanks Vito! Yeah command strips are great and that's a great idea to use them. I might have to do that.

[@bestdrone1422]

Yeah! This is the Video I needed

[@JasonfromMinnesota]

Me tooo

[@anthonymccomb5936]

I think the Govee light strip is awesome,

[@neverman3398]

You can still use the cutoff piece if you can solder or use a four pin Connector. There’s loads of videos on KZbin that show this. Also check out the aluminium channel and diffuser. It makes everything look better. you can use gorilla glue to stick it down when you find it difficult to stick.

[@Rohwi]

true, but usually a RGBCCWW strip will have 6 pins.

[@gregalee]

At 2m04s, you said that "once you cut your light strip it's not going to get any longer" and at 2m16s "The other end of it (the end after the cut) is going to be useless after the cut." However, at 2m16s, the light strip you are showing in the video has metal contacts on both sides of the scissor line. I would think if you connected each of the 4 contact pairs up with a wire capable of carrying 12V safely, you could re-attach the cut end at some distance from the original section that is connected to the controller. For example, if you had a bookshelf with 9 shelves that are 1-meter each, you could take a 9-meter light strip and cut it into 9x 1-meter sections and adhere 1 section to each shelf. Then you could run wiring from the end of each section to the one it was cut away from. This would give you a single light strip covering each shelf in a single bookcase. Am I totally wrong here or is there a possibility to do this with the brands of light strip that have these sets of contacts on either side of their cut lines?

[@uniqueflh2941]

Good stuff as usual Eric. One of these days I'll find a spot that I want to have LED Strip Lights in... Thanks for the reviews!

[@EricWelander]

Thanks Bradley!

[@troypogue1935]

Has anyone tried a 6 pin connector on the nanoleaf strips to extend across spaces? Or soldered extension wires to them?

[@SteveHinrichs]

I like Meross, their HomeKit light switches are inexpensive and work great.

[@cheapme1850]

I wanted a Meross strip but I only need about one meter lengths in two locations. They only have really long lengths for HomeKit.

[@adaml.5355]

The thing I automatically dislike about Meross is that it doesn't have real white lighting. First, they don't ship a strip with true white LED lights. Second, I did own a Meross lamp with RGB and tunable whites. Within HomeKit it does not function with the white temperature settings. I had to use the Meross app. I messaged them about this and they said it wasn't possible to get proper whites from HomeKit. Clearly it is, since Eve, Phillips, LIFX, and Nanoleaf all work fine with this functionality. So it appears Meross hasn't figured out white yet. It's very important to not have the very poor RGB white.

[@samuelgomez974]

@@adaml.5355 well, I think it’s one of the things you have to compromise with a cheap light strip, even more a cheap HomeKit compatible light strip. If you don’t like it just go with Phillips Hue or LIFX wich are by far the best option for HomeKit

[@makeaton90]

I tried turning the like button blue bit in only turned white

[@michelbahr9578]

Great vid, i was waiting to see a comparison between them. However, i have one question regarding the meross, weere you able to get accurate red or whites in the meross app or its a pb with the stip? Thanks

[@EricWelander]

I didn't try the Meross app. I just setup the device in the Home app with a HomeKit code.

[@fellmr1]

How wide are the tested strips?

[@gswhite]

I have a fistful of Nanoleaf Essential Bulbs and have had nothing but trouble with them to honest. They constantly drop out and cannot be controlled and need to be powered off and on again. Some I have had to factory reset and start over again. I don't have any of these problems with LIFX or Meross Wi-Fi bulbs, they simply work. Looking on forums I am not the only one who appears to have these issues with Nanoleaf.

[@garanceadrosehn9691]

Do you have a kill-a-watt or some other way to measure how much electricity these strips use?

[@EricWelander]

No that's a good point that I could be testing that myself.

[@camron1053]

I order the Nanoleaf it’s BRIGHT whites on point. The red is horrible and the other colors not bright. I order the voco not bright at all. I over looked the 200 lumens part. Both are going to be returned and still on a mission for homekit led strips.

[@dunnjulian11]

Thanks for the review. Is the nano the only one that can turn white?

[@EricWelander]

Basically yes...The others can get close but it always looks more like a shade of blue or yellow as they don't have the dedicated which channels.

[@WmH2]

I started buying the VOCOlinc products in July of last year, I was buying a number of their plug devices and they worked well. I did get their LS2 in Nov and it also worked well... UNTIL they did an update to their products, they pushed out firmware and redid their app to include a "cloud registration" from that point on NONE of my VOCOlinc products would stay connected. And if I reset the devices and got them to respond within the VOCOlinc app, they were no longer responding within HomeKit. To note the LS2 is only 10 feet from my main gateway. And I can't get it to respond to the app any more. 2 of my plugs cant even do a factory reset because you have to hold down the power button on the side for 10 seconds, but the device does crashes and reboots within 6 seconds. I have been emailing VOCOlinc since early Dec and we have tried several things. They said that they are trying to get my router so they can do testing, but have been mostly silent for the whole month of January. At this point, I have 9 dead devices that can't be used. Very very disappointed.

[@EricWelander]

I'm sorry to hear that! I'm running my VOCOlinc devices in HomeKit mode where I use their app for setup but I never created a VOCOlinc account or anything and so far it seems to be just fine.

[@canaldorique2835]

Any EU links ?

[@bestdrone1422]

Can you use scenes on the Nanoleaf Light Strip?

[@adaml.5355]

Yes it's compatible with HomeKit scenes.

[@bestdrone1422]

@@adaml.5355 I mean: Can you do things like color loop (effects) with the lightstrip? Nanoleaf aurora can do this

[@EricWelander]

HomeKit can't do any kind of auto changing colors with the exception of adaptive lighting, which is not this. I know some accessories can be triggered to do other kinds of scene lighting where HomeKit is probably just turning the power on in certain cases. For color settings though, HomeKit only knows a single color at a time...until it's turned off by command.

[@bestdrone1422]

Thx The moving scenes (from my Nanoleaf Aurora) in the Nanoleaf App are in Homekit. Does the Strip have moving scenes in the Nanoleaf app?

[@robblelee121]

The new beta firmware for Nanoleaf essentials bulb and light strip already supports their scenes. So it’s just time for this feature coming with HomeKit adapt lighting support.

[@daringeric]

My like button turns white...

[@robertgadson]

3:17 horrid advice do not do this. They sell clips for mounting. More over you can if you want add jumpers and even repair after you cut if you cut in the correct place.

[@DarkHorse08]

The ceiling install is awful. You’re suppose to install LED strips so that you only see the glow; not the actual light source. Great review though. Thank you.

[@eliaskrall3135]

I have the Meross, they are bullshit.