Ex-Tesla and NASA Engineers Make a Light Bulb That’s Smarter Than You

[ohmman]

My biggest concern with smart bulbs though is that people who actually care about the cost or waste of use can just flip the damned thing off. Bonnie mentioned a couple examples where the smarts enable a use that a dumb LED cannot fill, but I'm really skeptical of a market case based on money savings.

No doubt. It's a gadget and it provides benefits from a quality of life standpoint, for sure. But if economy is your motivator, you need to look elsewhere.

The Model S, and to a lesser extent Model X, have been discussed based on their TCO and economy. For most people, that's just an avenue for personal justification (not judging, we all need that). For those who drive an awful lot, it may make some economic sense. For the rest of us, it's a vehicle that has some marginal economic benefit along with some level of societal and environmental benefit existing alongside a package that brings pure joy and exhilaration.

 

[SBenson]

Review of the product, fresh off the press from CNET:

Stack LED Downlight Starter Kit review: Stack's smart bulbs might be the smartest yet

8.5 Overall Rating (on 10).

THE GOOD Stack's smart bulbs are both feature-rich and relatively easy to use. You can schedule lighting changes, sync them up with IFTTT or Nest, or just set them to automatically adjust brightness and color temperature on their own throughout the day.

THE BAD Though you can adjust the color temperature, you can't change colors like you can with Lifx or Philips Hue. App-initiated lighting changes can also be a touch sluggish at times.

THE BOTTOM LINE These bulbs aren't cheap, but they cost less than Lifx or Philips Hue and arguably do more thanks to the built-in sensors for presence and ambient light.

The verdict
Stack's LED Downlights are a big step in the right direction for the smart lighting category. At $45 each (or $99 for the two-bulb starter kit) they cost less than Lifx and Philips Hue's smart floodlights, and they arguably have more to offer thanks to the on-board sensor tech in each bulb. I didn't have any trouble setting them up or using them, and I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of the app's controls. Integrations with Nest and with IFTTT only helped take things to the next level. If you're looking to buy into smart lighting, keep Stack on your shortlist.

 

[bonnie]

Here's their video, for those who would rather listen vs. read.

 

[hockeythug]

Good to see the cost is coming down for smart lights.

 

[NigelM]

Latest from Stack:

Stack – Press Release - August 10, 2016

I've been able to test some of this stuff and it's so cool to be able to voice control our lights. Now, I just need to figure out how have the lights turn on as our car approaches the house.....

 

[GarrickS]

Hah! Stack Lighting! I, too, was an early investor and got their kit. I played with it for a few weeks. The giant light bulbs didn't fit where I wanted them. I never got them to do anything useful. I packed them and sent them to my like-minded brother-in-law. After several weeks, he was done playing and gave them to a friend. They could be on their 4th owner by now.

 

[trils0n]

I've been able to test some of this stuff and it's so cool to be able to voice control our lights. Now, I just need to figure out how have the lights turn on as our car approaches the house.....

IFTTT seems like it would work for that. If "Android Location" (I assume iPhone loc is also a choice, but don't have one to test) enters area, then Stack turns on lights.

Been experimenting with the set I won at Party at Picnic Creek. Still trying to get them to do useful stuff.

 

[ohmman]

Been experimenting with the set I won at Party at Picnic Creek. Still trying to get them to do useful stuff.

Likewise. We're finishing up a bunch of summer projects around here but once the rain starts in a few months, I plan to write a plugin for Indigo to control mine. I'm not thrilled with the defaults setup on them.

 

[bonnie]

Hah! Stack Lighting! I, too, was an early investor and got their kit. I played with it for a few weeks. The giant light bulbs didn't fit where I wanted them. I never got them to do anything useful. I packed them and sent them to my like-minded brother-in-law. After several weeks, he was done playing and gave them to a friend. They could be on their 4th owner by now.

Odd. The Amazon site is clear about the bulb form factor (as was the Stack Pre-Order site), and also includes a description:

I know most of the people on the investor list. Perhaps you're thinking 'pre-order'?

Sorry you couldn't figure out how to make these useful - I absolutely love my Stack bulbs (and if you knew me, you'd know I don't like gimmicky things). They become more and more useful as you add more rooms. And as Nigel mentioned, the integration with Alexa means that you can walk in a room and just say 'Alexa, turn the living room lights to Media Night (or whatever you want)'. I love having the lights turn on as I walk into a dark garage stairwell, with my arms full. I'm currently house hunting, have removed all my Stack lights for the new house, and will be outfitting whatever I buy fully with Stack lights. It really is simple to set up and use for most people.

​

 

[bonnie]

IFTTT seems like it would work for that. If "Android Location" (I assume iPhone loc is also a choice, but don't have one to test) enters area, then Stack turns on lights.

Been experimenting with the set I won at Party at Picnic Creek. Still trying to get them to do useful stuff.

It's tough with just a couple bulbs. I started with my master bath (didn't have many can fixtures, so was limited). Getting up in the middle of the night, with bulbs on Sleep Mode was a def 'ooooh, that's nice', with no glaring bright light, but rather lights on a very low setting, making it possible to see, but not anything that shocks a sleepy body.

If you have a hallway with the right fixtures, that's another good starting point. Now I use them as alarms, to set circadian rhythm and fall asleep like a boss, turn them on super bright when the cleaning service is coming in (nothing gets missed), etc etc. Oh, and movement detection.

Find just one room and put them through their paces. And then maybe add one more room. Soon you'll have your house covered. And if you sync with Alexa as Nigel has posted, just announcing you want your lights to change is like magic.

 

[NigelM]

Likewise. We're finishing up a bunch of summer projects around here but once the rain starts in a few months, I plan to write a plugin for Indigo to control mine. I'm not thrilled with the defaults setup on them.

It's pretty easy to use the scheduling feature to customize behavior. We're happy with defaults much of the time but have implemented a few schedules to change what suits us better. I have them through the whole house and honestly would have a hard time switching back to old-fashioned bulbs right now.

 

[ohmman]

It's pretty easy to use the scheduling feature to customize behavior. We're happy with defaults much of the time but have implemented a few schedules to change what suits us better. I have them through the whole house and honestly would have a hard time switching back to old-fashioned bulbs right now.

Yeah, I've done some tweaking. I can probably get them to work satisfactorily in the right locations - it's just finding those locations that's challenging.

I have Hue bulbs through the house with external (Z-wave) motion sensors that do things by time of day or triggers (like my Tesla coming home). So I'm comparing to an already-smart-bulbed home. I miss the color options, though I don't think they're always necessary. It's nice to have red light in the middle of the night, for instance. If I walk out in the dark early in the morning, they'll start reddish and make their way to yellow and more white with the sun. Stack offers a decent range of temperatures that could do something similar, but they don't work well in my waking hallway for that reason - they're not as gentle as dim red light.

 

[NigelM]

Yeah, I've done some tweaking. I can probably get them to work satisfactorily in the right locations - it's just finding those locations that's challenging.

I have Hue bulbs through the house with external (Z-wave) motion sensors that do things by time of day or triggers (like my Tesla coming home). So I'm comparing to an already-smart-bulbed home. I miss the color options, though I don't think they're always necessary. It's nice to have red light in the middle of the night, for instance. If I walk out in the dark early in the morning, they'll start reddish and make their way to yellow and more white with the sun. Stack offers a decent range of temperatures that could do something similar, but they don't work well in my waking hallway for that reason - they're not as gentle as dim red light.

I think the trick is to have rooms that are completely one system or another. The worst is having some lights on a wireless system and some remaining on switches. Once we changed the whole house over it got so much better.

My family found the nightlight setting a little high due to the number of light fixtures in some rooms; I fixed that by setting a schedule with max brightness at 1%.