review – The LED was invented in 1962 by Nick Holonyak of General Electric Company. Since then, they have become the dominant technology in domestic, industrial and automotive lighting. I remember buying my first LEDs at Radio Shack in high school and have been fascinated by them ever since. I use them whenever possible and welcome SwitchBot’s new LED strip into my home. Check it out with me…
What is it?
The SwitchBot LED Light Bars are a series of AC powered light emitting diodes mounted on flexible tape that can be attached to surfaces to provide illumination with variable color, brightness and flash rate via a connected controller, IR remote, and/or Smartphone application.
Hardware Specifications:
- Power rating: 15 watts
- Input Rating: 100-240 VAC’ 50/60Hz
- Connectivity: IEEE 802.11 bg/n, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi
- Color: RGB
- Dimming range: 1 to 100%
- Strip length: 5m (16ft-5in)
- Controller options: wired controller buttons, smartphone app, IR remote, voice control
- Service life: about 25,000 hours
- Indoor use only
- Operating temperature: -15 to 40°C (5 to 104°F)
- Storage temperature: -20 to 70°C (-4 to 158°F)
- Relative Humidity: 10 to 90% non-condensing
- Storage humidity: 10% to 90% non-condensing
- One-year limited warranty
What’s in this box?
- LED strip
- controller
- Power Adapter
- remote control
- Mounting brackets with screws (set of 6)
- User Manual
Design and Features:
SwitchBot makes some great gadgets at reasonable prices and is becoming one of my “go-to” suppliers of home automation gadgets. I’m excited to see their new LED strips.
The LED strip comes in a very brand recognizable box.
The packaging is sturdy.
The “wall wart” style power supply provides 1500mA from a 100-240VAC power supply.
Power is supplied to the controller unit through the coaxial power connector.
The controller comes with tape to keep it still once you decide where to place it. The controller orientation is “up” towards the power supply and “down” towards the light strip.
Buttons on the controller for power, brightness, music mode, and switching scenes adorn the face of the controller. The controller also features a small microphone that, when in Music mode, “listens” to ambient audio and flashes a light strip in sync with the sound (more on that later). pleasure!
Also included is a small IR remote that uses a single CR2025 battery. The remote provides direct access to power, some pre-programmed colors, brightness, and some color-changing modes.
The IR receiver is a short pigtail if you want to hide the controller, but it’s so short that it might take some creative planning.
The LED strip’s connector is only about 3 feet long, which limits how and where the strip can be mounted without showing wires. There are four wires in the strip cable, one for the 12 volts and one for the green, red and blue LEDs.
SwitchBot sends LED strips wrapped around plastic spools.
The connector has some small keys in the housing to help with correct polarity. Care should be taken when connecting them together as I have found that they can be connected incorrectly.
The LED strip has a strip of tape on the back for quick and easy mounting to flat, non-porous surfaces.
If you need to attach the LED strip to something the adhesive won’t stick to, the SwitchBot includes six sets of mounting clips. In addition to the screws, the buckle has some durable tape for added security.
When unfolded, the LED light bar is only 16-1/2 feet long (5 meters).
LEDs are not individually addressable, which means all LEDs on the strip will display the same color and all behave the same. Individually addressable LEDs would be very exciting, but I know adding the accompanying circuitry adds cost and complexity to the system.
I am looking to install LED strips outdoors for seasonal and holiday lighting. Unfortunately, these are for indoor use only. Still, I can think of some interesting ways to use them – TV backlighting, bookshelf lighting, home theater decor, photo frame lighting, and more. A waterproof version suitable for outdoor or wet locations such as swimming pools or hot tub areas would be desirable.
If the full length of the LED strip is not required, there are some cut points to safely shorten them. On the other hand…if the strip needs to be lengthened, there doesn’t seem to be a convenient way to do it other than adding another set (power, controller and strip). There is no extra connector on the end of the LED strip to connect another strip, and it’s unclear if the power supply or circuit traces can handle the extra load of the other strip. I’d love to see some options for connecting the strips together for home spanning lengths.
For me, the fun part is using these lights with home automation through the SwitchBot app. As with all SwitchBot products, pairing takes seconds. The LED strip’s color, brightness, and “scene” (including “music” mode) can then be controlled from your smartphone.
Color controls hue and brightness. Some colors have buttons for quick access, but if you want to save specific colors for easy access, you can save “Favorites”.
Custom colors can be accessed using the selection wheel. Want to match your team’s colors exactly? You can do it here.
“Scenes” are programmable sequences with different colors and durations, with few different transitions. Some are pre-programmed but can be edited and renamed. For example: for Halloween, a scene might fade slowly between orange and purple, or for Independence Day, a scene might be red, white, and blue.
As mentioned, Music will flash and jump the strip of lights based on ambient sounds.
Like all SwitchBot products, the LED strip is accessible through cloud services (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, IFTTT, Clova (in Japan), and Siri Shortcuts).
There are a number of options available when paired with the associated service, and I like being able to issue voice commands such as “Alexa, change the bar light to purple” and “Alexa, dim the bar light to 5 percent.”
Integrating lights with IFTTT also works flawlessly, although some options are in Japanese. I lived in Japan for a few years so I can read them, but most have English translations, otherwise, google translate to the rescue! With IFTTT, the sky is the limit for triggering bar light behavior. Want to change the light color according to the weather? How about changing to your loved one’s favorite color based on Google Calendar events like birthdays or anniversaries? Want to alert yourself to the new camera motion detection? You can do this and more with IFTTT and SwitchBot. I found the IFTTT integration to work reliably with almost no lag.
what do I like
- easy to install
- Alexa, Google and IFTTT are connected
- Cheap
what would i change
- Added option to extend LED strips
- Add outdoor use option
- Add cable extension options to make installation easier
- Individually addressable LEDs are on my wish list 🙂
final thoughts
I haven’t decided how to permanently install the SwitchBot LED strips, but they are sure to become an integral part of my home decor and automation. First-class integration, good quality and high cost performance. I’d love to see some enhancements to make them more “easy to install” and extensible, but even so, they’re pretty fun! Awesome SwitchBot!
Price: SwitchBot and Amazon, $19.99 (pack)
where to buy: switch robot, Amazon
resource: The sample for this review is provided by SwitchBot
