I can post a video of the DIY version I made, it's bad. Without the ability to make precision edge lighting and an etched acrylic diffuser the result is not good at all.
@@TheHookUp The Makerstation that I'm a member of has a CNC that can cut acrylic I wonder if, in the end, the price would be greater when you add it all up that going with the Zemismart. It is funny to me that even I think that 80 watts is a lot but when you think of it not 10 years ago my house was full of 100-watt incandescent lightbulbs.
@@martijnajanssen That looks very similar to what I came up with. It looks MUCH better on camera than in person. In person it just looks like LEDs in the corner and the light barely defuses at all.
I did a DIY version from this one: www.thingiverse.com/thing:3230905 But I 3D Printed the top completely with mat white PLA. This diffuses the light really nicely.
@@TheHookUp I have a fresnel lens off of a 92" tv that I am not doing anything with. Would something like that help produce a more uniform light output?
Well thanks for taking an nanoleaf apart so i can finally have the final piece of the puzzle on how they are so thin and still show so much light, now i just need you to take an helios touch light apart, but im pretty sure I've already figured that one out, but it would be nice to see if im right
Great video... I'm not ready to drop Nanoleaf money yet and they ARE great, definitely well thought out, so you know you're getting your moneys worth. I recently finished making my own mini versions (no smart features), with some 3d printed panels and some soldering time. After watching your videos I'm thinking of opening one up and adding an ESP8266 to play around a bit. Keep up the great work.
@@TheHookUp Definitely not as smooth as the Nanoleaf, but they both look great.A SLIGHT bit hot at the light (LEDs on the corners, not the sides) instagram.com/p/B2wvS3jAI-8/ This video makes it look SUPER rough, but it's not near the bad at all, specially since they are just a bit smaller than the nanoleaf panels
Well thought out and presented comparison! It would've been interesting to see LIFX Tiles in this comparison also. I've got a set myself and I'm very happy with how it looks. It's also very easy to integrate into pretty much any custom home automation system given the documented open API for local network and cloud communications available for their whole product line. There's a lot of existing libraries and extensions already (although they might only see the set as a single LIFX light unless updated to support its specific features). They might be in some way hackable also as at least some of their recent products have been found to have an ESP32 as the controller inside. I doubt there to be many wanting to pay the price tag just to hack them, especially as the UDP protocol based API is already there. :)
I've seen this nanoleaf around and I just can't imagine spending that kind of money on it. On both the Zemismart and Nanoleaf it's less than $30-40 worth of lights at retail pricing. So I'd be spending $100 on the zemismart for the paneling or $150 for the paneling on the nanoleaf.
I used to feel the same way, and while there is certainly markup and $$ for development, it's not as simple as some LEDs and plastic. The acrylic diffusing layer is the most important piece of the puzzle, and the hardest to replicate when doing DIY. Also the app and programming for the nanoleaf is very clever. I agree it's pretty expensive, probably too expensive, but I'm not convinced they could do it significantly cheaper.
Nice summary :) but Nanoleaf nailed it in almost every aspect with their Canvas. I have both :) I don´t think I have anything negative to say about any of them. Price is higher, but there is nothing cheaper on the market with that functionality.
If you have a laser cutter to make an acrylic diffuser you might be able to get some good results. It seems like that is the most important part of these panels and probably the reason for their high cost.
I actually did that a year or so ago... The effort and 3d printing precision required do not result in a nice enough end product to make it worth while. I only made two tiles, but without a custom made diffusing acrylic panel the lighting hot spots made it look terrible.
@@TheHookUp so, without a CNC or laser to make it, could you print out the pattern on some paper and make a guide or even use the paper with dots on it to make a nice acrylic guide so you can drill some dents for you? Time consuming but I think possible.
My Zemismart came without the connectors! How easliy can custom connectors be made for this? Can you share the pinout as I don't have one to test myself. Cheers
I want to try to DIY one, but probably dont have the free time. You mentioned printer accuracy below, what tolerance does it need? An Ender 3 does a really nice job w/ tabletop miniatures. The build volume is only 230mm square though.
Zemismart use 4 time the energy for the same light output. Well, that extra energy has to go somewhere and I'm guessing that somewhere is excess heat that will rapidly age the electronics and burn them out fairly quickly. No way I would buy these things.
Comparing this Nanoleaf against these cheap "competitors" is a brilliant lesson in how the intelligence of the west compares to that of the east.. Chinese engineers (and the Chinese diaspora in general) struggle to think laterally and outside the box, unlike Americans and other European descendant engineers and designers.. Just looking at Zemismart's official AliExpress store gives instant evidence that they do nothing other than try to rip off the designs of American, Australian and European brands, and very unsuccessfully at that.. The Nanoleaf could be easily copied in a perfect way by another American company, but unlike Chinese companies, Americans, Europeans and Australians respect international IP laws.. Here's a random example of how poor China is at everything they try to copy.. A Chinese metal company "finally" figured out how to make the ballpoint of a pen (after Germany, Switzerland and Japan have been doing it for almost a century), and 6 months later, they were broke and went into receivership 🤣
Awesome that you really look into the details of the devices. All information covered I needed.
Now I have to buy a couple Nanoleaf packages.
I would love to see you do a DIY Nano Leaf with 3d Printed parts and better led control, Designed for HA.
I can post a video of the DIY version I made, it's bad. Without the ability to make precision edge lighting and an etched acrylic diffuser the result is not good at all.
@@TheHookUp The Makerstation that I'm a member of has a CNC that can cut acrylic I wonder if, in the end, the price would be greater when you add it all up that going with the Zemismart. It is funny to me that even I think that 80 watts is a lot but when you think of it not 10 years ago my house was full of 100-watt incandescent lightbulbs.
@@martijnajanssen That looks very similar to what I came up with. It looks MUCH better on camera than in person. In person it just looks like LEDs in the corner and the light barely defuses at all.
I did a DIY version from this one:
www.thingiverse.com/thing:3230905
But I 3D Printed the top completely with mat white PLA. This diffuses the light really nicely.
@@TheHookUp I have a fresnel lens off of a 92" tv that I am not doing anything with. Would something like that help produce a more uniform light output?
Well thanks for taking an nanoleaf apart so i can finally have the final piece of the puzzle on how they are so thin and still show so much light, now i just need you to take an helios touch light apart, but im pretty sure I've already figured that one out, but it would be nice to see if im right
Great video... I'm not ready to drop Nanoleaf money yet and they ARE great, definitely well thought out, so you know you're getting your moneys worth. I recently finished making my own mini versions (no smart features), with some 3d printed panels and some soldering time.
After watching your videos I'm thinking of opening one up and adding an ESP8266 to play around a bit. Keep up the great work.
How did your light diffusion go on yours? My DIY attempt looked very blotchy with definite lighting hot spots.
@@TheHookUp Definitely not as smooth as the Nanoleaf, but they both look great.A SLIGHT bit hot at the light (LEDs on the corners, not the sides)
instagram.com/p/B2wvS3jAI-8/
This video makes it look SUPER rough, but it's not near the bad at all, specially since they are just a bit smaller than the nanoleaf panels
Well thought out and presented comparison! It would've been interesting to see LIFX Tiles in this comparison also. I've got a set myself and I'm very happy with how it looks. It's also very easy to integrate into pretty much any custom home automation system given the documented open API for local network and cloud communications available for their whole product line. There's a lot of existing libraries and extensions already (although they might only see the set as a single LIFX light unless updated to support its specific features).
They might be in some way hackable also as at least some of their recent products have been found to have an ESP32 as the controller inside. I doubt there to be many wanting to pay the price tag just to hack them, especially as the UDP protocol based API is already there. :)
I've seen this nanoleaf around and I just can't imagine spending that kind of money on it. On both the Zemismart and Nanoleaf it's less than $30-40 worth of lights at retail pricing. So I'd be spending $100 on the zemismart for the paneling or $150 for the paneling on the nanoleaf.
I used to feel the same way, and while there is certainly markup and $$ for development, it's not as simple as some LEDs and plastic. The acrylic diffusing layer is the most important piece of the puzzle, and the hardest to replicate when doing DIY.
Also the app and programming for the nanoleaf is very clever. I agree it's pretty expensive, probably too expensive, but I'm not convinced they could do it significantly cheaper.
Nice summary :) but Nanoleaf nailed it in almost every aspect with their Canvas. I have both :) I don´t think I have anything negative to say about any of them. Price is higher, but there is nothing cheaper on the market with that functionality.
Yes, I was going to say build one panel of individually adressable lights
To correct an inaccurate point at the 6-minute Mark, nanoleaf indeed can be controlled via the cloud, external to your home network
Not mine. Which version are you using?
Hooked up a Wemos D1 Mini to these to intergate them into Home Assistant using ESP Home.
Could you share how you did this?
Great review as always! Thanks for the info!
Thanks Rob
I stuck around to see how I could make my own panels.
If you have a laser cutter to make an acrylic diffuser you might be able to get some good results. It seems like that is the most important part of these panels and probably the reason for their high cost.
@@OldCurmudgeon3DP If you pause around 2:53 you can see it is etched with a kind of dot matrix that diffuses the light when the acrylic is edge lit.
@@TheHookUp that's cheating😂
@@TheHookUp Hm, happen to have a miniCNC with a 5.5w laser. Difuser experiments go!
I want to see you make your own version.
I actually did that a year or so ago... The effort and 3d printing precision required do not result in a nice enough end product to make it worth while. I only made two tiles, but without a custom made diffusing acrylic panel the lighting hot spots made it look terrible.
@@TheHookUp I could just look, but is it in your video list?
@@OldCurmudgeon3DP No, I scrapped it after the first 2 panels when I wasn't happy with the result.
@@TheHookUp so, without a CNC or laser to make it, could you print out the pattern on some paper and make a guide or even use the paper with dots on it to make a nice acrylic guide so you can drill some dents for you? Time consuming but I think possible.
My Zemismart came without the connectors! How easliy can custom connectors be made for this? Can you share the pinout as I don't have one to test myself. Cheers
You should reach out to them and have them send you come connectors, you shouldn't need to DIY them and you will end up with an inferior experience.
@@TheHookUp I have. No reply, unfortunately. I am just trying to get prepared in the event I have to make something.
Would love to buy the nanoleaf but few things are doing me: price and if seems difficult to integrate into SmartThings/ Home Assistant 🙃
I want to try to DIY one, but probably dont have the free time. You mentioned printer accuracy below, what tolerance does it need? An Ender 3 does a really nice job w/ tabletop miniatures. The build volume is only 230mm square though.
The interesting part would be making each panel behave uniquely no matter where it's placed in the arrangement.
At first I thought the Nanoleaf was expensive but a nice quality floor lamp will cost about the same and isn't nearly as cool
Zemismart use 4 time the energy for the same light output. Well, that extra energy has to go somewhere and I'm guessing that somewhere is excess heat that will rapidly age the electronics and burn them out fairly quickly. No way I would buy these things.
I’ve seen even cheaper on Ali. Might be worth a try.
I'm not interested in either of them, but I was washing dishes and didn't want to get my phone wet.
All that said, I did find the video enjoyable and gave it a 👍
A few videos later and I've subscribed.
The cheaper one is so bad it’s sad
Nano leaf looks do much better and a more polished product the other one looks cheap and shabby.
the audio is terrible
Yeah, sorry about that... I had my mic set up for a different camera and the audio got super blown out.
So basically they are shite and buy a strip of addressable leds
Depends what you’re looking to do with them.
Way too expensive for a bad nockoff
Comparing this Nanoleaf against these cheap "competitors" is a brilliant lesson in how the intelligence of the west compares to that of the east.. Chinese engineers (and the Chinese diaspora in general) struggle to think laterally and outside the box, unlike Americans and other European descendant engineers and designers..
Just looking at Zemismart's official AliExpress store gives instant evidence that they do nothing other than try to rip off the designs of American, Australian and European brands, and very unsuccessfully at that..
The Nanoleaf could be easily copied in a perfect way by another American company, but unlike Chinese companies, Americans, Europeans and Australians respect international IP laws..
Here's a random example of how poor China is at everything they try to copy.. A Chinese metal company "finally" figured out how to make the ballpoint of a pen (after Germany, Switzerland and Japan have been doing it for almost a century), and 6 months later, they were broke and went into receivership 🤣