My first dabble with the Internet of Things (IoT) - the LIFX Color 1000 Wi-Fi LED Smart Light Bulb

Ok, this is it. I have been getting excited about the Internet of Things (IoT) and home automation for a while now, but this is my first real foray into this brave new connected world.

My package finally arrived after an Australia Post delay due to a derailed train. LIFX really packaged this bulb nicely, and understandably so, given the expected fragile nature of light bulbs. So first impressions of LIFX - thumbs up.

Once the sturdy external packaging was tossed away, here's what the LIFX Color 1000 Wi-Fi LED Smart Light Bulb looks like:

I was well behaved and read the instructions first. And was very happy when, essentially, the installation steps were:

1. Attach
2. Power on
3. Pair with Android / iOS app

Easy enough, I thought.

Step 1, no dramas. This is what you do with any light bulb you replace. Take the old one out, put the new one in. One thing that was noticeable in doing this was that the LIFX Color 1000 is heavy when compared to a standard bulb. This didn't matter at all for my lamp, but just something you notice.

Step 2, even easier. Flick a switch and you have light. And a very bright one at that. I'm not sure what the out-of-the-box dim and color settings were for the LIFX, but either way, it was much brighter than my old light bulb and at 75 watt equivalent / 1,055 lumens - this is more than enough for my purposes (floor lamp in our living area).

Now, before moving on, you could simply stop after step 2 and you have a perfectly fine, low energy light bulb. But that would just be silly wouldn't it. At $60 USD, it's not exactly your cheapest and with Wi-Fi connectivity and so many colours to play with... well, step 3 is where it gets fun!

Step 3, though, is where I got a bit stuck. I have a Google Nexus 5 mobile phone, so am using the Android LIFX app. Thankfully, I was stuck on this step for only 15 minutes and I think it was user error more than anything else. I will provide the details, though, in case other Android users come up against this issue.

When initially adding a bulb to your account / app, you need to connect to it directly via Wi-Fi. It is at this point where I got an "Oops, that didn't work" error stating, "Let's try that again. If this keeps happening, try switching your light off and then on and waiting a minute before continuing."

I did what it said, though had no luck again. At this point I took many different actions - restarting my phone, restarting my modem / Wi-Fi network, resetting the LIFX light bulb (you can do this by turning it on and off at one second intervals, five times)... all to no avail. I also jumped on the LIFX support / help centre website pages and read through some articles, but alas, none helped my cause.

After about 15 minutes, it struck me that maybe I should actually pay attention to a message that I had been consistently getting every time I tried to finalise step 3 - an Android system message stating that the Wi-Fi connection (to the LIFX light bulb) had no internet access and to touch for options. When I did, I was able to select the option of keeping the connection and, like a Festivus miracle, I had success. The final actions to step 3 were to simply configure the LIFX light bulb with my home Wi-Fi network name and password. Once done, setup was complete.

So to sum up, those 3 steps should take no more than five minutes. But you don't truly have the feeling of success unless you have climbed over a little hurdle. Well, that's what I tell myself anyway.

With full control of the LIFX Color 1000, you can select the lighting conditions to suit your mood - from warm and cool whites, to hot pinks and mellow blues. Add to that the ability to dim and you have one fully customisable light bulb. Pure magic.

The app even comes with preset themes and effects. My daughter was particularly fond of the Halloween colour - a bright orange that she declared as, "oooh, scary."

Here's a look at the functionality of the app:

And here's what the light effects actually look like from our floor lamp:

I have also connected this LIFX light bulb to my wife's Amazon Fire phone, which also runs Android, and it works a treat too. So yes, you can connect bulbs and control them from multiple devices.

Playing around with the colours is cool, but what I really want to start exploring is home automation. Given I've had this thing for only half a day, I am yet to get that far, but stay tuned as I do plan on testing it out more. Automatically turning on at night, IFTTT connectivity, flashing on certain predetermined events... oooh, the possibilities!

Finally, on the topic of availability here in Australia, I was initially looking at Philips Hue lighting given they seemed to be the most popular. However, they were only available with an Edison Screw connection so they were no good for my house. I'm not sure on typical connection types, but around our house they seem to be mostly Bayonet Cap. Perhaps in the USA the Edison Screw is standard. It wasn't until I noticed the LIFX brand in a local Harvey Norman store - and, critically, they were available in both connection types. I nearly made an impulse buy, but was happy I didn't as after browsing around on the LIFX website, it became clear that Harvey Norman only stocked the original bulbs and I wanted to make sure I had the latest model. So my purchase was made directly from LIFX.