The app is not even an alpha version!
You are competing with systems like Philips Hue!
Your app is years behind. I invested in your system without trialling your app. If I had, I never would have gone with Aurora. There is nothing wrong with the lights but the automation is a joke!
Your app is years behind. I invested in your system without trialling your app. If I had, I never would have gone with Aurora. There is nothing wrong with the lights but the automation is a joke!
Not fit for purpose
Not fit for purpose. Lots of bugs in the system and half the time it doesn’t work. App looks to have been created by a 12 year old in there bedroom!! Don’t waste your time.
A truly awful app
This is without doubt the worst smart lighting app on the market. For a company as important as Aurora to get this so wrong is embarrassing. Terrible functionality, fiddly to set up and awful lag on control. Also the GU10 lamps keeping loosing their connection with the hub. I understand there is a new version of the app coming. To be honest it can’t come fast enough. Compared to Philips hue, this system is terrible. Don’t buy into this echo system until Aurora get this sorted. Come on Aurora why ruin the great reputation you have with this poor and functionally useless app/ hub that simply does not work.
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Ridiculously slow response to changes
I’m trailing AOne, and with just a single rotary dimmer, right next to the Hub, it more often than not just doesn’t respond to control from the app, and when it does it’s so laggy it’s embarrassing.
Then there’s the really long wait for the app to connect to the hub every time you launch it. What’s that all about?
I wanted to like this system, but if this is typical of how it works, it’s not fit for purpose.
Then there’s the really long wait for the app to connect to the hub every time you launch it. What’s that all about?
I wanted to like this system, but if this is typical of how it works, it’s not fit for purpose.
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Still dreadful after nearly 2 years!
Still no HomeKit or Siri Shortcut support.
No Apple Watch support.
Schedules still - still no option for dusk till dawn/sun rise/sunset change.
My EN-DE6PRO down lights flicker with the smart dimmer mod. Auroras technical have acknowledged this. 12 months later, no fix.
AOne Colour tuneable GU10 lamps, don’t sync correct Colour temperature despite multiple attempts. They revert back. Some come one 3500k, some randomly turn on cool white. Closer to 4/5000k.
The hub is cumbersome and lacks feature sets of other hubs.
The app - delay every time you open it. It’s Slow and the UI is terrible dreadful!
The whole system, software & hardware is about to get removed and binned.
Complete waste of money. Trash.
No Apple Watch support.
Schedules still - still no option for dusk till dawn/sun rise/sunset change.
My EN-DE6PRO down lights flicker with the smart dimmer mod. Auroras technical have acknowledged this. 12 months later, no fix.
AOne Colour tuneable GU10 lamps, don’t sync correct Colour temperature despite multiple attempts. They revert back. Some come one 3500k, some randomly turn on cool white. Closer to 4/5000k.
The hub is cumbersome and lacks feature sets of other hubs.
The app - delay every time you open it. It’s Slow and the UI is terrible dreadful!
The whole system, software & hardware is about to get removed and binned.
Complete waste of money. Trash.
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Bit Clunky
App needs work.
Really needs dusk to dawn schedules like many other smart lamps apps.
A review from over a year ago also asks for this?
Really needs dusk to dawn schedules like many other smart lamps apps.
A review from over a year ago also asks for this?
More work required... please keep going....!
Having just installed 12 GU10 colour changing lights in the lounge, 6 in a bedroom and another 8 standard warm in two bathrooms with associated controllers / switches replacing the existing halogens I’ve found this to be a mixed experience.
1. Pairing between hub / phone and lights takes some time. And the app gives no indication of progress. Although it says ‘may take up to three minutes’ I found the reality was a *lot* longer (almost 15 mins). This resulted in partial configuration and lots of having to turn switches on and off 6 times to reset the lights back into pairing mode to start the process once again.
2. Application does not give very useful / informative feedback on errors or the fact that it’s doing something - I suspect when first firing up the hub is also firmware updating the lights themselves? No Idea.... just takes a long time before they seem to appear in the app.
3. Written documentation / user guides seems a bit sparse. What does the flashing red exclamation mark on the hub mean? Why do I have to call the support phone line to talk to someone to find this out? What documentation is there is all very good for when things work correctly - just needs more development on other scenarios.
4. Lag between the switches and the lights... you have to be patient. When turning on / off / dimming the lights there is a small, but noticeable lag between pressing the button and the lights changing. Small children don’t seem to grasp this concept and then push the button again and again as it’s not come on when first pressed. Resulting in a mix of lighting effects as the controller and lights catch up with the 15 input commands just given.... Sigh. More an issue with my parenting capability than a flaw with the product I think...
5. Now some nitty gritty....
A. When setting up a switch controller - please sort out a better system.... pressing and holding for 7 seconds, then press and release, then press and hold for another 7 seconds then press every two seconds, etc.... there has got to be an easier way for the controller to work out which channel to be on surely? It works. First time for one room. 7 attempts for the second room.
B. Dear god - why oh why is there no ability to copy settings to multiple lights? When setting a ‘scene’ in a room with 12 lights I have to the go to each one and try to use my fat finger to get the slider to about the same place.... resulting in close but not quite exactly the same colour, brightness or warmth settings.
C. Rooms (Spaces as it’s called in the app) - great I can set a room and turn it on or off. Great that I can have the different scenes set. What if I want to select a scene and then dim it by 50%? I either have to create another scene with the same settings only 50% lower or I have to get up and move to the wall switch and press the button three times to get it to dim down to that level. Why can’t I just press the room and then have three options - on, off and a slider for light dimming?
D. Allocation of ‘banks’ or ‘groups’ of lights within a scene not possible. Like my comment about about apply one setting to multiple lights - ideally I’d also like to be able to do this to ‘runs’ of lights - I have 12 lights configured in 3 rows of 4 - I’d like to set each row to different settings but the same for each row. Again - you have to adjust each light individually for this.
E. Renaming lights is good - but would also help if you could then reorder the tiles on the display page so they can then be in a more logical order when trying to scroll through. Oh - and please change the numbering order - labelling a light 1, 2, 3 should not result in 1, 11, 12, 2, 3.
F. Sometime the settings in the app do not seem to take ‘hold’ or they seem to revert and what is shown on the slider does not actually represent what the light displays. I think this is just a syncing issue and I found that turning that individual light off and then back on usually corrected the issue.
G. How about adding some ‘standard’ preset settings to apply to spaces? What about a colour / warmth randomisation / fading / colour change cycle for the party atmosphere? (Or give the controller to a small child and get them to keep pressing buttons! :-) Appreciate there are a wide variety of products in the range - but I’m sure there are going to be a lot more people going down this route...
I’ve not yet had the opportunity to try the Alexa / other smart system integration. My general feeling is while I’m sure it will work, I know I’ve got a lot of time to spend to tweak it to get the most of it.
I am also to yet set this up on the significant other half’s phone and see how the sharing of controls goes. Not sure if she will also be able to change all the settings (inadvertently or otherwise).... or if this causes control conflicts, etc. Will let you know later.
I have also not reviewed making config changes remotely or how the system works if there is any issue with the hub....
Now don’t take this review as a reason not to get the Aurora products. They work. They look great. They do everything you could ask for - but it’s not as smooth, slick or as straightforward as you may hope for at this moment. If doing one or two lights or switches then you’ll have no worries at all...
I am so very much looking forward to this continuing to be updated and additional features being added. Worse case - I just have to create more ‘scenes’ for the app and adjust each light individually in it. Once it’s done once you don’t need to worry about going back again (unless there is some issue and the lights / app loose the settings? - dear god no... please allow me some way to back up all my configurations?? As I’d hate to have to spend hours redoing them all.... and the missus would kill me..!)
TLDR: works well, be patient and take your time, not for the non-technical individuals....
1. Pairing between hub / phone and lights takes some time. And the app gives no indication of progress. Although it says ‘may take up to three minutes’ I found the reality was a *lot* longer (almost 15 mins). This resulted in partial configuration and lots of having to turn switches on and off 6 times to reset the lights back into pairing mode to start the process once again.
2. Application does not give very useful / informative feedback on errors or the fact that it’s doing something - I suspect when first firing up the hub is also firmware updating the lights themselves? No Idea.... just takes a long time before they seem to appear in the app.
3. Written documentation / user guides seems a bit sparse. What does the flashing red exclamation mark on the hub mean? Why do I have to call the support phone line to talk to someone to find this out? What documentation is there is all very good for when things work correctly - just needs more development on other scenarios.
4. Lag between the switches and the lights... you have to be patient. When turning on / off / dimming the lights there is a small, but noticeable lag between pressing the button and the lights changing. Small children don’t seem to grasp this concept and then push the button again and again as it’s not come on when first pressed. Resulting in a mix of lighting effects as the controller and lights catch up with the 15 input commands just given.... Sigh. More an issue with my parenting capability than a flaw with the product I think...
5. Now some nitty gritty....
A. When setting up a switch controller - please sort out a better system.... pressing and holding for 7 seconds, then press and release, then press and hold for another 7 seconds then press every two seconds, etc.... there has got to be an easier way for the controller to work out which channel to be on surely? It works. First time for one room. 7 attempts for the second room.
B. Dear god - why oh why is there no ability to copy settings to multiple lights? When setting a ‘scene’ in a room with 12 lights I have to the go to each one and try to use my fat finger to get the slider to about the same place.... resulting in close but not quite exactly the same colour, brightness or warmth settings.
C. Rooms (Spaces as it’s called in the app) - great I can set a room and turn it on or off. Great that I can have the different scenes set. What if I want to select a scene and then dim it by 50%? I either have to create another scene with the same settings only 50% lower or I have to get up and move to the wall switch and press the button three times to get it to dim down to that level. Why can’t I just press the room and then have three options - on, off and a slider for light dimming?
D. Allocation of ‘banks’ or ‘groups’ of lights within a scene not possible. Like my comment about about apply one setting to multiple lights - ideally I’d also like to be able to do this to ‘runs’ of lights - I have 12 lights configured in 3 rows of 4 - I’d like to set each row to different settings but the same for each row. Again - you have to adjust each light individually for this.
E. Renaming lights is good - but would also help if you could then reorder the tiles on the display page so they can then be in a more logical order when trying to scroll through. Oh - and please change the numbering order - labelling a light 1, 2, 3 should not result in 1, 11, 12, 2, 3.
F. Sometime the settings in the app do not seem to take ‘hold’ or they seem to revert and what is shown on the slider does not actually represent what the light displays. I think this is just a syncing issue and I found that turning that individual light off and then back on usually corrected the issue.
G. How about adding some ‘standard’ preset settings to apply to spaces? What about a colour / warmth randomisation / fading / colour change cycle for the party atmosphere? (Or give the controller to a small child and get them to keep pressing buttons! :-) Appreciate there are a wide variety of products in the range - but I’m sure there are going to be a lot more people going down this route...
I’ve not yet had the opportunity to try the Alexa / other smart system integration. My general feeling is while I’m sure it will work, I know I’ve got a lot of time to spend to tweak it to get the most of it.
I am also to yet set this up on the significant other half’s phone and see how the sharing of controls goes. Not sure if she will also be able to change all the settings (inadvertently or otherwise).... or if this causes control conflicts, etc. Will let you know later.
I have also not reviewed making config changes remotely or how the system works if there is any issue with the hub....
Now don’t take this review as a reason not to get the Aurora products. They work. They look great. They do everything you could ask for - but it’s not as smooth, slick or as straightforward as you may hope for at this moment. If doing one or two lights or switches then you’ll have no worries at all...
I am so very much looking forward to this continuing to be updated and additional features being added. Worse case - I just have to create more ‘scenes’ for the app and adjust each light individually in it. Once it’s done once you don’t need to worry about going back again (unless there is some issue and the lights / app loose the settings? - dear god no... please allow me some way to back up all my configurations?? As I’d hate to have to spend hours redoing them all.... and the missus would kill me..!)
TLDR: works well, be patient and take your time, not for the non-technical individuals....
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Response from developer
Thank you for your extensive review and taking the time out to give us your thoughts. Lots of great points and constructive feedback in here and we agree 100% with you. If you'd like to get involved in testing some of the improvements we're working on that you've mentioned here before we release them into the wild, send us an email at aone.help@auroralighting.com!
Launched to soon
Nowhere near ready for the marketplace, slow to sync, deletes devices. Poor customer support. Great idea bad execution, feels cheap and rushed.
More like an Alpha release
Very buggy platform, and super basic functionality compared to Philips Hue and other smartphone platforms.
Hub loses connectivity a lot. App is pared back to absolute basics, leaving you only just able to to schedule lights on and off.
Can’t create groups of bulbs for lights with multiple bulbs (eg a chandelier) - it has to be a room. Crazy!
Naming bulbs is unnecessarily hard and counter intuitive. Status of bulbs doesn’t always correlate with that in the app status.
Find myself doing frequent reboots and reinstalls - often the only answer support can give.
Compared to my 30 bulb Hue setup, this has a long way to go.
Don’t make the mistake I did and buy into Aurora’s system just yet. Wait a while.
Hub loses connectivity a lot. App is pared back to absolute basics, leaving you only just able to to schedule lights on and off.
Can’t create groups of bulbs for lights with multiple bulbs (eg a chandelier) - it has to be a room. Crazy!
Naming bulbs is unnecessarily hard and counter intuitive. Status of bulbs doesn’t always correlate with that in the app status.
Find myself doing frequent reboots and reinstalls - often the only answer support can give.
Compared to my 30 bulb Hue setup, this has a long way to go.
Don’t make the mistake I did and buy into Aurora’s system just yet. Wait a while.
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Not there yet...
I’m trialing a few light, bulbs and remotes before taking the plunge and installing in the house I’m currently being built. I REALLY want this to work, but at the moment the software isn’t quite there. Loading and syncing is slow. The way to choose colours is mint as good as hue. When you edit a scene it seems to forget its current settings- so if you just want to check your settings you loose them. Occasionally the remote is slow to change the lights. Alexa support does seem to work, no HomeKit support. AOne- please keep rolling out the updates!!!
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