New Video – DIY Smart LED Light Strips: How I Built My Own (Low Cost) ZigBee Lightstrips

YouTube thumbnail showing how to build your own DIY ZigBee light strip

After working out that using Philips Hue’s Lightstrips for my kitchen would cost £170+, I set out to build my own smart light strips that cost me less than £40. Plus it’s still fully controllable in the Philips Hue app! This video covers all the steps required to do this yourself, including: DIYing your own … Read more

Best Location For Philips Hue Motion Sensor (Range & Angle Is Important!)

Diagram showing best Philips Hue motion sensor placement to avoid pets

The Philips Hue indoor motion sensor is quite a useful device: when it detects motion, it allows you to automatically turn your lights on to pre-set colors and brightness levels, configurable for different times of the day. However if it’s positioned or installed in the wrong position, it can either miss people walking past, or … Read more

Philips Hue’s Motion Sensor With Pets: Is It Pet Friendly?

My Philips Hue motion sensor in its box

Picture the scene: you arrive home after a long day’s work, and as you walk through the front door, your Hue Lightstrips automatically illuminate – as do your hallway Hue ceiling lights – gently welcoming you into your home. Bliss. That’s one of the benefits of Philips Hue’s motion sensors. But picture another scene: all … Read more

New Video – Ring Smart Alerts (Rich Notifications) – A Really Useful Feature

YouTube thumbnail for my newest video, covering Ring Smart Alerts (Rich Notifications)

Ring have recently released a new feature called ‘smart alerts’ or ‘rich notifications’, which basically sends an image (snapshot capture) alongside any alerts it sends out. So if someone clicks your Ring doorbell, you’ll see an image of that person. If your Ring camera (and doorbell) detects motion, you’ll also see an image of the … Read more

New Video – ZigBee (& WiFi) Smart Light Strip Options – When Philips Hue Is Just Too Expensive!

YouTube thumbnail showing me talking at my desk.

If you’re looking to add smart light strips to your home but you find that Philips Hue’s Lightstrip Plus options are too expensive, what options are open to you? This is the question I was asking myself when planning to add smart light strips to my kitchen. I firstly wondered whether ZigBee or WiFi would … Read more

Effective Smart Lighting For The Home Office

My current home office and desk

Home working has never been more popular. Whilst just 8% of the global workforce worked from home in 2019 (around 260 million people), the 2020 global pandemic has seen the number of home workers increase to 50% or more in many countries – with billions of people now routinely working from home. This substantial rise … Read more

New Video – Kitchen Smart Lighting: Ideas, Considerations & What I’m Planning To Do

YouTube thumbnail showing me in my kitchen, with the text "Kitchen Smart Lighting Ideas"

This video explores adding smart lighting within your kitchen, looking generally at what you need to consider and different ideas based on other people’s kitchen smart lighting projects. I also touch on what I’m planning on doing for my own kitchen’s smart lighting: Video Transcript Hello YouTube, I’m Tristan from Smart Home Point. So today … Read more

Are Smart Homes Dangerous? 18 Worrying (Hidden) Risks

The back of someone leaving a property, as captured by a Ring Doorbell 1 device.

I’ve loved smart homes since I purchased my first Amazon Echo device (well, apart from when Alexa completely mishears me…!). I’ve since purchased a range of other smart devices, and pretty much every part of my house contains at least one smart home device – including my attic and detached garage! It’s so easy to … Read more

LIFX Bulb Behavior After A Power Outage (Will This Change?)

A LIFX full RGB bulb in my hand

After much soothing, your baby is finally asleep. You tuck them in for the night, dim (or turn off) your LIFX smart lights and slowly close the door, inching away so that you don’t wake up your child. Phew, finally – there’s nothing more peaceful than a quiet house! You go to bed a few … Read more

New Video – Echo Show Light Control: Kinda Useful, But Key Features Missing

YouTube thumbnail showing an Echo Show in the foreground, table lamp in the background and the text "So near and yet so far..." overlaid.

The touchscreen on the Echo Show allows you to control your smart light bulbs from the “Smart Home” menu, which is fairly useful if you want to quickly control your smart lights through your Amazon Echo device, but it’s also limited as it’s missing some key features that mean you have to resort back to … Read more