u/Fahad_MF

Finally got my hands on the Aqara Wireless Knob H1 in Gray! 🎉
I’m planning to integrate it with my Aqara T1M ceiling light and experiment with different automation options using rotation, single press, and other supported inputs.
I’m also curious whether I can integrate the knob with my Sonos system to control playback or volume through Homey Pro or another compatible integration.

Has anyone tried using the Wireless Knob H1 to control Sonos speakers? I’d be interested to hear about your setup and which integration method worked best.

Philips Hue Essential Flex Strip — My experience
TL;DR: The Essential Flex looks great on paper and is a very affordable Hue gradient strip, but for my particular application, it was far too dim. I wanted to use it for indirect ambient lighting above a large curtain, hidden inside the curtain cove. Even with all other lights OFF, the output felt like roughly 10% of what I expected. 😐😂

Now, for those who want the full story…
I have a large bedroom window with the curtain mounted on the wall. The ceiling height is roughly 4 meters, and the window is about 5 meters wide.
Above the curtain, there’s a curtain cove, and my idea was to hide the light strip inside the cove and bounce the light down onto the curtain to create a soft ambient effect.

I had already installed a hidden wall socket there, so the plan was to automate everything using Homey Pro + an Aqara sensor. The idea was that late at night, if we get up to go to the bathroom, the lights would automatically come on at a very low level to gently illuminate the way without turning on the main bedroom lights.
And surprisingly, this idea got the “wife approval.” 😂
I already have quite a lot of Philips Hue products, and they’ve proven to be extremely reliable for me, so Hue was the obvious choice.

The candidates
I was originally considering:
Flux Ultra Bright – 5 m
Flux regular – 5 m
Omniglow – 5 m
Since the strip would be completely hidden inside the curtain cove, I didn’t think paying the premium for Omniglow was justified. I mainly needed gradient and ambient lighting, and the Flux Ultra Bright was also getting close to Omniglow pricing.
Then I discovered the Essential Flex Strip, which looked surprisingly similar to the Omniglow concept but was much cheaper.

So naturally, I got hooked immediately. 😂
I bought three of them — one for the main project and two for future projects that I hope I’ll eventually have the time, motivation and mood to actually do. 😐😂
And then… disappointment.
After installing the strip inside the cove and doing all the proper customization, I could barely see any light.
At first, I genuinely thought it wasn’t working.
So I grabbed my giant orange ladder, climbed up there, and checked.

Surprisingly… it was working. 😳
I tried different colors, scenes, warm white, cool white… everything.
I swear, I could barely see the light.
So I turned every other light in the room OFF just to see how much light the Essential Flex could actually produce.
And honestly?
It looked like about 10% brightness.
No joke.
At that point, I started thinking: Surely I got three defective strips. 😂
So I took everything down.

Plan B
I decided to get creative and installed the strips directly on the bedroom wall next to the curtain, just to see how they performed without relying on reflected light.
Even my wife looked at it and basically said:
“I don’t want this Cyberpunk thing in the bedroom.” 😂
But for the sake of science… I left it there.
Unfortunately, the result was even worse for what I wanted.
At this point, I don’t think the Essential Flex is necessarily a bad product — but for my particular application, where I need enough output to create meaningful indirect ambient lighting across a large area, it simply doesn’t have the light output I need.
I may eventually find another use for the three strips. Maybe under the kitchen cabinets or around the kitchen counter.

Actually…
Cyberpunk kitchen lighting doesn’t sound like such a bad idea. 😂
For now, though, the original project is back to the drawing board.

I have a Homey Pro (2023) connected to my Philips Hue Bridge Pro, and everything has been working perfectly.

I just added two new lights, the Omniglow and Festavia Outdoor, but they’re not showing up in the Homey app.
I can see all 59 of my existing Hue lights, but the two new ones are missing. Any idea why?

I was looking for a solid CO2 monitor and found the Aqara Air Quality Monitor S1. It seems to be sold exclusively for the Chinese market, but I bought it anyway, hoping it would work and support English.
I pulled out my old switch and installed this one. It fits perfectly in the wall box, but keep in mind that it requires a neutral wire.

Right now, the interface does have English support! I am going to keep playing around with it, test some automations, and see if the Homey Pro recognizes it.
I will gladly answer any questions you have.

P.S. Please ignore the wall, I definitely need to repaint it now 😐

After several rounds of trial and error trying to fix Nanoleaf Shapes to my drywall ceiling—and watching them repeatedly fall down like they had a personal vendetta against me 😂—I finally came across this magical thing called Pattex Fast Glow.

I did a small test patch and left it for 3 weeks. So far… the results are AMAZING. Nothing has fallen, not even a single Shape.

So now I’m feeling brave (probably too brave 😂) and planning to put around 40 Nanoleaf Shapes on the ceiling. Wish me luck… and hopefully I won’t wake up at 3 AM to the sound of 40 Shapes crashing down on me. 💀
Hopefully, this stuff lasts! 🤞

I just replaced my old Philips Hue light strip with the new Hue Omniglow.

I was initially unsure whether to install the strip in a concealed position behind the cabinets or leave the LEDs directly visible. I decided to hide the strip completely and orient it upward rather than sideways, so the light is indirectly reflected onto the upper cabinets and mirrors.
I’m still not entirely sure about the final result 🙃.

The indirect lighting gives a much cleaner look and eliminates direct LED glare, but I’m still evaluating whether the overall light distribution and brightness are what I was looking for.

PS: The adhesive backing is absolutely horrible. 😅