• TWEAK
• Smart home

Twinkly glows in the dark

Translate from : Twinkly lyser i mørket

Key Features

• Screen-like LED display
• Expandable light system
• Smart Home Integration

Today we take a look at two Twinkly products. It's their Twinkly Strings, which are a string of lights much like we've known them for a long time, but now with the option of all the colors of the rainbow and of course smart features and an app.

The second is their Twinkly Net Light, which, as the name suggests, is a net of lights designed to be hung on a wall or placed over a bush. Of course, there is also the option of lots of colors and smart integration.

What both products have in common is that they can be used both indoors and outdoors.

A tour around Twinkly

Twinkly Strings

The String light chain looks like any other light chain. It is available in several lengths, from an eight-meter long version with 100 LED lights all the way up to a 48-meter long version with 600 LED lights. We have been visited by between the variant with 250 LED lights, and a length of 20 meters.

The light chain is divided in two, so you get two lengths of 10 meters, which are joined in a cable that goes to a control unit that is connected to power.

This is the device that contains the hardware you connect wirelessly to. It also has a button where you can turn the light on and off and toggle between a variety of different functions.

Twinkly Net Lights

Net Lights is made as a net with 260 LED lights distributed over a net measuring 120x190cm. The LED lights are made so that they sit in small round plastic balls.

Here too we get a control unit, which is used during connection and with a button to switch between a selection of functions.

Setup

The setup of both Twinkly lights is done via the Twinkly app. Simply connect the light to power and you are ready to start the setup. There is a simple guide in the app that takes you through the setup step by step.

You will need to connect the light to your home WiFi along the way, so you will need to have the code ready for that along the way.

Once your light is set up, you have a variety of control and settings options via the app. There is also the option to easily and quickly update the firmware on the devices, so you always have the latest features available.

On the very simple front, there is the option to set up timers. This way, you can have the light turn on and off automatically at an interval of your choosing.

However, as mentioned, all lights also have a physical control option on the cable. This is where the small control box that contains the Bluetooth and network is located. There is also a physical button that you can use to turn the light on and off and switch between a selection of lighting effects and colors.

One of the great strengths of the Twinkly app and the light, depending on which light you want, is the possibility of a multitude of different effects.

It can be anything from faint flashing lights to a full-blown rainbow of colors with rotating patterns.

There are a lot of effects to choose from, but there is also the option to customize existing ones or create your own from scratch. There are quite advanced options on that front with different layers and effects that can be built on top of each other.

To get the most out of the many effects, it is also possible to map your lights via the app. So once you have set up the light where you want it, you can help the app map the light.

This way, the app knows where the different LED lights are placed in relation to each other and the effects can then be used most effectively.

The mapping is done via your phone's camera which registers the light. During the mapping, the light flashes in a specific way that the app can register. The result is a fairly precise mapping of the individual LED lights.

For example, I mapped the Strings light after it had been set up on an outdoor Christmas tree. To get all the way around and include all the lights in the registration, you can do your mapping several times while moving around the object you have placed the light on.

Mapping the light worked super well and it made it possible to get cool effects of light moving in certain directions over the tree without me having to painstakingly place each light.

With mapping, it is also possible to link effects across multiple Twinkly products, so that lights and effects match across multiple light chains.

All Twinkly products are in good Smart Home style and are also compatible with Google Home, Amazon Alexa and for the gaming crowd, Razer Chroma.

Twinkly Stings (250 LED) can currently be found online for 130$, while Twinkly Net Light can be found for around 100$.

Read more about Twinkly products at Twinkly right here.