This Smart Home Ceiling Light Is ALMOST Perfect..

In this video we are reviewing the new Aqara T1M Smart Ceiling light which features an LED main panel with temperature control, and a secondary addressable RGB strip for notifications or status indicators. Let's find out if the RGB strip on the Aqara T1M is a gimmick or if it's actually useful!

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0:00 - Intro
0:20 - Design and features
1:44 - Aqara app and control
3:13 - Other platforms
3:41 - Alexa Controls
4:01 - Google Home Controls
4:15 - HomeKit Controls
4:48 - Home Assistant (Zigbee2mqtt + ZHA)
6:14 - Brightness
7:13 - Notification ring automations

[EverythingSmartHome]

Hope you are having a great weeknd! What's your opinions on the new Aqara T1M? 👇

[koehlej]

Another use for the RGB strip on the light would be to use as a night light together with a presence sensor. I am already doing this with a short RGB strip on a table in the upstairs hallway. If it is after sunset and the presence sensor detects someone in the hall, HA turns on the RGB strip. Then after doing you business in the bathroom 😊 and head back to bed, the RGB STRIP will turn off when the presence sensor detects no one in the hall. This Aqara light would address this automation and provide normal lighting in the hallway. I need 3 but at a total cost of $450 USD, my cheaper option works just fine. I want this Aqara light though!

Thank you for your reviews and how-to’s. I’ve learned a lot from your videos and jumped into the HA universe with Blue based on your recommendations.

[gordon]

As I mentioned on another video review I would probably look at bypassing the RGB control and adding a D1 Mini inside the unit and control it via WLED instead.

I have a pair of the Yeelight Arwen 550C lights that are similar to this except for a single colour RGB ring with no effects, and have them both set to 1% power for general use as they are so damn bright. I think I prefer the look of the Yeelight units as they don't have the wide ring so blend into the ceiling better. I also prefer the mounting system for the Yeelight, no twisting just a quick release clip.

[JT-irvw]

I put these in all my hallways and staircases. I quite enjoy the ring light as a dim night light that triggers with motion detected. Also have setup with doorbell.

[john.sturgeon]

I've been waiting for this for EVER..

Thanks for the look at the internals. First thing I might do with that is hijack the power out to the RGB strip and wire my own WLED controller in between.

[TDCIYB]

If you are on a ultra low budget: I bought 5 Tuya ceiling lights with both WW/CW main and RGB ambient light for 16€ 2 months ago on Ali. Now still only around 22€! Sadly only Wifi, and with the previous Tuya integration in HA one light had connection issues every few weeks, BUT: Now the new official smart Life integration is here, everything is fine and instant!
Again, only Wifi, but you can get 7 lights for the price of a single Aqara.
PS: The ambient light is most definitely NOT a gimmick, that is why i bought 4 more after the first one to replace all other ceiling lights. Game changer! So much i bit the bullet and accepted Wifi even though every other device in my home (over 50) are Zigbee.

[SmithyScotland]

£150 Seems aufy expensive for that kind of light and features. Thank you for showing how much light actually come off it - other reviews seem to have missed that.

[diespaten]

What's also noteworthy is that the lamp has an CRI>90 which is not common, especially in this price range. I think I will buy one for my home as well

[carpii]

have there been any improvements to home assistant support in the 6 months since this video?

[yak_]

For me, one important metric is whether there is any flicker. Most people aren't sensitive to flickering LEDs but that's something I'm quite sensitive to and would be a deal-breaker for me. For instance, I assembled QuinLed Quad's to replace Shelly RGBW2s because they flickered too much and ESP32s support 40000Hz PWM which is sufficient.

I feel that any premium light needs to be flicker-free and, until the electronics become more ubiqutis and this becomes a non-problem, this should be a prominent benchmark of quality.

[rodneysmith]

Great review, thanks for sharing! What I really want to see is a similar product for a recessed or flush-mount light fixture.

[adfjasjhf]

Regarding the outer rgb ring, considering the amount of space inside this unit (if you are willing to do it), It should be a very simple task to disconnect the ring from the main light and add a ESP32/D1 Mini with WLED as the controller instead and open it up to many more effects.

[simonsmith]

Yet another informative video, keep them coming. I would like to see you cover maintaining HA, specifically how to swap out a device when it fails without breaking automations.

[junkins]

That is really cool! I really like the idea of using the ring light for notifying. Thanks, Lewis.😊

[chrisdixon]

Was about to comment the same as koehlej - I'd use the red on the strip to give some lighting to find my way in the dark without waking others or destroying night vision, but I suppose you could light the white light at a low intensity for that too.

And I definitely think you nailed it with the notification use (was thinking exactly that before you said it in the video) - I can imagine linking it to smoke alarms / house alarm triggering and also an easy alert that the kids are out of bed when they are supposed to be sleeping (stole that idea from Rob over at The Hook Up)... plenty of uses!

I do think the price is a littel high. You compared it to designer light fittings, but they normally have replaceable bulbs - when this thing dies, you have to buy a new one.
Overall I like the idea though

[sierpus]

How that would work with regular on/off light switch on the wall? It seems that you would need to either put relay in the switch or you can’t use physical switch anymore to turn off the light, right? If you do, you want turn it on via the app anymore

[HorstmannFarms]

@EverythingSmartHome it seems you have answered the question from others about how it functions with a light switch. I was wondering if there is a way to get it to function with a (smart) light switch for my wife's ease of use but not actually cut the power to the RGB light strip. It would be an even smarter home to me if it had all the great properties of a regular light fixture without disabling the notifications ring. Obviously if I hook it up to a switch the normal way my notifications will go away if the light switch is used. Maybe there is already a video about this and someone could point me in the right direction ?

[MarkusBurrer]

The specs are interesting, especially the CRI > 90. But I can't find any information about lumen. How bright is this light?

[adfjasjhf]

I use Yeelight arwen ceiling light 550c in my home and it works perfectly. It does pretty much the same thing although the RGB light is not addressable. All effects that the light has are available in Home assistant :)
I use the Red LED to indicate that I'm in a Webex/Teams meeting or I have a call on my phone and can't be disturbed right now.

[borrachomejor]

How does this function with a normal switch? I assume the intended function would be to leave the switch 'always on' and only control through the app(s)? This almost seems a little counterintuitive unless I'm missing something. If using it with a normal switch, what happens when I turn the switch off, I have to manually turn the switch back on to restore functionality. I guess you could pair it with a 'faux' smart switch to replace the actual switch but if your Home Assistant (or lesser) server goes down your light would be stuck and unusable. Generally curious because I see this being more of an annoyance than anything.