Cync (C by GE) Lighting Smart Home Solution Installation and Review - No Hub Required
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
- C by GE is now Cync
GE Lighting has a complete line of smart home switches, lighting & sensors designed for consumers who want beautiful smart lighting without the extra complexity. The Bluetooth-enabled bulbs and switches work seamlessly with their devices with Wi-Fi, so you can control your home lighting via the Internet. The products support Google Home and Amazon Alexa and work without a smart home hub.
C by GE wired wall switches work with many generations of homes, so even homeowners with historic homes using knob and tube wire can enjoy smart lighting. They offer 3-wire switches with no neutral line required as well as 4-way switches for more modern homes.
► WATCH: Unboxing part 1 - C by GE: • Unboxing 1 - Cync (C b...
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► READ: C by GE: the Evolution of Smart Home Lighting: appmyhome.com/c-by-ge-the-evo...
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Product information and Affiliate links:
@GELighting
www.cbyge.com
► Buy C by GE at Amazon: amzn.to/2sFC0uA
3 Wire Switches
C by GE 3-Wire Smart Switch - Dimmer: amzn.to/3eAw8Fw
C by GE 3-Wire Smart Switch - Motion-Sensing and Dimmer: amzn.to/2NxJSVP
C by GE On/Off 3-Wire Toggle Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/3jqOdIU
C by GE On/Off 3-Wire Paddle Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/3dCAmeE
C by GE On/Off 3-Wire Button Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/32FRnCK
4 Wire Switches
C by GE 4-Wire Smart Switch Dimmer: amzn.to/30tnymk
C by GE 4-Wire Motion Sensing Switch Dimmer for Smart Bulbs: amzn.to/3eKtkVt
C by GE On/Off 4-Wire Toggle Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/2OEX2AK
C by GE On/Off 4-Wire Paddle Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/2E4UE4j
C by GE On/Off 4-Wire Button Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/3jmL9O1
Wire Free Devices
C by GE Wire-Free Dimmer + Color Control Smart Switch, Bluetooth, Battery Powered Smart Switch : amzn.to/2BK7svS
C by GE Wire-Free Dimmer Smart Switch, Bluetooth, Battery Powered Smart Switch: amzn.to/387ZLeV
C by GE Wire-Free Motion Smart Sensor, Battery Powered Motion Sensor: amzn.to/2YC3wGr
Plug in Devices
C by GE A19 Smart Light Bulb - Tunable White Light Bulb, 2-Pack: amzn.to/3eIoEQM
C by GE A19 LED Smart Light Bulb - Full Color Changing Light Bulb, 2-Pack: amzn.to/3eIbyTJ
C by GE 80-inch LED Light Strips: amzn.to/3eOpJ98
C by GE Smart Plug with Smart Bridge: amzn.to/30zn0LF
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Affiliate Disclosure: This description contains links that may earn us a commission from the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. GE Lightning provided the products used in this unboxing. Opinions and conclusions are our own.
00:00 Intro
01:01 Recap
01:46 Styles
02:16 The Tech
06:36 Installation
08:09 3 Way Switches
11:33 Using the App
13:40 Scenes and Automations
16:39 Remote Access
17:00 Voice Assistants
18:15 Support
18:52 Conclusions
19:40 GE Lighting, A Savant Company
20:05 Wrap-up - Věda a technologie
This is actually a REALLY good video. I can't believe how helpful you guys were and with a fully timecoded video.
I really liked the tip about the bulb adapter/resistor. I was worried about the bulbs sticking out too much, and knew there had to be some way to handle that from the whole unit.
Thank you for the kind words, we really appreciate it. The adapter may work in some scenarios, but it looked really silly in our chandelier :)
Please share the video with your friends who may be interested, and let us know if you get some of these in your own home.
Thank you for this video
You are welcome Mitch. Let us know how they work out for you. BTW, they have some great app updates coming later this quarter. We can't wait to try them out.
This was a really helpful video. I'm (as well as thousands of others) are looking for a new home automation company after Insteon left us all with hubs that no longer work. I'm going to step in to the Cync smart home devices gently to see if they are as good as you show them to be. Thanks again for the video.
you're welcome. Keep in mind they are still expanding so expect more to come. We just posted a review on their new thermostat which we've been testing for 2 months.
@@Appmyhome do you know if they are planning to release a garage door opener interface similar to the Insteon one?
@@tomanderson8040 we haven't heard of one. Yet.
Thank you for the video. It is great help. I have a question: I have a group of switches set up next to each other and are covered with a long cover plates. How would you set it up if i change them? Thank you.
Hi Sebastien, thanks for writing. If you have a group of switches with a long cover plate, you can replace the switches inside then put the original cover plate back on. You don’t need to use the one they provide. You also don’t have to replace all the switches.
I just did this myself, I replaced two out of three switches inside a box.
@@Appmyhome Thank you
Hi, great video. Do the no neutral wire ones come with 3 gang switches or even 2 gang ?
Hi Dayne, do you mean can you put several switches in 1, 2 or 3 gang boxes? You can do that, but you'll need to supply the wall plate. Most the wall plates sold for example in Home Depot will fit over the just fine. If you mean do they make switches with multiple toggles inside the same electronics then no, one toggle per switch.
can you post a link to the new C by GE No Neutral on/off switch?
Hi here are the links to the various 3 wire products. More links are available in the video description. Let us know how it works out after you install. #ad 3 Wire Switches
C by GE 3-Wire Smart Switch - Dimmer: amzn.to/3eAw8Fw
C by GE 3-Wire Smart Switch - Motion-Sensing and Dimmer: amzn.to/2NxJSVP
C by GE On/Off 3-Wire Toggle Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/3jqOdIU
C by GE On/Off 3-Wire Paddle Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/3dCAmeE
C by GE On/Off 3-Wire Button Style Smart Switch: amzn.to/32FRnCK
What is the device called you used in place of the bulb adapter??? I need this for my LED panel lights
It should come in the box of the Cync no neutral switches. The one they provide is a screw in type. They call it a Bulb or Fixture Adaptor. If you need the one for inside the fixture you should call their support to order (it used to be free, but not sure if that was just early adopters)
here is a link to there website that explains: cyncsupport.gelighting.com/s/article/adapter-assistance-for-cync-3-wire-smart-switches?language=en_US
I have a 4 wire switch. 1 blk, 1 white, and a natural. Can I put the 2 black on my power and the natural and ground to them
If you don't know, or are unsure, you should definitely check with an electrician.
What is the name of the little adapter or whatever name it have for not using the bulb adapter where to buy it?
You get them from GE Lighting. Just call their support line and ask. That's what we did.
will any bulb adapter work??
The bulb adaptor is made by them specifically to handle the no neutral wire issue, so I would not expect other adaptors to work the same way. Why do you want to use a different bulb adaptor? Its only purpose is to a load to the circuit if your LED bulbs aren't a sufficient load. We only ended up using the bulb adaptor on one of our light fixtures.
Can you use the wire-free switch to control a light strip? or use the wire-free switch to control a plug?
if the light strip or plug is a cync device yes. you’d need to use the cync app.
@@Appmyhome ok thanks. No way to mount a cync light strip under kitchen cabinets and use a wire-free switch to control it?
once you set up the wire free switch and light strip in the Cync app then the wire free switch will be able to control the light strip without needing to use the app. we use this in our system.
When labeling the wires, how do you know which one is the line wire and which one is the load wire?
Hi Jon, that's always the big question. This is not a simple answer as it depends on many factors. Our recommendation is if you are not sure how to know, best bet is to hire an electrician. C by GE does have some good materials that may help. For example this one: support.gelighting.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020720111-Tips-for-Identifying-Wires-in-your-Switch-Wall-Box
how the hell does the motion sensor work, i have one that came with a bulb, i put them both in the same room, and the light just never turns off. bout ready to take it back.
Yeah, it is a little confusing. Best bet is to go to Settings - Rooms and Devices - YOUR ROOM Name where you put the motion sensor - View Devices. You should see the bulb and the motion sensor listed. Edit the motion sensor. You will see all sorts of ways to use it.
@@Appmyhome they should have made it more straight forward.
Connect light s to app.
Connect sensor to app
In sensor settings just have an option to connect it to other devices
@@theputnamto3468 I agree. I find the motion sensor to be my least favorite. Especially that you have to press the button to wake it up in order to modify the settings.
For me, my motion sensor won't set up. It says its connected from the room part of the app, but on the "home" section it says no devices and on my Alexa app it says no new devices.
Hi Kai, have you looking in Settings - Rooms and Devices - Room - View Devices? There you find the motion sensor and can edit its settings. Room is the room you put it in. Hope this helps. I'd also recommend their support which is pretty good, ie they have people answer the phone:)
@@Appmyhome on the home part of the app it says no devices :/ plus on the Alexa app it's not on there so I can't do routines with it
@@mountain2005 hmm, sounds like it was never paired. have you tried reseting it and repairing? And I wonder if there needs to be something else in the room too like a bulb.
@@Appmyhome it says on the room menu that it's there, but once I go to the home part of the app it only shows one of my smart plugs, so it's connected but just not showing I think?
are you looking in the room using the gear icon and then viewing devices? The Room doesn't show the motion sensor directly.
Still avoiding all the important questions.
Smart home ecosystem so #1 question how well does it play with which others. In my smart home I have google and amazon In 4 other major primarily But how well C. by GE works in a modern smart home is completely dependent on you being filthy rich and being able to be So we devoted to a singular brand and then you're extremely extremely extremely extremely extremely extremely limited by only what that 1 brand has to offer Making single branded smart homes not very smart at all Unless you're talking about some non major brand because none of the major brands make completed enough equipment to sully rely on a single smart home product line
Have you tried using alexa routines with the cync switches?
I installed this switch to control my outdoor lights and was disappointed when I found out that the sunrise and sunset settings in the automation are static, this is not really “smart”. If I set my lights to turn on at sunset in the winter my outdoor lights will turn on at sunset for that particular day I set it, all year long. Many other manufacturers of smart switches have figured out that sunrise/sunset varies day by day and season by season, GE has not. Most people buy these switches for complete automation and this is a terrible oversight on behalf of the manufacturer.
that is interesting. Have you called their support line and asked when they will support actual sunrise and sunset? I will make some inquires to see when they will add. I do believe they plan a major update in Q1.
@@Appmyhome I did and they confirmed this setting is not dynamic.
@@bigalsbeasts Well we agree with you, it should. If I hear more I'll be sure to post.
there's a LOT more that's not very SMART - there needs to be a part of the program where people can just select an item's identity/serial number and then bring up ON & OFF time schedules and that's IT - everything is over engineered to the point where if someone wants to do simple stuff like I mentioned...or how about the people that just want to control ONE item and control it SIMPLISTICALLY ???
@@ralphsmith2683 Hey Ralph we totally hear you. We find we use switches with Alexa mostly and then maybe by, wait for it, touching the switch. Sometimes we make routines in Alexa or the app and make things happen, but mostly not. As for C by GE, they renamed the line to Cync. And good news a new app is coming soon that is supposed to be much easier.
It sucks they charge you a monthly fee to even use their product you already paid for
they charge a fee? I don’t recall that. we pay no fees.
Too smart for me. Light bulb worked on its own but after trying to get the motion sensor to work for over an hour with no success I just packed it all up and took it back. Not paying $18 for a regular light bulb. GE garbage.
Sorry to hear you had issues. Did you contact GE support? They provide excellent phone support. You have to put the motion sensor in the same "room" with the bulb for it to work. It takes a bit of getting used to on how to use their app.
So if not the C by GE, what will you end up using for lighting?
@@Appmyhome I bought the light bulb/motion sensor combo, connected them both to the app in the same room, and made sure that the motion sensor was also enabled. The motion sensor didn't work at all, not even once. I even removed them from the app rebooted the phone and re-added them. Still never worked. I tried for over a hour before decided that just flipping a switch when walking into the room was far less hassle. I am not alone. Many many reviews from customers also say that the motion sensor did not work for them.
@@SmokeRingHalo Just a week ago I got my motion sensor connected and working with 6 bulbs within a matter of 2 minutes. It took me about 3 days to tweak the settings just how I needed that sensor to work, but haven't had a single issue with the sensor or bulbs in over a week now. Might be a defective sensor or user error.
The Edit: I have 2 other motion sensors, both by different brands, both for different light activations. The C by GE is by far the best sensor I've tried out yet. Most control settings and best sensitivity (if you want it.) Sure I'd like it to do a little more, but hopefully the next generation has those improvements.
@@swimstud5151 Cool. Send me a working one cause they sent all their defective garbage ones to my state. I'm not the only one either. Their reviews are full of those who couldn't get the sensor to work. Guess you got lucky.
@@swimstud5151 I came here to look for this very answer about adding multiple lights to one sensor. :) THANK YOU!
👎👎 Why don't you guys make a video on your latest Android interface app for your smart lights. When I first installed your app and configured the lights a small learning curve which was just fine, the app allows you to see all your lights at one time whether they were on or off. Now you have lights are nested in groups which totally sucks, who was the Einstein behind this brilliant idea.
I no longer use your app as an interface because you've changed it from user-friendly to not-friendly !
But there was an easy fix for this I use the Alexa app or the Google Home app, just to let you know these apps allow you to see all devices running or not all at one time, "what a relief - they had the common sense to make their app user-friendly"
I would get rid of the dumb dumb who made the final decision to go in the direction guys are headed before you lose more of your marketing base to other smart light companies.
Hi Alex, you realize we are independent product reviewers, not Cync/GE Lighting. This said, are you talking about their Cync app or the old C by GE app? The folks that make apps sure do vary, and not everyone likes the apps, or parts of the app. You having found Alexa and Google Home as an alternative is awesome. We are curious, other than the app, how are those Cync products working for you.
@@Appmyhome In my opinion this should be a two-part question, I'll give you an analogy that you can understand, this car would drive great if the roads weren't so shity.
The smart lights seem to work okay after doing multiple firmware updates, I'm not sure I've lost track I think it's more than 5. Just let you know I'm only running the white lights. For Alexa I had to purchase a Smart Bridge Hub for the installation, they should have cut a deal like Google Home did and ran a direct network connection, I'm sure this was a major loss in sales. Now it's the bulb does not make connection via AI Amazon Echo Dot or Google Nest then you have to add the third-party software to make this connection, otherwise they would remain dumb bulbs and this does not sound smart at all.
Well your question how do these devices work, they work great if you can get past the installation, you have to consider no devices is smart if you can't get them to connect properly.
The lights and software go hand-in-hand, and this is why I said it's a two-part question., easy installation and user-friendly is the key.
I just want to let you know that I used LEPOR-LE for my colored lights and they were a breeze to do the installation, software and functionality of the lighs work great and no Smart Bridge Hub required.
I hope I've been able to answer your question.
Hey Alex thanks for the detailed response. Will need to check out the LEPOR-LE sounds interesting.
Oh btw, we found a bug with the app conversion from C by GE to Cync app. Basically there seems to be crap in the Home data that for some reason goofs up the connections to the devices. To fix, we had to remove all the devices from the Home and make a new Home2 and reinstall there. Cleared everything up for us.
@@Appmyhome Just to give you an idea how many devices I have running in my 3 bedroom home.
11 C by GE bulbs White
3 LEPOR-L color bulbs
5 MOSE Smart Switch
1 Ring Doorbell
5 Blink Camera Outdoor
3 Fire TV stick , 1 Fire TV Cube: all integrated with security system Bink and Ring doorbell.
6 AI Amazon Echo
2 AI Google Nest
1 Amazon smart plug
3 Toshiba air purifiers
The list does not include my computers and tablets.
And of course they're all voice controlled, turn on TV by voice choose any camera to see on the big screen, music on demand, timers and schedule setup for the lights and an array of global commands.
Complete installation and configuration done by me.
@@FracturedReality Very cool. It is amazing isn't it how quickly this stuff adds up.