Nanoleaf Previews New 'Canvas' Square Lighting Panels That Work With HomeKit

[MacRumors]

Nanoleaf, the company known for its HomeKit-enabled triangular Light Panels, is expanding into new shapes with the Nanoleaf Canvas.

Nanoleaf Canvas features square-shaped touch-enabled panels that can be set to hundreds of different colors. With just a touch, you can activate the light panels, increase or decrease brightness, or change them to another color.

Nanoleaf's Canvas panels were initially shown off at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in January, but they also made an appearance at the IFA trade show in Berlin this week, where the company offered up new details on the product.

Both CNET and Digital Trends were able to get some hands-on time with the upcoming light panels and have shared some thoughts.

According to Digital Trends, the Canvas is "more versatile" than the current triangular light panels, with touch "[elevating] the product to a whole new level."

Like the existing Nanoleaf Light Panels, the upcoming Canvas panels are HomeKit enabled and can be controlled using the Nanoleaf app or various Siri voice commands. They can also be incorporated into scenes with other HomeKit products.

The Canvas attaches to walls, the ceiling, or furniture using adhesive pads, much like the current Light Panels, and users can arrange them in any desired pattern. Connectors join the squares together.

Up to 500 panels can be connected to a single base station with the Canvas, allowing for entire wall setups outfitted with the lights.

CNET was told that while the original plan was to get rid of the cross-shaped divider in the middle of the panels, the feature is now going to remain in place in the launch version of the device.

Caught up with @Nanoleaf CEO Gimmy Chu at #IFA2018 last night. The new, touch-sensitive Canvas panels are set to arrive December 1st. Here's a peek at the latest design, with new base station controls like a shuffle button built right into one of the panels itself. pic.twitter.com/cmw5HtPIMw - Ry Crist (@rycrist) August 31, 2018

There will be no more dedicated control accessory, with one of the panels in the starter kit instead offering touch button icons along the bottom edge. An on/off button will be included, as will a new shuffle button that will change the colors of the device.

Nanoleaf has also added a button for selecting favorite presets and turning on an included microphone so the panels can connect to the music you're listening to.

Canvas will launch on December 1, with Nanoleaf planning to sell a 9-panel starter kit for $199. Interested customers can sign up for a pre-order invitation list on the Nanoleaf website.

Article Link: Nanoleaf Previews New 'Canvas' Square Lighting Panels That Work With HomeKit

 

[DeepIn2U]

9 panels at $200 quid ... not sure if that is expensive or not.

I'd love to have OLED panels to list pictures of your choosing - done wirelessly from Mac/iOS/TVOS.

 

[mjharwaz]

I love my Aurora panels, and my daughter even put some in her apartment. Really looking forward to adding some of these to the mix... the triangles of the Aurora are nice, but limit the layouts a bit.

 

[macduke]

I’ve been waiting to buy these for my new studio which I built this summer—but not if they have that weird cross pattern in the middle! They know it looks bad which is why they said they were working to get rid of it and they failed. For the price I want them to look nice.

I kinda think I prefer the triangle ones anyway. They seem more interesting. I like that you can put in a ton of the squares, but will I honestly ever buy that many? No.

Any word on the triangular ones with touch support? I thought I remember them announcing that alongside the squares, but I don’t see anything available on their site. I’d love to get a 15 pack of those and assign different HomeKit actions to them or something.

 

[djlythium]

With enough money, these could make some seriously impressive, dynamic, 8-bit art!

 

[mjharwaz]

I’ve been waiting to buy these for my new studio which I built this summer—but not if they have that weird cross pattern in the middle! They know it looks bad which is why they said they were working to get rid of it and they failed. For the price I want them to look nice.

I actually like the way it breaks them up... It gives an interesting looking effect to the light. And according to two articles I've looked at, they decided to keep them this way based on customer polls.

Anyway, what I want to know is the dimensions of a panel. It's hard to get a clear understanding of their size from the videos and pictures.

 

[macduke]

I actually like the way it breaks them up... It gives an interesting looking effect to the light. And according to two articles I've looked at, they decided to keep them this way based on customer polls.

Anyway, what I want to know is the dimensions of a panel. It's hard to get a clear understanding of their size from the videos and pictures.

I wanted to use them to create pixel art on my wall, so I prefer a more even toned look. I wanted to try reproducing some 8-bit game characters.

 

[Giantscruz]

Stoked. I can't wait for these. Any word if the cross will be removed with future updates or is it a hardware issue?

 

[CarlJ]

Anyway, what I want to know is the dimensions of a panel. It's hard to get a clear understanding of their size from the videos and pictures.

This. This article would be substantially more useful if it had the edge measurement of these new panels. Even an approximate number (though not a guess). Would make it much easier to figure out where they'd fit.

 

[kingpushup]

I would pay this amount in 5-10 years if it could transport my home or office into a beach paradise, rainforest, the sky (like that skyscraper movie’s pearl). So maybe $10-20k per room..

 

[iamgalt]

Any word on if you can mix in existing triangle panels with these new square ones? Obviously the triangles won't have the touch support, but the combinations of two shapes could produce some nice designs.

 

[LiveM]

they decided to keep them this way based on customer polls.

They obviously didn’t ask this customer!

 

[Mydel]

They are cool. But the price...I cant justify 250Eur for few panels. Its just overkill.

 

[luciferuk]

They know it looks bad which is why they said they were working to get rid of it

100% correct! It looks bad, there's no denying it.

The tiles with the so very obvious cross in the middle is tantamount to some cheap LED holidays decorations; absolutely nothing comparable to the gorgeous Aurora triangles with no obvious artifacts; and yeh THAT PRICE GEEEESS!

I bought the Aurora rhythm kit from Best Buy here in Canada when they did the holidays discount. Likely they will do this again around December (keep an eye out)

I love the Aurora but NOT if I had paid full price...would have been around $350CAD!
Again, they're really great but let's not kid ourselves , they're not groundbreaking tech AND to justify these prices? Even the softwares meh.

Pop over to your nearest hacker space and borrow they're 3d printer.
Bang yourself a couple triangles out, some nice 3d files here: -

Adafruit have some awesome reasonably priced Neopixel led's for the job, power supplies cost peanuts. Wire all this up to an ESP8266 microcontroller, maybe add in a Circuit Playground Express for the extra bundled sensors, and python abilities and DONE!

Bit of care and love and you've not only saved yourself a fortune but learned some stuff on the way.

The prices Nanoleaf ask for are just insane. It's not as if any serious R&D goes into any of this.
They're multicolor LED's in a plastic frame!

 

[macduke]

100% correct! It looks bad, there's no denying it.

The tiles with the so very obvious cross in the middle is tantamount to some cheap LED holidays decorations; absolutely nothing comparable to the gorgeous Aurora triangles with no obvious artifacts; and yeh THAT PRICE GEEEESS!

I bought the Aurora rhythm kit from Best Buy here in Canada when they did the holidays discount. Likely they will do this again around December (keep an eye out)

I love the Aurora but NOT if I had paid full price...would have been around $350CAD!
Again, they're really great but let's not kid ourselves , they're not groundbreaking tech AND to justify these prices? Even the softwares meh.

Pop over to your nearest hacker space and borrow they're 3d printer.
Bang yourself a couple triangles out, some nice 3d files here: -

Adafruit have some awesome reasonably priced Neopixel led's for the job, power supplies cost peanuts. Wire all this up to an ESP8266 microcontroller, maybe add in a Circuit Playground Express for the extra bundled sensors, and python abilities and DONE!

Bit of care and love and you've not only saved yourself a fortune but learned some stuff on the way.

The prices Nanoleaf ask for are just insane. It's not as if any serious R&D goes into any of this.
They're multicolor LED's in a plastic frame!

I haven’t messed with 3D printing but know how to create objects as I took a course in 3D modeling in college (can you use LightWave to print these days?). I also know how to solder electronics from projects I did when I was a teen and I do programming as part of my job so it’s just more work and not learning as much. I’ve just gotten to the point where I finally make enough money that I’d rather buy something already made that works well and connects to HomeKit than spend a bunch of time fiddling with it. I used to mess around building PCs and all kinds of things when I was younger and eventually got tired of tinkering. Maybe that’s kinda sad, lol.

I might buy a 3D printer though in the next few years to do some fun projects with my kids as they get older. I think most of my maker projects will involve my kids because hands on learning always worked best for me growing up and I want to involve them. I grew up lower middle class and didn’t have anywhere near the access to technology that my kids will have. I’m super jealous of them sometimes because little me would have been blown away by the tablets with near limitless information online that they can access.

Anyway, I’ll still definitely wait to grab them on sale. The touch panel triangles also interest me, so hopefully they don’t cost too much. Do you have the multi sided remote controller thing?

 

[gmiller744]

If they could get this to about $5 a panel, it would be amazing. The current pricing is a bit of a barrier, unfortunately