I’ve been “smarting” my home for about 6 months or so now. I have Nanoleaf, Hue, TP-Link Kasa, Aqara,U300 lock, Lutron cassetas and picos, Phillips (non-Hue), Yale (lock plus 2 touch, one with the WiFi module and another without it), and finally, my ‘beloved’ LIFX. The LIFX products are superb and have never let me down. I’m at a point now that I’ve been considering selling everything else on eBay, and going full throttle with LIFX. And so, to the subject of this video: The in wall, semi-wired 4 bang switches have some interesting functionalities that in done ways supplant this one. At least one of the “Terminals” (it’s what they call them) must be connected to a wire. But that’s it. Once THE one button is connected, you do as you please to the others. I mean, suppose you have 4 “bangs” on the wall. That is, in the switch box where you are installing the used to be 4 separate switches, each controlling 4 different circuits (each connected to one light or more for off and on operation). When replacing with the 4 bang LIFX switch, you may choose to connect one of the power wires to one terminal, or all the four, each load wire to each one of the 4 terminals. OR, just connect 1 of the load wires, and tie the others, the load to the live wires, so they are permanently sending current to the other circuits. I’m assuming that in all other three circuits you installed smart devices compatible with Apple HomeKit. THEN, because the switch has “the power”, and it’s absolufreakinglutely configurable, you set each button to do whatever you want within very few constraints. They expose themselves to Apple HomeKit as 4 pairs. As 4 “switches” if wired, and 4 “lights/functions”. That is: you can control: The switch element of each button. Mind you: Each of the 4 buttons can control the electrical current of all 4 buttons. Off, and on. Your wire didn’t reach the bottom button, too short, and you had to connect it to the top button? No problem! You tell the bottom button to control the off and on current of the TOP switch, and vice versa! Or any way you want. Now, that’s ONLY the “switch element” exposed. It doesn’t stop there. No, Sir. Remember, each has the “light” exposed as well. And that is separate from the switch itself. Meaning, using the Apple Home app, you can control the current of any switch IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE of ANY of your LIFX switches, AND also the “light” element of also ANY of the switches in your entire house! Use case to demonstrate: You have conventional incandescent light bulbs in your foyer. You connect the switch behind one of the buttons (it does not matter which) to the load and live wires providing current to the incandescents, and then you program the “light” element to fire ANY Apple HomeKit (or LIFX, of course) scene to activate by the exposed element. So, when you touch the button on the wall, it will turn on the incandescent lights, AND anything else you programmed in the scene! To make it simple, it would turn on the incandescent lights and fire a scene that also lights up the smart lights belonging to the entire living room in a scene! You’d think it stops there. It doesn’t. It ALSO has, besides the one single tap of each button: - A double tap -> does whatever you program it to do (activates any OTHER scene) - A long press (2 seconds+) which activates any other scene you want it to! Literally, you can set it to unlock doors, turn on OTHER LIFX electrical switches, control ANY HomeKit enabled device that can participate in an Apple scene or a LIFX scene. “Cons”: Not a “remote”. It’s attached to the wall. But we have our iPhones for that! And we can control BOTH the electrical circuit, as well as the single touch, the double tap, AND the long press, all from either your phone or physically at the switch! It’s brilliant! No, no motion or light detection. But hey, buy a sensor exposed to HomeKit that can be included in an Apple scene, and DONE, it can control THAT!
Great review, Shane. I have found that manufacturers of multifaceted devices seem to release them before everything is ready to go or even before they themselves have a fully baked plan on how then full set of features they added should/could work together. To me, this clearly falls into that category. I can’t speak for others, but I will not but such devices anymore. If they relaunch it when done, especially with content creators showing the completed set of features, I will consider it at that time. Unfortunately, this rarely happens.
Thanks for the comment. Fortunately they did update it with Matter very quickly, even if "Early Access." With that, I think it's a complete product. There may be some things they can improve upon, but I think their goal for this product is to be a companion for people that already have Nanoleaf products.
It's a great switch. I've been testing in beta for months now, and i did bring up that backplate option for existing switches but i guess that changes the price or perhaps it will eventually become an accessory. Also, battery life will drop to 3 to 4 months once you enable matter. It reports every 2 seconds or so. Otherwise, this is a great switch. I have 2 of them.
I had the same thought about the plate being a major missed opportunity. I’ve got someone working on a 3D-printed mount, and once it’s finished, I’ll send you the .stl file!
Very interesting. I have a pair of lamps in both my bedroom and living room with Nanoleaf bulbs in them, and I have been looking to replace my Wemo Stage controllers that I use to control them. After years of teasing this product, I would have expected it to be more polished upon release. Still, I’m tempted to get one just to mess around with, hoping they iron out all the details over the coming months.
Nanoleaf missed big on several things....Like you noted the mounting bracket and it's lack of ability to use a standard single gang outlet box. As well as not including the motion and light sensors...I was just about to go buy one until you covered the Home Kit lack of integration of these 2 sensors... Nanoleaf needs to get out of the proprietary mentality and make everything open source/Home Kit and Home Assistant compatible. Thanks for a great review...
Great video. Just built a new home and had my electrician install nanoleaf 4” down lights in all rooms. This might be the perfect solution for me instead of the Lutron caseta Claro switches that I currently use. I’m fully Apple HomeKit with homehubs. What do you think Shane?
@ had to use claro smart switches with my nanoleaf down lights because a dimmer switch is incompatible. Just setup one nanoleaf sense+ yesterday and it works perfectly.
I love the idea of wireless thread-based multi button scene controllers , but too bad you can't get all the buttons into HK. I also love the idea to cycle through brightness and temperatures etc., because that's not really possible in HK (easily). I don't have that many Nanoleaf devices, mostly door and motion sensors plus a few bulbs. The matter support could help this in the future. It's a step in the right direction tho. Great review with the detail I needed to understand my use-case.👍
I've been searching for a long time for a motion switch using Matter but only know of 1 other (Inovelli) and at $50 USD, that is not an option. This is a perfect solution but maybe just an on and off button that is WIRED to the switch with motion and light sensors. That would be IDEAL! I don't really need a portable controller for my needs, just a switch that has motion sensors. BTW, love your reviews! Always well balanced and informative.
My nanoleaf lines refuse to connect to wifi let alone thread. Having reset it number of times, I have now given up. I also have problems with the bulbs power state after power failure. Some of them reset involuntarily. Nanoleaf are the weakest link in my apple home.
As nanoleaf bulbs have been bulletproof for me I’m so surprised to read the negatives. I run them with automations and don’t have to fuss. That equals success in my mind. I am interested in buttons for guests so I was curious about the new switch.
Several months back I bought 6 Nanoleaf gu10 bulbs for use in my kitchen and have been waiting for this switch to mount in the receptacle. These are the only Nanoleaf bulbs in the kitchen I’m guessing that my best bet would be to go with the flic twist?
If they are the Matter over Thread bulbs, then I think the Sense+ would be better if you want to control them all together in a group like mentioned in the video.
As long as it took them, they failed miserably in my humble opinion. I don’t have any Nanoleaf products, and glad I don’t. Happy I found the Inovelli White before this came out as I was planning to get these.
I think it depends on use-case. It seems they were clearly targeting existing Nanoleaf users with this product, which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing. Just making useful products that complement their existing product linuep. I used the Inovelli White to control my Nanoleaf Skylights for a long time. And while I also love the Inovelli White switch as well, I think the Sense+ is a better solution for this specific use-case.
I share the global feeling that is is either too much (to just control one Nanoleaf device) or not enough (to control a whole room). Of course, they are limited by intrinsic capabilities of Matter, and the '+' and '-' commands cannot be used as of now. Same for dynamic scenes. But the lack of motion/light sensors is a big missed opportunity. Same for the mounting bracket ... but at least you can find hacks in the US !! In Europe we just have no solution. At least they are reliable and very reactive, as you say. I think I will use mines in small rooms where I have few devices : the terrace, the guests bedroom. Apart from that I have one Onvis Thread 5-button, which has been pretty unreliable till now but seems to work super well now with iOS/tvOS 18.2, and an Innovation Matters 4-pushbutton module that works OK - this gadget deserves more promotion ;) Not to mention countless Sonoff minimodules for the traditional lights.
Huge opportunity missed for them to make a great or even good matter over thread switch. Missing sensors and buttons is a huge bummer. Nanoleaf lights should work with matter as well so no need for their protocol…
@@ShaneCreateslmaooo that was really smart ngl. Is there any other switch like can go i the wall like a regular switch and turn off and on smart devices on my Apple home? Most of them are buttons.This would be perfect but it has many drawbacks.
Hey @ShaneCreates ! Does this switch need to be connected to WiFi? I have extreme connectivity issues with my Nanoleaf skylight (always disconnects from WiFi) despite my router being not too far away. So I was thinking to get this because my current smart switch only turns on my non Nanoleaf lights (through matter) usually and the Nanoleaf just stays off because it’s almost always disconnected! So if this new Nanoleaf switch is connected directly I could assume it would help my scenario out because it’s cuts out the WiFi problem?? Thanks for the help!
Hey there, thanks for watching! The Sense+ uses Nanoleaf's new Lightwave protocol to communicate with Nanoleaf devices. It uses Thread for Matter. No wifi on the Sense+
Bought this switch two weeks ago. Activated Matter this week after the update and...... [insert sad trombone] no motion sensor in Apple Home. Come on Nanoleaf!
Hey does anyone know how i can turn off de move sensor by the switch manuel not via app ? In the app it shows to hold the on/off button for 2 sec but it doesnt work propperly ? Someone with the same issue?
I’m mostly a Nanoleaf fan, but this one seems like a miss for hardcore HomeKit users. I think I’ll stick to my wemo scene controllers for now. Solid review though! Thank you for going over this product. I had high hopes but looks like I’ll pass.
I was able to add the Sense+ to Home Assistant. Although I think the Matter integration is problematic when it comes to Matter smart buttons. But that's not a Nanoleaf thing, it's a HA thing. I'm seeing the same issues with other Matter smart buttons.
@@ShaneCreates Would you make an update Video if every button and sensor is exposed via Matter? Would be nice to mention if everything works in Home Assistant then too. Great Video
I left NanoLeaf for Philips Hue, haven’t looked back since. Had so many on off issues with NL, happy PH has had no issues for me. And this is a sad smart switch to have to wait 5 years for
yeah, I find the matter thread is not as reliable as HUE. I find that some of the bulbs I use from NL don't always turn of or off when commanded. Granted they are farther from the hub but if it is a true mesh network, it shouldn't matter (pun intended). There are other bulbs in the mesh that it should be communicating with. Too bad...
Definitely should have mentioned how this is still currently only predominantly compatible with the matter essential light bulbs and not the HomeKit version. The matter early access does now give HK light bulbs the chance to actually use it (only two out of the six buttons) but still having to wait and hope they push the update out in January. Overall, I think it has been quite a poorly executed project.
Thanks for pointing that out. I missed that fine print. I do not have any of the HomeKit only Essentials bulbs or strips to test. It does work with the Matter Essentials. For anyone else that may find it useful, this is currently listed on their website regarding compatibility: The Sense+ Smart Wireless Switch is compatible with most Nanoleaf Smart Lights*, with the exception of Original Nanoleaf Light Panels, Nanoleaf Canvas, and Smarter Partner products. *Support for Nanoleaf 4D and Nanoleaf Essentials Thread Homekit Bulbs & Lightstrips is coming soon.
F Nanoleaf. They stole 550 dollars from me. Charged me for 2 Shapes kits during the Black Friday sale, and shipped my order without them or the power supply unit and told me I'm SOL. I'll not only never buy from them again, I'm literally ripping there stuff out of my home and replacing it all. I can't believe a company this big can just rip you off like that.
I’ve been “smarting” my home for about 6 months or so now. I have Nanoleaf, Hue, TP-Link Kasa, Aqara,U300 lock, Lutron cassetas and picos, Phillips (non-Hue), Yale (lock plus 2 touch, one with the WiFi module and another without it), and finally, my ‘beloved’ LIFX. The LIFX products are superb and have never let me down. I’m at a point now that I’ve been considering selling everything else on eBay, and going full throttle with LIFX. And so, to the subject of this video: The in wall, semi-wired 4 bang switches have some interesting functionalities that in done ways supplant this one. At least one of the “Terminals” (it’s what they call them) must be connected to a wire. But that’s it. Once THE one button is connected, you do as you please to the others. I mean, suppose you have 4 “bangs” on the wall. That is, in the switch box where you are installing the used to be 4 separate switches, each controlling 4 different circuits (each connected to one light or more for off and on operation). When replacing with the 4 bang LIFX switch, you may choose to connect one of the power wires to one terminal, or all the four, each load wire to each one of the 4 terminals. OR, just connect 1 of the load wires, and tie the others, the load to the live wires, so they are permanently sending current to the other circuits. I’m assuming that in all other three circuits you installed smart devices compatible with Apple HomeKit. THEN, because the switch has “the power”, and it’s absolufreakinglutely configurable, you set each button to do whatever you want within very few constraints. They expose themselves to Apple HomeKit as 4 pairs. As 4 “switches” if wired, and 4 “lights/functions”. That is: you can control: The switch element of each button. Mind you: Each of the 4 buttons can control the electrical current of all 4 buttons. Off, and on. Your wire didn’t reach the bottom button, too short, and you had to connect it to the top button? No problem! You tell the bottom button to control the off and on current of the TOP switch, and vice versa! Or any way you want. Now, that’s ONLY the “switch element” exposed. It doesn’t stop there. No, Sir. Remember, each has the “light” exposed as well. And that is separate from the switch itself. Meaning, using the Apple Home app, you can control the current of any switch IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE of ANY of your LIFX switches, AND also the “light” element of also ANY of the switches in your entire house! Use case to demonstrate: You have conventional incandescent light bulbs in your foyer. You connect the switch behind one of the buttons (it does not matter which) to the load and live wires providing current to the incandescents, and then you program the “light” element to fire ANY Apple HomeKit (or LIFX, of course) scene to activate by the exposed element. So, when you touch the button on the wall, it will turn on the incandescent lights, AND anything else you programmed in the scene! To make it simple, it would turn on the incandescent lights and fire a scene that also lights up the smart lights belonging to the entire living room in a scene! You’d think it stops there. It doesn’t. It ALSO has, besides the one single tap of each button: - A double tap -> does whatever you program it to do (activates any OTHER scene) - A long press (2 seconds+) which activates any other scene you want it to! Literally, you can set it to unlock doors, turn on OTHER LIFX electrical switches, control ANY HomeKit enabled device that can participate in an Apple scene or a LIFX scene. “Cons”: Not a “remote”. It’s attached to the wall. But we have our iPhones for that! And we can control BOTH the electrical circuit, as well as the single touch, the double tap, AND the long press, all from either your phone or physically at the switch! It’s brilliant! No, no motion or light detection. But hey, buy a sensor exposed to HomeKit that can be included in an Apple scene, and DONE, it can control THAT!
🏠Want to try the Nanoleaf Sense+ for yourself? Get it here: geni.us/NanoSense
Let me know what smart switches you're using in your smart home! 👇
They finally had some back in stock, so I just ordered 2. Thanks for the great, informative video, as always!
I’ve been “smarting” my home for about 6 months or so now. I have Nanoleaf, Hue, TP-Link Kasa, Aqara,U300 lock, Lutron cassetas and picos, Phillips (non-Hue), Yale (lock plus 2 touch, one with the WiFi module and another without it), and finally, my ‘beloved’ LIFX. The LIFX products are superb and have never let me down. I’m at a point now that I’ve been considering selling everything else on eBay, and going full throttle with LIFX. And so, to the subject of this video: The in wall, semi-wired 4 bang switches have some interesting functionalities that in done ways supplant this one. At least one of the “Terminals” (it’s what they call them) must be connected to a wire. But that’s it. Once THE one button is connected, you do as you please to the others.
I mean, suppose you have 4 “bangs” on the wall. That is, in the switch box where you are installing the used to be 4 separate switches, each controlling 4 different circuits (each connected to one light or more for off and on operation). When replacing with the 4 bang LIFX switch, you may choose to connect one of the power wires to one terminal, or all the four, each load wire to each one of the 4 terminals. OR, just connect 1 of the load wires, and tie the others, the load to the live wires, so they are permanently sending current to the other circuits. I’m assuming that in all other three circuits you installed smart devices compatible with Apple HomeKit. THEN, because the switch has “the power”, and it’s absolufreakinglutely configurable, you set each button to do whatever you want within very few constraints. They expose themselves to Apple HomeKit as 4 pairs. As 4 “switches” if wired, and 4 “lights/functions”. That is: you can control:
The switch element of each button. Mind you: Each of the 4 buttons can control the electrical current of all 4 buttons. Off, and on. Your wire didn’t reach the bottom button, too short, and you had to connect it to the top button? No problem! You tell the bottom button to control the off and on current of the TOP switch, and vice versa! Or any way you want. Now, that’s ONLY the “switch element” exposed. It doesn’t stop there. No, Sir. Remember, each has the “light” exposed as well. And that is separate from the switch itself. Meaning, using the Apple Home app, you can control the current of any switch IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE of ANY of your LIFX switches, AND also the “light” element of also ANY of the switches in your entire house!
Use case to demonstrate:
You have conventional incandescent light bulbs in your foyer. You connect the switch behind one of the buttons (it does not matter which) to the load and live wires providing current to the incandescents, and then you program the “light” element to fire ANY Apple HomeKit (or LIFX, of course) scene to activate by the exposed element. So, when you touch the button on the wall, it will turn on the incandescent lights, AND anything else you programmed in the scene! To make it simple, it would turn on the incandescent lights and fire a scene that also lights up the smart lights belonging to the entire living room in a scene!
You’d think it stops there. It doesn’t. It ALSO has, besides the one single tap of each button:
- A double tap -> does whatever you program it to do (activates any OTHER scene)
- A long press (2 seconds+) which activates any other scene you want it to!
Literally, you can set it to unlock doors, turn on OTHER LIFX electrical switches, control ANY HomeKit enabled device that can participate in an Apple scene or a LIFX scene.
“Cons”: Not a “remote”. It’s attached to the wall. But we have our iPhones for that! And we can control BOTH the electrical circuit, as well as the single touch, the double tap, AND the long press, all from either your phone or physically at the switch! It’s brilliant! No, no motion or light detection. But hey, buy a sensor exposed to HomeKit that can be included in an Apple scene, and DONE, it can control THAT!
Great review, Shane. I have found that manufacturers of multifaceted devices seem to release them before everything is ready to go or even before they themselves have a fully baked plan on how then full set of features they added should/could work together. To me, this clearly falls into that category. I can’t speak for others, but I will not but such devices anymore. If they relaunch it when done, especially with content creators showing the completed set of features, I will consider it at that time. Unfortunately, this rarely happens.
Thanks for the comment. Fortunately they did update it with Matter very quickly, even if "Early Access." With that, I think it's a complete product. There may be some things they can improve upon, but I think their goal for this product is to be a companion for people that already have Nanoleaf products.
It's a great switch. I've been testing in beta for months now, and i did bring up that backplate option for existing switches but i guess that changes the price or perhaps it will eventually become an accessory. Also, battery life will drop to 3 to 4 months once you enable matter. It reports every 2 seconds or so. Otherwise, this is a great switch. I have 2 of them.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I had the same thought about the plate being a major missed opportunity. I’ve got someone working on a 3D-printed mount, and once it’s finished, I’ll send you the .stl file!
That would be awesome! Thanks Eric!
Unless the switch/button can be mounted like a Lutron Pico in a Decora wall plate, I will never have an interest in it.
I had my son design one for 3d printing. I also used a band saw to trim down the wall plates in the kit to use in larger gang boxes.
@@draken7333 Can you send me the .stl file? My designer is on his third iteration, and it's still not quite there yet.
Feel free to share with the rest of the class
Very interesting. I have a pair of lamps in both my bedroom and living room with Nanoleaf bulbs in them, and I have been looking to replace my Wemo Stage controllers that I use to control them. After years of teasing this product, I would have expected it to be more polished upon release. Still, I’m tempted to get one just to mess around with, hoping they iron out all the details over the coming months.
Nanoleaf missed big on several things....Like you noted the mounting bracket and it's lack of ability to use a standard single gang outlet box. As well as not including the motion and light sensors...I was just about to go buy one until you covered the Home Kit lack of integration of these 2 sensors... Nanoleaf needs to get out of the proprietary mentality and make everything open source/Home Kit and Home Assistant compatible. Thanks for a great review...
5 years with a use case that narrow is insane
Great video. Just built a new home and had my electrician install nanoleaf 4” down lights in all rooms. This might be the perfect solution for me instead of the Lutron caseta Claro switches that I currently use. I’m fully Apple HomeKit with homehubs. What do you think Shane?
How are your Lutron Claro switches? I just bought my home and am looking to purchase them..
@ had to use claro smart switches with my nanoleaf down lights because a dimmer switch is incompatible. Just setup one nanoleaf sense+ yesterday and it works perfectly.
this is art design product, that's amazing
I love the idea of wireless thread-based multi button scene controllers , but too bad you can't get all the buttons into HK. I also love the idea to cycle through brightness and temperatures etc., because that's not really possible in HK (easily). I don't have that many Nanoleaf devices, mostly door and motion sensors plus a few bulbs. The matter support could help this in the future. It's a step in the right direction tho. Great review with the detail I needed to understand my use-case.👍
Thanks for the comment and support. Glad the video was helpful!
I've been searching for a long time for a motion switch using Matter but only know of 1 other (Inovelli) and at $50 USD, that is not an option. This is a perfect solution but maybe just an on and off button that is WIRED to the switch with motion and light sensors. That would be IDEAL! I don't really need a portable controller for my needs, just a switch that has motion sensors. BTW, love your reviews! Always well balanced and informative.
Thank you!
My nanoleaf lines refuse to connect to wifi let alone thread. Having reset it number of times, I have now given up. I also have problems with the bulbs power state after power failure. Some of them reset involuntarily. Nanoleaf are the weakest link in my apple home.
As nanoleaf bulbs have been bulletproof for me I’m so surprised to read the negatives. I run them with automations and don’t have to fuss. That equals success in my mind. I am interested in buttons for guests so I was curious about the new switch.
I hate my Nanoleaf essential Bulbs they are worst smart bulbs I've ever used.
What are your thoughts on Lutron Caseta Smart Switches?
Several months back I bought 6 Nanoleaf gu10 bulbs for use in my kitchen and have been waiting for this switch to mount in the receptacle. These are the only Nanoleaf bulbs in the kitchen I’m guessing that my best bet would be to go with the flic twist?
If they are the Matter over Thread bulbs, then I think the Sense+ would be better if you want to control them all together in a group like mentioned in the video.
As long as it took them, they failed miserably in my humble opinion. I don’t have any Nanoleaf products, and glad I don’t. Happy I found the Inovelli White before this came out as I was planning to get these.
I think it depends on use-case. It seems they were clearly targeting existing Nanoleaf users with this product, which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing. Just making useful products that complement their existing product linuep. I used the Inovelli White to control my Nanoleaf Skylights for a long time. And while I also love the Inovelli White switch as well, I think the Sense+ is a better solution for this specific use-case.
does this works with nanoleaf canvas?
Im still trying to get it to show in HK but no luck. Guess the Matter early access still need working on
I had to pair this switch in the nanoleaf app first and then connect this to matter early access before it was showing in HomeKit. Hope this helps.
How does it work with home assistant?
Matter over thread
I share the global feeling that is is either too much (to just control one Nanoleaf device) or not enough (to control a whole room).
Of course, they are limited by intrinsic capabilities of Matter, and the '+' and '-' commands cannot be used as of now. Same for dynamic scenes. But the lack of motion/light sensors is a big missed opportunity.
Same for the mounting bracket ... but at least you can find hacks in the US !! In Europe we just have no solution.
At least they are reliable and very reactive, as you say.
I think I will use mines in small rooms where I have few devices : the terrace, the guests bedroom.
Apart from that I have one Onvis Thread 5-button, which has been pretty unreliable till now but seems to work super well now with iOS/tvOS 18.2, and an Innovation Matters 4-pushbutton module that works OK - this gadget deserves more promotion ;)
Not to mention countless Sonoff minimodules for the traditional lights.
Huge opportunity missed for them to make a great or even good matter over thread switch.
Missing sensors and buttons is a huge bummer. Nanoleaf lights should work with matter as well so no need for their protocol…
7:05 quick questions, i want to do the same how did you manage to stick the switch to the wall like that?
Watch at 12:25
@@ShaneCreateslmaooo that was really smart ngl.
Is there any other switch like can go i the wall like a regular switch and turn off and on smart devices on my Apple home? Most of them are buttons.This would be perfect but it has many drawbacks.
Proprietary is just not good enough in the age of matter over thread
Hey @ShaneCreates ! Does this switch need to be connected to WiFi? I have extreme connectivity issues with my Nanoleaf skylight (always disconnects from WiFi) despite my router being not too far away. So I was thinking to get this because my current smart switch only turns on my non Nanoleaf lights (through matter) usually and the Nanoleaf just stays off because it’s almost always disconnected! So if this new Nanoleaf switch is connected directly I could assume it would help my scenario out because it’s cuts out the WiFi problem?? Thanks for the help!
Hey there, thanks for watching! The Sense+ uses Nanoleaf's new Lightwave protocol to communicate with Nanoleaf devices. It uses Thread for Matter. No wifi on the Sense+
Bought this switch two weeks ago. Activated Matter this week after the update and...... [insert sad trombone] no motion sensor in Apple Home. Come on Nanoleaf!
Yea, I was hoping for that too. 😢
Hey does anyone know how i can turn off de move sensor by the switch manuel not via app ? In the app it shows to hold the on/off button for 2 sec but it doesnt work propperly ? Someone with the same issue?
Sooo you’re saying those on/off buttons cannot control a 3rd-party light? At all?
That's correct.
I’m mostly a Nanoleaf fan, but this one seems like a miss for hardcore HomeKit users. I think I’ll stick to my wemo scene controllers for now. Solid review though! Thank you for going over this product. I had high hopes but looks like I’ll pass.
This would be awesome if it were workable with Home Assistant but GPT says no. Also s-ks that two of the buttons are not exposed.
I was able to add the Sense+ to Home Assistant. Although I think the Matter integration is problematic when it comes to Matter smart buttons. But that's not a Nanoleaf thing, it's a HA thing. I'm seeing the same issues with other Matter smart buttons.
@ Yeah I haven’t even tried the HA matter functionality yet because its still really early and very much beta still.
@@ShaneCreates Would you make an update Video if every button and sensor is exposed via Matter? Would be nice to mention if everything works in Home Assistant then too. Great Video
Surprised you didn’t mention pricing. $27 today btw
I left NanoLeaf for Philips Hue, haven’t looked back since. Had so many on off issues with NL, happy PH has had no issues for me.
And this is a sad smart switch to have to wait 5 years for
yeah, I find the matter thread is not as reliable as HUE. I find that some of the bulbs I use from NL don't always turn of or off when commanded. Granted they are farther from the hub but if it is a true mesh network, it shouldn't matter (pun intended). There are other bulbs in the mesh that it should be communicating with. Too bad...
Definitely should have mentioned how this is still currently only predominantly compatible with the matter essential light bulbs and not the HomeKit version. The matter early access does now give HK light bulbs the chance to actually use it (only two out of the six buttons) but still having to wait and hope they push the update out in January. Overall, I think it has been quite a poorly executed project.
Thanks for pointing that out. I missed that fine print. I do not have any of the HomeKit only Essentials bulbs or strips to test. It does work with the Matter Essentials.
For anyone else that may find it useful, this is currently listed on their website regarding compatibility:
The Sense+ Smart Wireless Switch is compatible with most Nanoleaf Smart Lights*, with the exception of Original Nanoleaf Light Panels, Nanoleaf Canvas, and Smarter Partner products.
*Support for Nanoleaf 4D and Nanoleaf Essentials Thread Homekit Bulbs & Lightstrips is coming soon.
He set this up via their app? If you set it up via the Home app, can you connect it to Hue lights?
Nope. Only Nanoleaf lights, its a scam
Matter has been really disappointing so far. A lot of devices lose half their functionality, once the Matter upgrade has gone through
Isn't this mislabeled? It's really a smart button not switch...
damn Ive never been this early
Me neither
Thanks for watching! 😃
that matter implementation is kinda wack and defenitely a dealbreaker for me
Nanoleaf sucks and the worst smart lights I've ever bought and used.
F Nanoleaf. They stole 550 dollars from me. Charged me for 2 Shapes kits during the Black Friday sale, and shipped my order without them or the power supply unit and told me I'm SOL. I'll not only never buy from them again, I'm literally ripping there stuff out of my home and replacing it all. I can't believe a company this big can just rip you off like that.
I’ve been “smarting” my home for about 6 months or so now. I have Nanoleaf, Hue, TP-Link Kasa, Aqara,U300 lock, Lutron cassetas and picos, Phillips (non-Hue), Yale (lock plus 2 touch, one with the WiFi module and another without it), and finally, my ‘beloved’ LIFX. The LIFX products are superb and have never let me down. I’m at a point now that I’ve been considering selling everything else on eBay, and going full throttle with LIFX. And so, to the subject of this video: The in wall, semi-wired 4 bang switches have some interesting functionalities that in done ways supplant this one. At least one of the “Terminals” (it’s what they call them) must be connected to a wire. But that’s it. Once THE one button is connected, you do as you please to the others.
I mean, suppose you have 4 “bangs” on the wall. That is, in the switch box where you are installing the used to be 4 separate switches, each controlling 4 different circuits (each connected to one light or more for off and on operation). When replacing with the 4 bang LIFX switch, you may choose to connect one of the power wires to one terminal, or all the four, each load wire to each one of the 4 terminals. OR, just connect 1 of the load wires, and tie the others, the load to the live wires, so they are permanently sending current to the other circuits. I’m assuming that in all other three circuits you installed smart devices compatible with Apple HomeKit. THEN, because the switch has “the power”, and it’s absolufreakinglutely configurable, you set each button to do whatever you want within very few constraints. They expose themselves to Apple HomeKit as 4 pairs. As 4 “switches” if wired, and 4 “lights/functions”. That is: you can control:
The switch element of each button. Mind you: Each of the 4 buttons can control the electrical current of all 4 buttons. Off, and on. Your wire didn’t reach the bottom button, too short, and you had to connect it to the top button? No problem! You tell the bottom button to control the off and on current of the TOP switch, and vice versa! Or any way you want. Now, that’s ONLY the “switch element” exposed. It doesn’t stop there. No, Sir. Remember, each has the “light” exposed as well. And that is separate from the switch itself. Meaning, using the Apple Home app, you can control the current of any switch IN THE ENTIRE HOUSE of ANY of your LIFX switches, AND also the “light” element of also ANY of the switches in your entire house!
Use case to demonstrate:
You have conventional incandescent light bulbs in your foyer. You connect the switch behind one of the buttons (it does not matter which) to the load and live wires providing current to the incandescents, and then you program the “light” element to fire ANY Apple HomeKit (or LIFX, of course) scene to activate by the exposed element. So, when you touch the button on the wall, it will turn on the incandescent lights, AND anything else you programmed in the scene! To make it simple, it would turn on the incandescent lights and fire a scene that also lights up the smart lights belonging to the entire living room in a scene!
You’d think it stops there. It doesn’t. It ALSO has, besides the one single tap of each button:
- A double tap -> does whatever you program it to do (activates any OTHER scene)
- A long press (2 seconds+) which activates any other scene you want it to!
Literally, you can set it to unlock doors, turn on OTHER LIFX electrical switches, control ANY HomeKit enabled device that can participate in an Apple scene or a LIFX scene.
“Cons”: Not a “remote”. It’s attached to the wall. But we have our iPhones for that! And we can control BOTH the electrical circuit, as well as the single touch, the double tap, AND the long press, all from either your phone or physically at the switch! It’s brilliant! No, no motion or light detection. But hey, buy a sensor exposed to HomeKit that can be included in an Apple scene, and DONE, it can control THAT!