Lepro AI Powered Indoor And Outdoor ARGB Lights Enthralled Me

AI Controlled Lighting Can Be Fun And Functional

I still have limits though!

It’s finally happened and I have been successfully tempted by The Light Side, accepting at least some AI and aRGB into my life, thanks to Lepro.  They offer indoor and outdoor IoT LED lighting, of the fully RGB infected kind, and apart from a few imperfections, they are really quite good.  As with most IoT devices, you should make sure they are secure and Lepro seems to have had that in mind when they developed their products.  There are no hits, at least for now, when you search for Lepro vulnerabilities and not only is there a way to check for firmware upgrades, there actually was one available for each of the devices I tested.

The Lepro E1 AI permanent outdoor lights, ZB1 string lights and O1 indoor smart LED floor lamp are controlled by Lepro’s LightGPT app and are mostly compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant.  Other solutions like Tuya, Smartlife, Home Assistant and some other smart control systems are not, so keep that in mind if your home is fully AI controlled by one of those options.  If you don’t have an existing system they are certainly a worthy addition to your yard, the eaves of your house or anywhere you would like completely controllable illumination.  If you do use an unsupported platform, and you don’t mind having a secondary system, they are still worth checking out.  Do note these are wall powered lights and the actual power connector is not waterproof.

The O1 indoor smart LED lamp has also proven superior to the random inexpensive alternatives offered on Amazon.  It has much more precise controls and has proven to be far more reliable than the Amazon product I bought some time ago.

The Lepro E1 AI Permanent Outdoor Lights

The Lepro E1 lights best represent the improvements LED lights offer over previous types of lighting, they connect with a thin strip and each light is a tiny puck shape, 2″ in diameter and 0.5″ thick.  They can be secured with the 3M sticky strip on the back, doing no damage to where you attach them, but the sticky pad is only good for one use.  You can place them, or relocate them, using the included screws and anchors if you don’t mind making yet another hole.  The two options allow you to connect the lights to most surfaces almost invisibly, and when the lights are turned on you really don’t see the housing, only the lights themselves. The lights are controlled by WS2811 ICs, one for white and one for RGB and are fully protected against dirt and water.

The power supply is not waterproof so you will want to connect it indoors or to a properly protected socket, but the connection between the power supply and controller and the strings of light are rated at IP67 when properly secured.  Lepro also included at least one 5′ or 10′ extension cable, depending on which package you buy, to bridge the gap between the power source and where you want to start placing your lights.  The light strings themselves are 25′ long with 15 lights on each, with the number of them in the package depending on the version you purchased.  The product page lists a maximum amount of strings that can be attached for each model, so it would seem the controller may differ depending on which one you have purchased.  In all but the 150′ version you can add an extra string beyond what comes in the package, if you happen to have one.

The Lepro E1 lights connect via Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz, neither they nor the other lights can connect to a 5Ghz network.  In my case this meant the E1 would refuse to connect to the WAP that provides my backyard WiFi as it is set to prefer WiFi 6 on the 5Ghz band, though they had no trouble connecting to my wireless gateway.

The Lepro ZB1 AI Smart Outdoor String Lights

The Lepro ZB1 lights look far more like traditional patio lighting, a string of bulbs with a rubber ring incorporated into the light’s housing to slide over a nail, hook or even an handy branch.  This lets you reposition them far more easily than the more permanent E1 lights.   The bulb design also changes the lighting tone a bit, the maximum brightness is higher but they don’t offer as wide a colour temperature gamut.  The ZB1 is powered in the same way as the E1, so make sure you protect the actual power source, and their IP65 rating is slightly less but still more than enough to stand up in a rainstorm. 

The ZB1 are a little more intelligent when it comes to connectivity, while it is still limited to Bluetooth and 2.4GHz WiFi it could successfully negotiate a connection with my WAP.  As all you are doing is instructing the lights how to behave via your preferred app, the speed of the WiFi connection is moot.

Lights, Camera, Action

You don’t really get a sense of why these Lepro lights have destroyed my reputation as someone who generally would rather do without either RGBs or AI in their life without seeing them in action.  A camera has troubles capturing LEDs properly, as it is not as easy to fool as our eyes are.  Nevertheless it is worth checking the lights out in action in my backyard.

Some of the effects are a little intense and might not be for you but there are dozens of presets to choose from, or you can design your own if you have something in mind.  You can share the effect with other Lepro users at the press of a button from within the app, if you happen to be that sociable.  When you have the lights sync to music you will find the lights can be critics.  Some music triggers lovely effects, other songs are barely recognized and others trigger effects that should come with a seizure warning. 

There is always the static mode, which is what my backyard is set to most of the time.

The Lepro O1 AI Floor Lamp

The last Lepro light is a different beast, an indoor floor lamp that really doesn’t belong outside except maybe on the nicest of nights.  It does do a great job of lighting a room, either subtly and warmly or quite brilliantly if that is your need.  It is the brightest of the three Lepro products by far, with a maximum brightness of 2300 lumen.  The colour temperature gamut matches that of the ZB1 bulbs, but the comparative denseness of the LEDs makes it seem more dynamic as can the colour of the paint or wallpaper in the room you place it in.  The base is just short of 9′ in diameter, but still weighs in at about 9 lbs, so the light is quite stable even with the relatively small base compared to it’s 5′ height.

The Lepro App, AKA LightGPT

You can’t have AI powered lights without an app; nowadays it seems you can’t have anything without an app and yet another user and password to remember.  You can create a unique Lepro account, but thankfully the app lets you log in with Google, Facebook and several other common accounts.  The permissions are not onerous, location data is needed to ensure you comply with local WiFi regulations and Bluetooth access is a must if you intend on controlling them via both WiFi and Bluetooth.

Once you are set up, you can either scan for local devices or choose the model of lights you are setting up from a very long list of choices.  Pairing is simple, once you choose the model of lights it will send a signal to them and have them flash blue.  Once you get them to do that all you have to do is connect the lights to your WiFi and give them a name.  The lights only work on 2.4Ghz and in my experience the ZB1 and O1 were able to easily negotiate an address from my 2.4/5Ghz WAP while the ZB1 lights refused to and needed to be connected to my ISP provided 2.4Ghz only gateway.

Once you are set up the app has a lot of options and the kids these days will love the voice interface.  You can tell the app you are having a party and immediately the lights will start up with a dynamic show.  Tell it a specific colour, or to brighten or dim and it will do exactly as you tell it, either through the Lepro app or Alexa.  You can also feed it a picture or take one and the lights will attempt to enhance the scene.  As the picture says, an upcoming version will add enhanced image recognition, if that is something that appeals to you.

The lights can also be set to listen to the music you are playing and use that as a prompt for the effects.  It isn’t a fan of all types of music, but for the most part it does a good job of adding a bit of atmosphere to your backyard or wherever you install them.  You can also create groups of lights, which lets you trigger your chosen effect to multiple strings simultaneously to ensure they all work together to light up your life.

If you prefer a hands on approach you can design your own effects or choose from a number of preset patterns.  This is quite detailed and lets you program effects by individual light or manipulate them in groups.  You can swap between RGB or white lighting, change the warmth or colour and adjust the brightness of the lights, along with making them glow steadily, display a gradient or slowly dim and brighten.  There are a few rather intense presets you may not enjoy, but there are a lot to choose from if you don’t want to take the time to design and save your own favourites.

The customization interface isn’t perfect and when you are experimenting you may find you have to save a new favourite to have the lights actually change.  It would be nice for the lights to change as you program them, but unfortunately that is not always the case.  It’s not hard to deal with but it would be nice to see a future update improve this process as it is not completely reliable at the moment.

The Lepro O1 floor lamp is a bit of a different beast.  As it is a single array of LEDs instead of a string the effects are different, however they are just as varied as the strings and can also respond to audio queues from your music or television.  You can also change the colour pattern manually, in either a basic mode or a more precise mode.  This lets you draw patterns on the light, changing colours and shades, applying specific effects or even turning some of them off with the erase button.  The back button lets you undo your last change, in case made a mistake when creating your latest inspiration.

If you opt to switch to white light you lose a lot of the options RGB mode offers but the warmth of the light and it’s brightness are fully controllable.  In addition to these options there are a few more buried in settings, found under the gear icon on the upper right.  Apart from the option to check for firmware updates, the wake up and sleep options are a nice addition.   You can set the lights to slowly fade on or off whenever you like, for use as a wake up lamp, a reminder to go to bed, or ensuring you have lighting when you come home after dark.

You can get more creative with your scheduling using the Rules tab, that tab allows you to set a different time for the lights to turn on or off over the weekend, for instance.  This also lets you queue up specific effects as well, not just have it slowly fade in as a warm colour or turn red and fades out.  There is also a Group tab which lets you sync several sets of lights of the same or different models.  That works relatively well, but you don’t get as many options as when you control the lights individually.

An Illuminating Review

There is no question the Lepro lights reviewed here are a little expensive, though currently quite a few models are on sale for a decent discount.  If all you are looking for is static white LED string lighting you can find far less expensive choices, and Amazon is filled with cheaper alternatives.  They don’t offer the same integration or level of control as Lepro however, which somewhat justifies the costs.  Apart from the atrocious spelling on the website, Lepro does seem to be more than likely to survive longer and to offer better updates than the no name brands; they have been in business for over a decade which is quite reassuring.

This only touches on a small sample of their product lines which range from table and wall lamps to neon strips to recessed lighting options.   Those are definitely a step too far for me, but could certainly be a way to creatively light the living spaces of those that have fully accepted RGBs and AI into their lives.  The app could use some polishing but the physical lights themselves are top notch.

I have to admit some erosion in my stance against RGBs and AI, and I will happily do so while drinking a beer in my backyard and enjoying my own little Lepro powered light show.