Today we are going to look at a new product from NanoLeaf, the Shapes Mini Triangles. Most of you are probably aware of the NanoLeaf Light Panels that have been featured with on a lot of Workstation pictures, but this is a new product as of November 2020, and we are going to go though a quick unboxing, comparison, and review of both the Mini Triangles and the NanoLeaf App used to Setup and Control your shapes. Lets get started.
We will be looking at 2 of their new products:
- Nanoleaf Shapes - Mini Triangles Smarter Kit
- Nanoleaf Shapes - Mini Triangles Expansion
Lets roll through some quick product specs and see those these mini triangles compare to the larger Light Panels. You can see here they are roughly half the size, but sill about 1cm thick in design.
Here in the General Specs we see that for the most part things look about the same. The Mini triangles still only communicate over a 2.4Ghz wireless network. The one big difference to call out here is the lumens drop when going from the Light Panels to the Mini Triangles. That being said, at max brightness, the Mini Triangles can really light up a room, so don’t be overly concerned about that.
Here we see that both types of panels support the same color spectrum, and in regards to power, the Mini Triangles have a smaller power supply, which makes sense if the lumens output is lower than the larger light panels. The website states that you can connect up to 77 Mini Triangles to a single power supply, but when setting up your design in the application, it state that you can go more than 21 mini triangles, so I’m going to contact NanoLeaf on that one to get clarification
So I created a mock design her to show how what Nanoleaf calls their Linkers connect the triangles and the controller. You might also see that sticker on the right confirming that these just like the larger panels are touch sensitive.
The Linkers have 3 connector pins, and there are little compression tabs that allow it to just snap into place. They hold pretty well, but don’t try to build the design and then hang it on the wall, you will fail, and it will come crashing down.
Instead use the Design feature in the Nanoleaf App to plan out your design, and then begin to build it on your wall.
Its called Layout Assistant and although there are is no way to select colors here, you can design the overall shaped based on the number of panels you will be using. Its drag and drop, and fairly easy to modify.
Once you have your design there is an AR Mode that lets you see it on your wall. It works OK on a flat wall with nothing else in the frame, but as you can see here, if there are other objects near by, it doesn’t work too well.
Now I’m going to quickly go through how to setup and connect your panel to the application and your wifi network. I will state that this way by far the most frustrating part of the installation process for me due to connectivity issues, but more on that in a bit. If yu9 don't want to read through this, just check out my YouTube video.
Creating an account is optional, but I would suggest doing it as that will allow you to back up your designs and color scenes for later retrieval.
Before selecting your shapes from this screen, make sure your panels are plugged into the wall and powered on.
Select the shapes tab, and it will remind you that in order to connect, you need to be on your 2.4GHz wifi connection. It will show a list of available 2.4GHz networks, and then ask for a password to connect. Now on my first run, this worked fine, and everything connected without issue. BUT… after the initial pairing, the light panels kept becoming unresponsive, and I wasn’t ablet to control the kit. After a few Hard Resets, and moving closer to my router, I was finally able to get it to work, but it wasn’t fun. None of the other 40+ devices on my network have any issues, so putting the blame for this directly on Nanoleaf. I’m not sure if it’s an issue that can be addressed via a firmware update, or if the Wifi antennae on the controller is just far too small, but whatever the reason, if you aren’t in pretty close proximity to your router, you may experience similar issues.
After connecting head to your devices tab and select the layout of your panels. By default there is a selection of solid fill lights, multi color, and even interactive music scenes to choose from, in addition to being able to adjust overall brightness. You can go with one of these, or hit the Add Scene button to create your own customized look.
Again you can utilize existing color pallets, or Add New to create your own from scratch, using rgb sliders or even plugging in the color code directly into the app.
Once you have your custom color palette you can chose between a motion design that will fade between the colors you selected, or you can go with a static color design, choosing the color for each panel individually.
Once your colors are selected save your design, and if you aren’t having connection issues, you should be ablet to save it and apply it to your panels.
After experimenting with a few other options, this is the design that I ended up going with above my PC. It is using 21 panels, currently, but I have a few more left over from the expansion kits, and might add those to the mix down the road.
Once this product is available on Amazon, I will be sure to add a product link to the video description.
To wrap things up, despite the connection issues I initially had, overall I’m happy how this accessory add turned out. The size is just about perfect, it frames my Open Air computer, and adds some nice fill light to my workspace when the overhead fluorescent bulbs are a bit too harsh. If you are wanting to get into some custom lighting for your workstation, this is a great way to do that, at a much lower price point than what was previously available.
I hope this video helped give you a better idea of what to expect from this product.
Hit me up with any questions, and if you guys think a different design or shape would look better above my PC, let me know in the comments. I’m getting ready to completely rebuild this system, so be on the lookout for that.
I also have lots of other project videos on the channel, so be sure to check those out as well.
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That’s it for this one, thanks for watching. We’ll see you next time.
