Review:
Lidl Smart Lighting Start KIT with colour Bulbs E27 - LivarnoLux/SliverCrest
Installation:
Nice to know what you get with this set, but what we are curious about is whether it all works. We start with the installation. The first step is to power the HUB and connect the UTP/Network cable. Wait a moment until both lights are green. This means that the connection is successful.
Now we download the APP and install it. There is a version for Android and iOS. By the way, this APP is very familiar to me because it looks like a 1 on 1 copy of the Tuya APP. After some inquiries, Lidl indicates that it has made this APP itself.
To continue, we will create an account by entering your email address. The APP will send an email with a verification code. So the security has been carefully thought through. Entering your password must also meet certain requirements.
The next step is the privacy policy. It is noticeable that the APP uses the following parties and has a processor agreement:
- Google (for speech part)
- Tuya (Chinese manufacturer of smart home products)
- Hanghou Tuya
- Microsoft Netherlands
- Nexmo
- The Weather Bit
- Geetest Wuhan
- Apple
There are quite a few.
It is also striking that you are asked whether you want to see personalizing advertisements (eg Vodafone, EON and Lidl). We will of course not enable this option. You will also be asked if you want to sign up for the newsletter.
Registration screens:
Add Gateway:
Now that we have done the registration part, we can add a device. We start with the gateway because it is not added automatically.
To add the gateway we press the "add device" button on the home. You will then receive an overview of devices that you can add. We choose "gateway" and we get an explanation that the lights should be green. Make sure that you are connected to the same network on your mobile, otherwise it will not find the gateway. It took me quite a while to find him. So be patient.
Then press the plus button and the gateway will be added. So fairly simple. I was immediately offered a new firmware so we install it. We also have no choice, because there is no skip button.
Installation gateway:
To add lamps:
Now that we have the gateway we can start adding the lamps. We press the "add" button and a message comes up that the LED has to flash to add it. We power the lamp and indeed it starts blinking. We now press "next" and the lamp is found immediately and it flashes 1 more time.
I can serve him now. You can change the colors, dim it and of course turn it on/off. What is striking is that the lamp gives a very annoying zoom when I have it on the white color.
Service:
The lamp has built-in white LEDs and RGB LEDs. This allows you to get a nice warm/cold color or a mono color (red, green, etc). The RGB colors seem a bit chemical to me, the white colors are fine. Dimming is also fine, even at 1% it still gives light without flickering.
Scene:
There are a fixed number of scenes such as night, reading and a nice disco. You can also change these scenes to your own wishes
Music:
To top it all off, there is also an option to use your phone's microphone and let the lamp go along with the sound/music.
Configuration:
In the configuration (pencil in the top right) you can change the name of the device, send a notification when it is offline, share the device and group it. You will also find the option to upgrade the firmware here.
Remote control:
A remote control is also included with the set. We are now going to add this. You can connect it directly to 1 or more lamps or use it via the gateway. We are going to use it via the gateway because you will then have the opportunity to link some smart rules to it.
The first step is to remove the tab near the battery and go to the APP. You now click on the plus sign and search for the remote control (it can be found under other) and select the gateway. Now we need to put the remote into learning mode. You can do this by holding down the 2 top buttons simultaneously for 5 seconds. The LED on the top will flash to indicate that this was successful.
Now we can move on to the next step and that is that the gateway/APP will search for the remote control. Please be patient with this process because it took me a while to find it. When it has been added, you will arrive at the start screen and you can start connecting the lamp(s). This is a bit unclear but you have to click on the icon in the top right corner and then hold down the 2 bottom buttons simultaneously for 5 seconds. Wait for the LED to flash again to proceed to the next step. In this step you select the lamp(s) you want to connect.
After a while I see that the lamp has been successfully paired.
Control:
You can now switch the lamp on/off and dim it with the remote control. In addition, there are some action options. You can set when you press the on button 1,2,3 or 4 that a certain atmosphere is turned on.