So IKEA Just Went Absolutely Unhinged

That's what all the fuss is about. Alright, Paul from the future here. I'm just

editing and I thought people are probably going to wonder what I'm talking about when I say fuss. And the answer is that people have been bugging me to do IKEA for a while for good reason. These products are all matter enabled, which means that they work without a smart home hub. You don't need one. If you've got an Amazon Echo, at least a reasonably new one, it has thread built in and

that means that it can communicate directly with these devices. If you have Apple HomeKit, your Apple HomePod mini can communicate directly with these devices. Even Google Home can communicate directly with these devices if you hate yourself.

Just to be clear, most of the stuff probably won't work properly with Google Home and that's why I'm saying that. It will work properly with Alexa. I've tested it.

turn Kajplats on. How good is that? Aww, what?

Check it out! Cool white and warm white. How much did this cost? How much

did I spend on this? I think this was seven quid. And there's no smart home hub even involved in this. This is literally just connected directly to my Amazon Echo. That's worth a trip to Ikea just for that bulb alone. And it will

Echo. That's worth a trip to Ikea just for that bulb alone. And it will work properly with Apple HomeKit. My friend Shane has tested it. But most importantly for me, it works with Home Assistant.

And yes, I'm still doing that joke. Anyway, see you in a bit.

Half of this stuff doesn't even say where it is. What's that? It's a clip box, apparently. The gentleman over there just informed me that they were sick.

box, apparently. The gentleman over there just informed me that they were sick.

Whatever that means. A Bill Racer. What? What are all these things?

What are all these things?

Catch plants. Kabumba. Kabumba. Warm and cold white. A metro enabled.

plants. Kabumba. Kabumba. Warm and cold white. A metro enabled.

A metro enabled. E14 bull. Warm and cold white. That's cool.

I got myself some catch plants. Some ClipBlock. Some BillResa. And some more catch plants.

Such a U10 catchplat. Golf ball catchplats. Don't see a lot of those in the smart home world and they are match-renabled. So that's exciting.

Get yourself a catchplat E14. Rather excitingly this Trettact comes with a Doofenblatt.

I just made that up. Not that you could tell. All of these names are complete gibberish. I don't know what any of this is. I don't even know what

complete gibberish. I don't know what any of this is. I don't even know what the Doofenblatt does but free one. Stick that in the bag. these on the shelf, but this is apparently an air quality sensor which is definitely not covered in COVID. What's that? That's like a door contact sensor

COVID. What's that? That's like a door contact sensor methinks. Hope I got some good footage there, because I inevitably just gave myself COVID

methinks. Hope I got some good footage there, because I inevitably just gave myself COVID by touching things the general public have touched. Bleh.

It's dropping it down again.

If I skip fast enough they won't make me pay. Ignore this

stuff because the price is ridiculous. I could take one of their motion sensors and one of their bulbs from their new range of thread-based products, I could put them in the entrance to my house, and for 12 quid, I could have the lights come on anytime somebody approached, but only if it's after dark and without the use of a smart home hub. I don't need a smart home hub to make any

of that work. And this stuff works directly with Amazon Alexa.

Oh no way! Okay, so that works. I usually make my head explode around this point using a little bit of the old CGI trickery, but it's never looked very good. I wonder if AI could do a better job.

Nope, let's never do that again. Let's go over there!

So I wanted to show you guys just how easy it actually is to get this stuff set up in Amazon Alexa. It's basically the same process for every environment, whether it's Alexa, Google Home, or Apple HomeKit anyway. So the moment I put batteries in it, it started flashing, and immediately my mobile phone discovered it. This would add it to Google, which we definitely don't want because, you know... Ah, but it's also

already adding in Amazon Alexa, so that's good. That's Mata doing its job for a change. It's got a little QR code on it here, so... Let's scan the QR

change. It's got a little QR code on it here, so... Let's scan the QR code. hit connect. Here we go

code. hit connect. Here we go again. One eternity later. Huh? That's added.

again. One eternity later. Huh? That's added.

So what does that mean? First motion sensor, I guess. That's

interesting. First device, first motion sensor, first lights, light sensor in here as well.

No, Paul from the past, it doesn't work. Why not? Because Amazon Alexa's load of s***. Flipping bl- Am I needed? Do you need me anymore or...? Not really, no.

s***. Flipping bl- Am I needed? Do you need me anymore or...? Not really, no.

Right. Okay, well... You're gonna beam back to the house to sleep with your wife then. Wanted to beam down.

then. Wanted to beam down.

So this brings us onto what's wrong with it. The smart home industry is a complete shambles, especially when it comes to anything that is thread-based, which is how these things are communicating. So first of all, it takes so many attempts before it'll connect.

For me personally, other people, it'll work just fine and it will vary depending on your own personal setup. They work great once they're connected, but they're a pain in the ass to get connected in the first place. Getting it ready in what way?

What are you doing? Second of

all, the Amazon people haven't implemented the routine support properly for anything that has a light sensor on it, which means that although this thing can detect motion, you can't use its light sensor in a routine. You can in Apple HomeKit. You can't do anything in Google Home, I don't think. You can't even use this thing as a trigger, because Google Home, as I've said before, is a load of old garbage. So

because Alexa routines can't use this thing's light sensor, I can't actually create a routine that says, if there is motion, and it is after dark, turn the lights in my porch on. Kind of required. But there is a workaround. So this is the most important Amazon Alexa routine tip or trick anyone will ever teach you.

Basically, I have three routines. I have porch motion, which is my routine for when there is motion at the porch, it turns the light on. And then I have two extra routines, one called at sunrise and one called at sunset. And they

enable and disable the routine. This is the best workaround ever. And it has so many different applications that you could use it for. So when the Sun comes up in the morning, I don't want motion to trigger my lights. So I have a routine called at sunrise and when I play it Okay, porch motion routine disabled. Now if I refresh this You'll see it's disappeared because the porch motion is

disabled. Now if I refresh this You'll see it's disappeared because the porch motion is now disabled It's at the bottom of the list and it's sunset when the Sun goes down and I want this to start working again that routine runs Okay, porch motion is enabled And if I refresh this list now, you'll see porch motion

is enabled again. There are so many different uses for this. That's... Honestly, seriously, if you've taken anything away from this video, that should be it. I don't know why Amazon haven't fixed this yet. All they need is a routine that says, if a thing happens and a thing happens, then do a thing. It's not that complicated.

It's dumber than Master Yoda in Return of the Jedi. Suplexed him for being a coward. Only a fully trained Jedi, mate. with the Force as his ally, will conquer

coward. Only a fully trained Jedi, mate. with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor. Hang on a minute. You're a Jedi Knight. Why don't you go with him?

Look, you must complete the train. You're not even real, are you? You're a

bloody puppet.

Then there's this thing. This is awesome. This is one of the coolest devices I have ever bought and it cost barely any money. I made a mistake earlier. It's

not three pound, it's four pound. That's my redaction, I'm sorry. This is a four quid device and you can use it to do all sorts of stuff as I showed you at the beginning of the video, but that's in Home Assistant. That's when

this thing is connected directly to Home Assistant and it took quite a lot of effort. I shall leave all of the instructions in the description for how I achieved

effort. I shall leave all of the instructions in the description for how I achieved that. If you want to use it in Alexa, it does work, but it only

that. If you want to use it in Alexa, it does work, but it only detects three possible options. You've got a click, you've got left, and you've got right.

And it took me a little while to figure out exactly how you're supposed to do it. Ah, I figured it out. Down button is doing the dial that way,

do it. Ah, I figured it out. Down button is doing the dial that way, up button is doing the dial that way, and left button is just click. I've

just created a bunch of Alexa routines, so if I do that, she says volume down, and keeps repeating it. And if I do that, volume up, volume up. I'm

guessing she'll repeat it a whole bunch of times if I do that. That's very

clever. Wow.

I can't believe they've managed to make that a thing. Well done, Ikea. Holy moly.

But you can use this in a routine to only do those three things, which is great, but it does mean that you can't toggle a light switch because, once again, Amazon Alexa routines are garbage. You can't toggle. You can only turn on or turn off. There's no toggle. So I can't press it on and press it off.

turn off. There's no toggle. So I can't press it on and press it off.

I can only press it off. If I want to turn the light on, I can achieve that simply by dialing up the brightness and that will turn the light on. But explain that to your kids and your wife. It's a bit of a

on. But explain that to your kids and your wife. It's a bit of a shame that you can't do that. But if you're in market for just something you can have by the bed for doing little things, you've got like three possible options there and two of them are a dial. And if you don't want to use something that's got a dial, they do the basic button and that works too. You

could use that as a light switch. You could just use the top option for on and the top option for off and it would control your smart bulbs. That's

an interesting thought. So the upshot is that IKEA have released an incredible lineup of products and if you're a Home Assistant fan, you can probably buy them all. Almost

definitely all of the functionality is going to be there. If you're an Amazon Alexa user, some of the functionality is going to be there and possibly none of it.

For example, water leak sensor. Not a chance. Amazon Alexa can't put that in a routine, it doesn't have a clue what it's doing. It does, however, have a little speaker on it, so, I mean, you'd be notified anyway if there was a leak, which is great, but not by Alexa, and if you don't have anything other than Alexa, you can't connect this thing to your mobile phone and get notifications, you're gonna

need Home Assistant or Apple HomeKit to make use of that thing. Ask ChatGPT before you buy any of this stuff. Eat my butt. Shut up!

I should probably put that motion sensor away. I have no idea what I was just saying. Ask ChatGPT, before you buy any of this stuff, what kind of functionality

just saying. Ask ChatGPT, before you buy any of this stuff, what kind of functionality am I going to get as an Amazon Alexa user, as an Apple HomeKit user, or as a Home Assistant user? The answer for Home Assistant is probably all of it, and it works phenomenally well, as you saw at the beginning of this video.

One caveat. This is four quid. It's not perfect. You know, dialing it about is awkward to some degree. It's a little bit tricky. I am actually finding that it is good enough that I am going to use it. So it's going to be placed on my desk and I am going to use it to dim the brightness in this room when I've got a headache. I could use my voice

to do that, but you know what? Sometimes when I have a headache, I don't even want to open my mouth. This thing fixes that and it's very, very cool.

And if you're looking for a little remote control to do stuff with, It's awesome.

It's just not perfect. I don't know how else to word it. Maybe I can do a demonstration now. No, that did exactly what I wanted it to do.

As did that. As did that. No, it's perfect. Buy one.

I really can't complain. That is awesome. Okay, I pressed the button. No, there. Okay.

So there was a delay. You saw there was a delay the second time. There

are a lot of lights here. Some of that's down to home assistance. Some of

it's down to the fact that it doesn't always react every single time that you press it or you dial it because it's four quid. But seriously, that's cool. That's

really, really cool. Yeah, that's cool. That's flipping cool, dude. Buy one of these.

Okay, yellow lid. Not a yellow lid. Don't buy that. I made that mistake, so I thought the Tretact would be great, a little plug socket. They do do a plug socket, they just didn't have any on the shelves. That is the Zigbee version These are the new thread things. The Zigbee version is gonna need a hub of some description to get any kind of real functionality out of it, or you're

going to need home assistance with a Zigbee radio plugged into it to control those things or to listen to those things. Some might argue that they're actually better, at least for getting them connected in the first instance. But if you want what we've been discussing today, you want the yellow box lid. That yellow lidded box.

And finally, should you buy their smart home hub? I keep getting these two things confused. Is that their smart home hub or is that a turd? I'm not sure.

confused. Is that their smart home hub or is that a turd? I'm not sure.

Mr. Socky? It's a pile of sweaty fucking garbage! It wasted two hours of my fucking life! I couldn't even collect their own stupid fucking smart bulbs to it! It's

fucking life! I couldn't even collect their own stupid fucking smart bulbs to it! It's

a load of shit! Put it in a fucking bin!

No, this is their smart home hub. I'm pretty sure this is their smart home hub. I'm done. I am so done. That's five attempts to

hub. I'm done. I am so done. That's five attempts to get this bulb to connect to its own hub, and it doesn't work. Forget it.

Don't buy this thing. That's an embarrassment. Stick that right in a bin. This wasn't

a sponsored video. It doesn't matter if it was or it wasn't, because I always tell you guys the honest truth regardless. And if you're interested in hearing the honest truth about smart home products, please do me a favor and just hit that subscribe button. give this thing a thumbs up and that. I ain't getting paid this week

button. give this thing a thumbs up and that. I ain't getting paid this week so, you know, probably won't eat. Do I recommend these things? Absolutely. Buy the

buttons, buy the little dial thing. They're really, really cool and you can do an awful lot with them even with just Alexa routines. You've got the ability to dial brightness up and down and turn a thing off. You've also got these bulbs which are incredible value. I love the little E27 globe thing. That's

Gorgeous and again like seven quid go to Ikea now and buy a load of Ikea stuff because this is really really cool and on that note There is no link in the description because I can't get any kind of affiliate commission out of it. Go find it yourself I'll put a link in the description anyway because I'm

it. Go find it yourself I'll put a link in the description anyway because I'm a good person All that remains to do is to thank these incredible people on your screen right now. They are my patrons from Patreon without whom I literally couldn't have done this this week. If you want to be like those incredible people or the two that I'm thanking personally this week, my brand new patrons, Tote

McD and Hippie Wayfarer? Wayfarer Hippie? My brain is mush.

Thank you guys so much for supporting me and if you want to be like those guys, you can do that at either Patreon or buy me a one-off beer at PayPal and either way, I will genuinely love you forever. These are my first books, my acts, my threads, my Instagrams and my TikToks. Come on in and out there and give you best friends. See you next time. Ooh, the Zigbee. Not going

to shout it this time because last time there was an incident. Oh, the

Zigbee! You know what? I reckon this is not bad.