Review – The light can really set off the house. The beautiful exterior lighting illuminates or illuminates the walls or highlights the features of the landscape, adding an amazing factor. One of the problems is that if you want to control multiple lights as a group, they usually have to be connected together. This can cause a wiring nightmare, especially when you want to separate the lights. Novostella BLink smart floodlights solve at least part of the wiring problem. How did they do that? continue reading.
what is it?
Novostella BLink Smart Floodlight is a 25-watt floodlight that uses Bluetooth to create a mesh network between all lights. By doing this, the lights do not have to be connected to each other, reducing the wiring requirements to only power cords and sockets. And let me solve this problem-“BLink” is not a typo. These lights are connected together via Bluetooth-Bluetooth connection-BLink.
What’s in the box?
These lights are provided as a kit of two or four Novostella BLink smart floodlights. I received a four-lamp set.
There are four lights in the box—that’s it. Well, almost.
They also include a card with a QR code that provides a link to the PDF user manual. This is actually a good contact because they don’t need to waste paper printed manuals that many of us have never used. I usually download manuals, so I always know where they are.
All necessary social media links and support information are on the back of the card.
They also sent me their new smart hub. This allows you to connect the lights to your home network through a hub. It also allows you to control the lights through Alexa.
It actually does come with a manual and a USB-A to micro USB charging cable. You must provide your own…supply.
Hardware specifications
- light
- Size: 5.9″wx 9.8″hx 1.8″d
- Weight: 1.1 pounds
- Power: 25W
- Color: dimmable 16 million RGB colors (US version plus 2700K~6500K white light)
- Group control: Yes
- Timing function: Yes
- Memory function: Yes
- Synchronize color changes to music: Yes
- Network: Bluetooth mesh network, up to 85 feet range
- Waterproof rating: IP66 (Can resist big waves or strong currents)
- Cable length: 5ft / 1.5m
- Working voltage: US – AC100-120V / UK & EU – AC220-240V
- Working temperature: -25~40℃ / -13-104F
- center
- Size: Approximately 2 inches square and 1.3 inches high
- Power supply: Micro-USB (not including power supply)
- Assistant compatibility: Alexa, Google
- Device control: up to 128 devices
- Connectivity: 2.4GHz wifi only
Design and features
The Novostella BLink smart floodlight feels very sturdy. You can see the reinforced metal and plastic housing with integrated heat sink on the side.
The Bluetooth antenna is fixed on the top of the light. The Bluetooth mesh network is designed to work within a distance of up to 85 feet between lights.
Each side of the mounting bracket is fixed with bolts. You can loosen the bolt, rotate the bracket, and then tighten the bolt to lock the bracket in place. The bracket includes two slotted mounting holes and a fixed mounting hole. You provide screws.
Matte-finished lenses on the front are designed to be used in conjunction with angled reflectors to evenly distribute light.
The hub is very simple. There are two indicator lights on the top to indicate online. On the back, we see the micro USB power port and the reset button.
There is a rubber ring at the bottom to help hold it in place and all regular product documentation.
Set up
The Novostella BLink smart floodlight is very simple to set up-just plug it in.
The hub is not difficult, you just have to find the power source.
To use all functions, you need to install the Smart Life app on your Android or iOS phone.Fortunately, I have learned from my iClever Wi-Fi Smart Outdoor Socket. I plug in the light and tell the app to find a new device. The app found each one one by one, asked me its name, and banged—all the lights appeared.
The same happened when I added the hub.
I created a group for them and I am very happy to go. Since I have added Smart Life skills to Alexa, I quickly discovered that the lights and groups I created for them were added to Alexa.
which performed
All control of the lights is performed in the app or by the voice assistant. There are no controls on the light itself or on the hub.
After turning on the light, you will see a color wheel or a white warm/cool slider, depending on the color you choose.
The same is true when you select a light group-I created a light group called “Smart Floods” to control all four lights.
Any changes made will affect all lights in the group.
This is a video of Novostella BLink smart floodlight operating through Alexa voice control. You will also learn why the “Smart Flood 1/2/3/4” that I named the lamp and the “Smart Floods” that I named all four groups are not the smartest move. 🙂 In addition, it shows that my Echo Show understands some of my problems-this is not the bulb’s fault.
To test the Bluetooth mesh network, I placed four lights around my home as shown below.
One lamp is on the terrace, the other is on the kitchen counter, the third is in the driveway next to our lamppost, and the fourth is on the right side of the house. At first, all the lights did not respond. Unplug it and plug it in again, and it’s all alive. I can turn them on and off through the app and voice control. Therefore, whether the hub is talking to the lights or the lights are talking to each other via Bluetooth, they are equally effective. Very cool.
If you control it through the app, you can set the lights to synchronize with the music to create a pulsating party lighting effect. The app also includes predefined scenes for calming, reading and some other lighting scenes. You can define a schedule, set a timer to turn off the lights, and define what the lights will do when they turn on. One disadvantage is that although Smart Life plays with IFTTT, for some reason, the Novostella light in the Smart Life app does not.
Take a look at one of the lights that absolutely blows up one of our palms with various colors.
The Novostella BLink smart floodlight is very bright. From the sky, the sky is not completely dark. The color impressed me.
what do I like
- Well-built
- Decent color rendering
- bright!
- Bluetooth network is working well
What will i change
- Design a stand so that it can sit on the ground
- Add IFTTT integration
Final thoughts
I like Novostella BLink smart floodlight. I haven’t decided where to put them around my house because I have already installed some Phillips Hue lights on my palm trees. These have to be connected together, which prevents me from illuminating the other palm in the driveway. However, I only need one power socket to power three of the lights. All this is a little compromised. The BLink light allows me to light up all four palms, but it requires four power outlets. Also, I have to take out the stakes or other installation hardware because there are no lights. In addition, I use IFTTT integration to control my current holiday lights to change the color. Obviously, this is not an option for BLink lights. I will explore the automation options for these lights because I want them to be my new landscape lighting.
price: US$109.99 (pack of 4); Hubs are US$19.99
Where to buy: light: Amazon; Novostra; Center: Amazon;
source: The sample of this product is made by Novostra.
