HomeKit: Meross LED Light Strip - Watch this BEFORE you buy!
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- čas přidán 18. 06. 2024
- #meross #ledlights #applehomekit
Meross LED Lightstrip is FINALLY here!
In my search for a good quality LED light strip that's compatible with HomeKit, I've bought the Meross MSL320 - which promises full HomeKit support at an affordable price.
Does this Meross product live up to the hype? Stay tuned to find out!
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Timestamps!
00:00 Introduction
01:19 Unboxing
03:48 Set Up
05:05 Connecting to Apple Home App
06:09 Home Control, Siri & Performance Review
08:06 Summary
09:35 Conclusion
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Links!
Meross LED Light Strip MSL320:
amzn.to/3rvT7rw (UK)
amzn.to/3gNPvie (US)
^Update: As of 07/02/21 these are affiliate links and HeyTechi may receive a small amount of money as a result of your purchase at no additional cost to you.
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HomePod Mini Unboxing and Initial Review: • HomePod Mini - Initial...
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Acknowledgements!
All logos, videos, songs, images and graphics used in this video belong to their respective owners and neither I nor this channel claim any ownership, right or claim over them.
Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
Music: Bensound.com
UPDATE: 04:33 It appears there may be some discrepancy about combining the two 5m long strips together using the crocodile clip attachments. For some people it works, for some it can be intermittent and for others it doesn't seem to work at all.
Please refer to the manual of your product to see if there is guidance on this.
Mine never worked
There isn't any guidance in the manual, and I was hoping this vid would show me how to do the splice.
I bought 2 of the 32 ft boxes. I found that where the end was on at least one strip was not 100% correct for using the clip. You could see of the 3 metal contacts, one did not expose as much as the other two contacts (it was cut off across the corner). So I made a cut at the cut line above the end to ensure the connection worked and I got both sets of lights to extend with little issues.
Como haces para resetearlo de fábrica ? No hay manera de poder conectarlo
@@julianespadavazquez1989 Parece que el problema es que al poner la tira completa de 10 metros, empalmando ambas mitades, no tiene fuerza o no conecta bien y se pone a parpadear raro con varios colores! Entonces no responde a nada y en ningún sitio encuentras cómo resetear ni el botón que tiene en la base hace nada. Si desenchufas una de las tiras, vuelve a funcionar
Spent hours researching this and you nailed it in minutes. Thank you for your time and brains.
Glad it was helpful!
great info, glad you’re doing putting in the hours of research into this kind of thing! 🤩
Thanks very much Gerrit! Plenty more to come in the pipeline! Stay tuned!
very good video!! exactly what i searched for, thank you!
Glad it was helpful! Thanks for watching Lukas!
Great video, Definitely a must have for any smart home!
Thanks very much! I agree - no smart home is complete without some quality LED lighting!
I had no idea the package comes with 10 adhesive fixers! Just what I needed! I intend to set these behind a headboard and two bedtime tables. The issue is than I need to move around the tables every once in a while for dusting and cleaning and I had no idea how to do it if I glued the strip permanently. THANK YOU for this piece of info which proved really valuable to me. Great review man! Thumbs up
If you ever need more of them, I believe that Command also make small clips which also can fit LED lightstirps as well - and they're non damage too! Thanks so much for watching!
I love mine ! Great value for money .. New subscriber and looking forward to some more content !
Awesome! Thank you for the sub! My new video just went live!
@@HeyTechi already watched it! 😜
Thanks for a great video. I’ll be buying one soon. 👍
Thanks for watching! If you do, please consider using our affiliate link in the description of this video!
HeyTechi isn't about making money, but any funds we gain from affiliate links is reinvested in bringing you great new content! -And using our links won't cost you anything!
(Very sorry for the delay in replying too! We've just got internet set up in the new studio!)
@@HeyTechi Roger That ! 👍
Great vid!
Thanks David, and thanks for watching too!
I have the meross msl320 pro light strips (no silicone over the lights).
Any suggestions on how to bend it so I can put it on the back of my tv. It says in instructions do not bend, but can do a wide angle turn but when you do the strip flips over after turn so it’s facing down.
I just bought this pack and looking forward to using it for under the bed. One question: can these lights turn on through motion sensor? I suppose there is no motion sensor you could use, even through Alexa? Thanks, all.
Good review. I wonder if you can use the Phillips hue dimmer switch to control these lights through homekit. Might try this with my son's room.
Great idea, and I believe it should be possible, so long as you connect them both through HomeKit. I haven't tested any Phillips Hue products for HeyTechi yet, so I might have a go with this in the near future!
Is there such a colour as white? / normal? Rather than all colours? Help!
you mentioned siri and my whole house just went, hmmm?
if you have somewhere corner??
Can you please reply or ideally post a follow up video on how to use the gator/hippo clips included to make 1 continuous 32ft strip. I cannot get the 2 strips to work in 1 continuous strip once added to the clips. I’m sure there’s a technique to do this so would appreciate you explaining this please. Thanks
Will look into this for you - so far as I know, provided the power supply can handle it, you should be able to simply clip both together? Watch this space!
I’m having this same issue. Whenever I splice the strips, the color gets distorted or won’t even turn on.
Do you think it’s possible to by an extension cable to route the second 5m strip to another location instead of lighting directly from the hub?
Excellent question - The answer is no; the end of the LED strip needs to plug into the adaptor that's on the Hub. Each 5m LED strip doesn't have its own mains plug. If you had two plugs (and I'm not sure they're available to purchase separately) it would work however.
@@HeyTechi so I found something online that looks like it’s a 4-pin extension cable… I’m wondering if this could be used to route it from the hub to a different location because this is the issue that I have
is this a rgbic 1 ?
So do the rbwhatever to connect to make the 32 ft one labels have to line up or what? Like you didn’t give a lot of extra info as about helpful as this manual they provide 🤨 like this isn’t a simple or easy setup from the perspective of someone with some diy but no build it fix it skills
In short: [Make sure you follow the steps when the LED is disconnected from the power]
1) Take the end of one lightstrip and insert it into one end of the Crocodile clip. Press down firmly.
2) Take the second lightstrip (the one you want to connect) and ensure that it lines up properly with the end now clipped into the crocodile clip [you need the RGB letters to match up]
3) Insert the second lightstrip into the opposite end of the crocodile clip and press down firmly.
You should now have a full length LED lightstrip.
HOWEVER there is a lot of discrepancy amongst viewers here - some report this working, some experience some lighting issues and others report it not working at all.
My advice is to check the product manual to see if there is any explicit guidance (perhaps this issue varies by production model?) and follow that accordingly.
Great video. I do think it’s well worth the £40 for that much. I spent about £8 for 2m just the other day.
Totally agree - and the fact that you don't need a hub for it is a nice bonus in my mind!
I noticed what seems to be a button on the cable that the strips connect to. Is this a physical on/off button?
Well spotted! Yes, it's a physical power button!
what is the led strip width
Nice video.
Let's say I wanted 20ft, could I cut 4ft off of one strip and splice using the crocodile clip to the other strip (of 16ft) to make it 20ft? Thanks!!
This is an interesting question Daniel - I've had conflicting experiences with this. In my experience, yes that should work, but a lot of people have tried to splice theirs and it hasn't worked. I'm not sure why this is, but I think it may be a difference in some power supplies?
My official advice on this is no, don't try it, just in case it overloads the power supply.
Forgot to ask. I have a room and the ceiling is about 114ft total, my math tells me I would need 7 of this 16.4ft light strip, so I presume I'd need to buy 4 of this package shown. Since each package brings a wifi controller then I wonder if I will be able to connect all 4 strips using the 4 controllers and hopefully control all strips as if they were a single install. Thoughts?
Lastly, the "crocodile" clip....do you really need to use that to connect the two 16.4ft strip or instead you use the pre-made clip shown at the beginning of the video? The setup cable looks to have 2 ends with a pre-made connector.
Thanks again.
In HomeKit, you'll be able to group them all together and activate them as a singular entity (on/off) - it might also be possible to get them all to work to colour change at the same time too (though I've never been able to test this).
One thing that might be worth highlighting is that you're going to need a lot of plugs to make that set up happen - and the two 5m LED lightstrips each connect to one plug. Can definitely be done, but you might want to think of a way to hide the cables if you're installing this around a ceiling. Pre-planning will be key to your success - Good luck!
@@HeyTechi I mis-calculated when I mentioned 114ft. That was for 2 rooms. The large room is actually 74ft. The smaller room 44ft.
This Meross seems to only be RGB, no true white light? I think that is what's call RGBIC.
@@geek2330 we’re you able to get the strips connected together or did you have to do individual setups?
@@stanstylez I didn't buy the strips as I'm looking for a different vendor
does anyone know, if I were to order several of these and place them in different locations around the house, would the app coordinate the color for all of them simultaneously? or does it only control single instances of the QR codes?
Great question - I believe the answer is yes, but I don't know for sure as I haven't tested it. If you used HomeKit though, you could assign them different names and to different rooms (aka Hey Siri, turn the Kitchen LEDs to Blue) and it should work.
@@HeyTechi In the Meross app you can setup scenes to control multiple devices at once. Of course, you can also setup multiple device control in Google Home or Amazon Alexa control apps too.
I cannot get mine to connect, three different devices will not detect it nor in the manual setup, the product is not listed. Thank you for your time thought!
Hmm perhaps it's the unit itself that's faulty? I hope you get it resolved!
Is the device you're using to setup connected to your 2.4 ghz wifi? You may need to separate out the 2.4 ghz on your router or shut off the 5ghz to make this work, it talks about this in the instructions.
The fact that color is different from the one you choose could be a RGB configuration issue. Have you tried to change some RGB setting in Meross app?
This is a very interesting suggestion - No, I hadn't tried this. I'm going to experiment with it today and post the results here as a comment! Standby for an update very soon!
Update: So I looked into this and I can't report seeing any differences after resetting the product and hooking it up to the Meross app. The only thing I did note was that once you connect the Lightstrip to the Meross app, I lost Siri/HomeKit control for the device.
@@HeyTechi Hi, i just bought this Meross light strip and I can tell you my colors are fine. Mine works pretty good and colors are just as set. Maybe your light strip has some problem 😂 I’m sorry for your loss of HomeKit anyway😂
Can it be controlled from any other network? What i want to ask is that when i'm not in home, can i control it ?
Hi Aydin, yes - you can control any HomeKit device from anywhere in the world as long as you are connected to the internet, and the internet is working in your home. Thanks so much for watching!
Can you cut them into shorter strips since my room isnt that big
You can Magnus, but crucially you can only cut each strip once (two LED rolls can be cut once). You'll need to cut carefully though and bear in mind that each of the LED rolls in the pack must still be able to connect to the power supply!
Don't throw out the cut LEDs though! Using the crocodile clip, you can put a cut LED strip back together!
there is no better rgb strip which is also comaptible with apple home kit. Looking forward to this one! Thanks
The Meross lightstrip is pretty good! Some of the colours aren't the best, but, for the price - it's VERY good in my opinion, and it works flawlessly with HomeKit. If you get one of these, I don't think you'll go far wrong!
@@HeyTechi is it possible to connect 3 or 4 together to one hub?
Great question - theoretically there should be no problem (they’d all connect to HomeKit via WiFi and could be all controlled individually). If you wanted them to all work together (as one) you could then group them within HomeKit.
However, I’ve not personally tested this so I can’t say with absolute certainty though!
Does anyone know of a cable you can buy to place the strip further away from the controller?
Unfortunately, I don’t think any such product exists…
Does anyone know what happens when there is a power outage? When power is restored do the lights automatically turn on (regardless of their previous state)? Do they return to their previous state?
I want to put these in a bedroom but if there is power loss I don’t want them to suddenly turn on if there is a power outage. I know for sure the Hue light can be set to turn on after PF or return to same state as before after a PF. Any info would be great!! Thanks!!
Great question David - I just simulated a power outage by turning off the electric for you. If the Meross lightstrip is on before the outage, it will turn back on; but if the lightstrip is off, it will stay off when the power returns. That's the strip's default setting and as far as I can see, that can't be changed? Hope that helps!
@@HeyTechi
Perfect! That is what I was hoping for because I was installing this in my daughters room around top of ceiling. Occasionally we have power outages in middle of night and it would not be fun for them to suddenly come on at 2am. :)
Thanks very much!!!
You did join YT in late 2020 but you deserve 200k subs minimum
You flatter us Snufnik! Maybe one day - if we're lucky! Thanks for watching and for your support!
Thanks for watching! What do you think? Would you pay £40 / $55 (USD) for 10m of these LEDS? Let me know down below!
Remember, if you want to have your say about our next video, head on over to Instagram and cast your vote on our story!
My LED always loosing the signal, can’t connect to HomeKit. Any idea??
Did you fix it?
Does this led strip have cold and warmwhite color?
Excellent question - in the Meross app, there is a cold white colour option, but not a warm white.
However, you could manually set this up using the colour selector tool in-app/HomeKit, but that might be a little tricky to get right
can I connect motion sensor?or make a scene?
Yes to both! You can connect these to any HomeKit motion sensor and trigger a scene based on that too!
Can someone plz advice on what power supply I need to cut this strip
And use it for two places
There's one power supply that comes with the device and you can connect two reels to the power supply - so everything you need is in the box!
I think the price is quite good compared to Hue, £40 for 10 metres or currently on Amazon £69 for 2 metres of Hue
Of course, Phillips Hue also required a hub, unlike these Meross strips. There's pros and cons to this though - might be worth picking up some for a detailed review... Thanks for watching!
@@HeyTechi yeah but I think the majority of users now have hue for their reliability, although the price of these is tempting! Yeah a more detailed review would definitely be a good idea! No problem man, keep up the good work!
already bought it
Awesome! What do you think of the lightstrip? Would you recommend it to others?
What kinf of L or T connectors should i use?
Everything you'll need to get this up and running comes in the box! No need for additional connectors!
Having trouble with the reconnectors 😩
Hmm a lot of viewers seem to be finding these tricky... Maybe I should do a video on how to use these connectors...
@@HeyTechi yes please!
Is this light strip WIFI or Thread?
The Meross lightstrip is WiFi only, no Thread support I'm afraid.
If you're interested in a Thread supported light strip, you might like to check out the Nanoleaf LED lightstrip (review coming soon!)
can u cut it
Good video but I was distracted by how much you sound like Ed Miliband
This might be my favourite comment on any of my videos ever 😂
one of the worst LED strips i have ever gotten. Voltage leaking, poor control of various colors. Colors change but alway the white leds do not turn off via using the dots in the app.
Thanks for sharing Bill, sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with this light strip. What lightstrip did you replace it with?
@@HeyTechi onvis k1