I wanted to start with why I purchased this switch for use with HomeKit instead of any other brand of switch. We live in an old house and there weren’t many (any maybe?) in-wall dimmer switches that work without a neutral wire. I would have had to have some electrical work done to go with most other brands that require a neutral, and that’s not an option, so the Lutron Caseta is perfect for us that respect. The packaging came in a blister-pack with instructions, and the particular version I got came with a dimmer remote included.  If you already have an empty gang, you can also buy this model without either the remote or the faceplate. In this case I just went ahead and got them all together even though I ended up putting it in with another standard switch. Once you have it installed in your wall, you pair it with the app by pressing and holding down the off button (bottom one) until the LEDs on the switch flash blue. You then tell the app to look for the device itself. The app will find the device and ask you to give it a room name or location, and then a ‘switch name’. I put this particular one in the kitchen, so it looks like this in the app: It works very much like you would think it would. I did accidentally put a non dimming bulb in it at first, and if you do that you may think it’s not working because it won’t power up the LEDs on the switch at all. Be careful, or you will be left with the mistaken impression that you have a faulty switch. I had one dimmer bulb in one of the rooms malfunction, making me think the same thing. Always test with multiple kinds and types of bulbs before you resort to uninstalling the switch out from the wall. Note that Philips hue bulbs do not work with this dimmer (as with all non Hue Dimmer switches). I tested that just to be thorough. We specifically bought this dimmer for use with non Hue bulbs for cost efficiency and/or due to the style of the rooms/spaces they occupy.  I knew, for example, that I didn’t want color changing bulbs for this style of lamp in the kitchen. One cool  feature that this dimmer does have is that when you tell it turn off the lights, it turns them off as if it was an interrupter. Unlike it’s table lamp dimmer equivalent, which while looking almost exactly the same in the app (like a dimmer/interrupter), it never fully cuts the power. Case in point these lamp bulbs will never be fully off. On a day-to-day level they never go down or give the dreaded ‘no response’ message. Here is how they appear in Apple’s Home app. They behave well  with voice commands and even though I haven’t used them with Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, everyone in the relevant communities I’ve talked to have said they are ‘rock solid’ with just about every other home automation platform.

Important Note: For reasons unknown at this time, the LifeSmart app (client version 1.1.8p3 and above) for iOS no longer has the HomeKit code generating feature, so you will be unable to add the Smart Station or Smart Alarm to HomeKit. *Capable of over 16 million colors with adjustable brightness and preset lighting effects, a perfect way to add various ambience to any room *Easily set the mood for romantic dinner or seamlessly transition to a party. *The Lifesmart Wifi bulb can interact with the entire lifesmart home system. Let your lights change to your desired ambience based on the time of the day or even by opening the door. *Set the mode of the bulb, let the bulb work automatically for you, just like waking you up on the morning or closing all lights at night. *Light colors can be changed automatically via Siri/Homekit (LifeSmart Smart Hub required).

Important Note: For reasons unknown at this time, the LifeSmart app (client version 1.1.8p3 and above) for iOS no longer has the HomeKit code generating feature, so you will be unable to add the Smart Station or Smart Alarm to HomeKit. SPOT gives you total control of your home environment and more ways to simplify your life. In addition to replacing traditional home theatre remote controls with control from your phone or tablet, SPOT also interacts with other LifeSmart Smart Home products when paired with Smart Station to automatically trigger your devices upon entering a room and more. Control air conditioning or heat pumps and any other infrared controlled devices using your own creative ideas. SPOT features 16 million color illuminations to add ambience to your home and can perfectly functions as a night light. Features *Unique Exterior Design *16 Million Color Night Light *Convenient USB Charge Port *Useful Desktop Storage *Smart Voice Control Specs *Working Humidity：5~90% *Working Temperature：-20~40℃ *Power：≤1.3W *Input Voltage：5V DC *IR Frequency：38K

Parce M1 – the smart flush-mounted module With the flush-mounted module M1, every light switch is subsequently made smart. The module is simply connected directly in the wall under the existing switch. Variants for dimmers, roller shutter control and multiple switches are being planned. The current energy consumption of a Parce M1 is displayed in real time in the app. At the same time, the consumption is also stored in parallel and can be displayed by day, week, month, year (For storing the consumption history, a login in the Parce cloud is required). Applications (examples): *Make existing light switches smart later *Simulate presence *Control ceiling and wall lights by voice command *Switch ceiling and wall lights time-controlled *Guests can also operate the lighting without a smartphone features: *Control via WLAN *Display of the current power consumption *Record and history of power consumption *Planned support for Apple HomeKit *Made in Germany Technical details: *W x H x D: 50 x 50 x 22 mm *WLAN: 802.11 b / g / n (2.4 GHz) *Software: Parce App (free on the App Store) & Parce Cloud (free, optional)

Joe Dugandzic from Smarter Home Life takes good look at The Koogeek HomeKit smart LED bulb. It has a unique design, puts out reasonably bright light, and is an overall good product. And you don’t have to buy a starter kit or a special hub to use it! The video includes direct brightness and color comparisons to a LIFX+ smart bulb.

*Colour temperature: Up to 6 500 Kelvin. Choose the hue app can be adjusted to any length from candlelight to relax and read to the Kühlerem, brighter light for focus and energy refuelling *The LED Ceiling Light works with Amazon Alexa and the Apple Homekit by voice control (echo echo dot and necessary hue bridge sold separately). The smarthome experience for your home *Automatic time planner function for comfort and safety: Bring The Perfect impression they are in the home, even when you are travelling in reality – All with the click hue app *'The Philips Hue White ambiance ceiling spotlights Pillar has a GU10 socket and comes with the matching LED light bulb, this has a consumption of only 5.5 W/and a brightness of 250 lumens *With Philips Hue dimmer switch – Accessory for your smart Philips Hue system: No wires, no electrician, no installation: the wireless dimming switches is ready to use

*Colour temperature: Up to 6,500 Kelvin. Choose the Hue app can be adjusted to any length from candlelight to relax and read to the Kühlerem, brighter light for focus and energy refuelling *The LED Ceiling Light works with Amazon Alexa and the Apple Homekit by voice control (echo echo dot and necessary hue bridge sold separately). The smarthome experience for your home *Automatic time planner function for comfort and safety: Bring The Perfect impression they are in the home, even when you are travelling in reality – All with the click hue app * 'The Philips Hue White ambiance ceiling spotlights Pillar has a GU10 socket and comes with the matching LED light bulb, this has a consumption of only 5.5 W/and a brightness of 250 lumens *With Philips Hue dimmer switch – Accessory for your smart Philips Hue system: No wires, no electrician, no installation: the wireless dimming switches is ready to use

On March 18th, 2018, Tuya Smart made its appearance in the Light+Building in Frankfurt, Germany. At Light+Building, a leading trade fair of the industry, there were over 2,600 exhibitors and more than 210,000 visitors coming from outside Germany. The highlight of the trade fair this year was the current design trends in the lighting market, exhibitors' edge-cutting inventions and expertise. Tuya Smart is a global intelligent platform that provides an array of smart lighting solutions for traditional lighting companies. The smart lighting products enabled by Tuya and displayed at the fair in Frankfurt include smart light whose brightness, color and temperature are adjustable, and Bluetooth mesh light matrix on which consumers can play the snake game. The three features of smart lighting, namely voice control, automation and scenario selection are also presented. The smart lighting solution for Tuya can use a variety of networking modes, including WiFi, bluetooth, bluetooth mesh, ZigBee, and so on. For example, the facial recognition function enabled by Tuya for AI camera allows users to turn on the light with their faces, directly control the speaker on the table, and adjust the color and brightness of the smart light in the room at will. When the user is out of the monitoring scope of the camera for a long time, the camera will identify that the house owner has left, and the light will get dimmer, and finally turned off. Apart from being able to understand instructions, smart lights can also interact with other intelligent devices. In Tuya's Smart Home solution, there is a smart mattress that is enabled to monitor the sleeping pattern of the user lying on the bed. Many senior citizens like to watch TV right before bed. So it is commonly seen that when the elderly is sleeping, the light and TV are still on. However, as old people tend to have a light sleep, light and noise can easily wake them up in the midnight, thus worsening their sleep quality. Thankfully, this problem can be solved by the interaction between smart light and smart mattress. Once the sensor band notices that the senior has fallen asleep, it will dim the light slowly, turn down the TV gradually, and finally turn them off. In the era of intelligence, lights can do more than lighting. At night, they can help people fall asleep by getting dimmer, while in the morning, they can wake people up by getting brighter. Thanks to the Bluetooth mesh technology, the color and brightness of any of the light in the matrix can be changed as you like. Creating a marquee display is a piece of cake. Users can play the snake game and Pac-Man on the light matrix, and even can make their drawing room as fancy as a night club by pre-setting color scenarios. Smart lighting is only one out of the wide spectrum of solutions on Tuya's global intelligent platform. The company is working on smart solutions ranging from home appliances, big and small, to power accessories, lighting, and surveillance equipment etc. to make conventional products smarter in an efficient and easy-to-use way. Tuya Smart is serving over 10,000 clients in nearly 200 countries and regions worldwide, assisting them in upgrading some 11,000 smart products from 36 categories including household appliances, smart kitchen, environmental protection, health and security camera. Tuya Smart realizes connectivity between products of various brands and has its footprint in every aspect of smart home. Intelligent technologies have paved the way for designing lights from a new perspective. The focus of innovating lighting technologies is being shifted to consumer's needs. Human Centric Lighting (HCL) is gaining its ground. In the future, Tuya's global intelligent platform will create smart lighting solutions for more lighting companies around the world, and strive for the development and maturity of global smart lighting market. (Original link: https://en.tuya.com/news-details/0000000021 )

Support Voice Control Apple HomeKit technology. You could control it with the Koogeek Home app or Siri directly from your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch or Apple Watch. App Control With the free Koogeek Home app, connect to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network and control and monitor any connected lights or scenes at home through easy setup. Remote Control Set up your Apple TV (4th generation or later with tvOS 10 or later) or iPad (running iOS 10 or later) as a home hub and control the product even when you’re away from home. Wide Compatibility Compatible with all single pole light switches. Not intended for use in 3-way light switches, which are controlled by more than one switch. Dimmable Adjust the brightness via manual operation or Siri voice commands. Work with incandescents of less than 400W and dimmable LEDs and CFLs of less than 200W. Monitor Power Consumption Check whether your Koogeek Smart Light Switch is connected properly with a light and monitor its current power via the Koogeek Home app.Control Multiple Accessories Create custom scenes and control multiple lights simultaneously with a single Siri voice command or a quick tap. Premium Security Apple HomeKit technology provides advanced security with end-to-end encryption and authentication between a HomeKit-enabled accessory and your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Note 1. It replaces single pole switches only. Not compatible with 3-way switches. 2. Neutral wire is required. 3. Metal faceplates are not recommended. Otherwise, it may cause harmful interference to Wi-Fi performance. 4. For Indoor Dry Location Use Only.CertificationCE, CQC, RoHS, SRRC, Wi-Fi Input AC220~240V, 50Hz Load 5~200W (Only for incandescent lamp, tungsten lamp, dimmable LED light and CFL light) Switch style One-way Switch type Single pole MaterialPC, ABS Home Wi-Fi 2.4Ghz (802.11 b/g/n)

Important Note: For reasons unknown at this time, the LifeSmart app (client version 1.1.8p3 and above) for iOS no longer has the HomeKit code generating feature, so you will be unable to add the Smart Station or Smart Alarm to HomeKit. Combine the LifeSmart Door/Window Sensor with your LifeSmart Smart Station and other devices to make your life simple, and to let you monitor, control, and even automate your home or office environment. Features You can care for your pets and loved ones with 24 hour access and stay informed of changing security conditions. You can choose automatic actions such as turning ON or OFF televisions, coffee makers, or other devices when you arrive or leave. You can also have lights turn ON when a door is opened, or have a notification sent to your smart device if a window is opened. More Function *When paired with the LifeSmart Smart Home Wi-Fi camera or FRAME LifeStyle Camera, the sensor can even tell your LifeSmart Smart Home System to send you a photo if someone comes through a door or window. Protect your home and loved ones anytime, anywhere. *Brilliant and simple, get ready to experience carefree smart home living that the whole family can enjoy. *Small and Exquisite *More Durable Battery Power *Remote Shock Alarm *One-Key Scene Control *Safe and Reliable Spec *Working Humidity：5~90% *Working Temperature：-20~40℃ *Battery Type：CR2450 *Wireless Range：200M (Open Field) *Material：ABS+PC

Important Note: For reasons unknown at this time, the LifeSmart app (client version 1.1.8p3 and above) for iOS no longer has the HomeKit code generating feature, so you will be unable to add the Smart Station or Smart Alarm to HomeKit. This is easily one of the most useful gadgets I’ve bought for my HomeKit set up, but what is it? It’s a night light, a bedside lamp, something to store the wife’s earrings…and an IR blaster! Yes, this device can be used to replace the basic aspects of all the different remotes you might have lying around, but with the added twist of being HomeKit compatible. I say ‘compatible’ with a qualification – which is that it’s only HomeKit compatible when used with the LifeSmart Smart Station, which like the Hue Bridge, is essentially a bridge for other LifeSmart devices. It’s powered via a simple mini USB port at the back, with a mini USB plug at one end and a standard USB plug at the other, which then can plug into any powered USB socket, or depending on where you buy it from, it’ll come with a USB socket of its own. In addition to the power socket, there’s a reset button which also acts to turn the light to different basic colours and ‘off’, and a standard USB port for charging devices. This last port is actually useless in practice, as the power output is so low that it can’t even slow charge any of my phones, so I’m not sure why they even bothered. So, assuming you’ve got the LifeSmart Smart Station, and you’ve added it to your Homekit setup, this device becomes visible to Homekit appears as a light essentially, with control over the colour, brightness and power. That’s the lighting part of the device covered, so what about the ‘IR Blaster’ part? Well, you’ll need the free LifeSmart app first of all, which you’d need anyway in order to add the Smart Station to Homekit. With this app, you can then teach it to add a whole host of standard remote controlled devices, like Air Conditioner units, TVs, Humidifiers, Fans etc. by picking from a list of manufacturers, or by teaching it the functions of a specific remote control. With the preset devices, like my Daikin Air Conditioner unit, once it’s identified the model, it will bring up a screen version of the correct remote for you to operate it from the phone. If it’s been taught from another remote, you can then create a sort of on-screen remote with the functions it has learned. Now this allows you to control stuff from within their app, on the iPhone, but how does it work with Homekit? Well, if you go here, I’ve created a 4 part tutorial on how to achieve this. What I will say is it’s pretty damned good for bringing in non-HomeKit devices into the fold. The light itself is definitely not as bright as a Hue bulb for example, but it’s easily bright enough for a bedside light and more than bright enough as a night light. I have it set to Red at only 14% as a night light and even that setting is probably a bit too bright for some. It’s capable of the standard 16 million colours, but in this respect the colours are definitely off compared to an official HomeKit colour bulb. It can’t really do a cool white very well either, so I’m guessing inside there are LEDs for Red, Green & Blue but no dedicated White LED. Still, the colours are quite vibrant and the device itself is not too expensive, being available from anything between £25 – £40. LifeSmart aren’t that well known, but considering what this device is capable of I really do think more people would be buying this if they only knew about it.

Turn anything with a plug on or off from anywhere – manually, using your phone or tablet, or with voice control Sleek, high-quality stainless steel finish enhances any room; compatible with 240 volts Two-way communication allows you to see if something is plugged in and whether sockets are on or off Built-in energy monitoring helps you to track your consumption and save money Generation 2 Lightwave device that must be used with Lightwave Link Plus