Floodlight like no other

Not my first rodeo with Novostella products, and not my first floodlight from them as well. I wouldn’t really associate RGB LEDs with floodlights, but they made it work. Novostella AuroraLux (Amazon, Novostella Official Store) brings a higher brightness and something special to the mix. Let’s take a closer look at this massive floodlight and how you can use it in your home automation.

For a limited time you can claim $10 off your purchase on Novostella Official Store page: use NOTENOUGH code to claim it!

Novostella AuroraLux

I don’t think Novostella AuroraLux appreciated the fact I tried to plug the floodlight straight to UK’s mains. The floodlight is 120V AC tolerant and marketed for USA markets. It survived despite my ignorance, and not reading the instructions. After getting a 240V to 110V converter I could finally give it a go. Novostella AuroraLux will be available in other markets at some point (insider info) but until this happens, making it work outside the USA will take a lot of effort.

What’s setting Novostella AuroraLux apart from other floodlights is the RGB LED matrix. These LED lights are big, bright and now individually* controllable. Now we are talking!

Bigger, brighter better

I thought that the last 2 floodlights which I received from Novostella were big, Novostella AuroraLux is easily twice the size (and triple the power). Encased in a cast metal frame made to resist all weather conditions houses 40 RGB LEDs. It gets pretty hot when run at full beam indoors so take it outside and be careful when touching the panel.

Novostella AuroraLux has addressable LEDs inside. I’m yet to confirm (*) if the panel is driven like a true matrix or comes with addressable columns (10 columns of 4) only. As all available animations use a 4 LED bar as the smallest frame. It means that the floodlight can generate animation effects.

Shine bright

Novostella AuroraLux has some heft to it. Just look how big are the individual LEDs. These outshine the other panels in the colour mode, but without dedicated white LEDs, the performance of the white light isn’t as great. That’s ok, if you want to create a unique highlight effect, just don’t expect 60W worth of white light coming from this panel.

With the full beans on, I can cast RGB colours onto nearby sheds and trees and illuminate these better than my camera can capture. It’s a light you want for Xmas or Halloween period to alter the look and the feel of your decorations.

Effects

Apart from traditional effects available through Tuya/SmartLife app like pulsing and breathing, Novostella AuroraLux can display interesting animations thanks to the ability to display multiple colours at once.

While the overall output of the floodlight will be a mixture of all the lights being present on the matrix, the edge light and fringing effect on surfaces lighted up by the Novostella AuroraLux will correspond with the lights (or animations) selected in the app.

The selection covers Symphony mode (animated rainbow effect) Trail mode which moves colours across the matrix and other effects that let you adjust the speed, brightness and colour palette of the animation played by the panel.

Music mode

Novostella AuroraLux works with both Tuya and Smart Life apps, but the music mode wasn’t responding well in Tuya. Smart Life (the one that Novostella asks you to use) works better and changes the colour of the light to the music. If you are planning any parties in your garden, that light will be a hit!

Smarts

With Smart Life and Tuya, you get all the familiar Alexa and GoogleHome integrations. You can toggle the light, change the colours but you won’t be able to pick animations with a voice command. That’s disappointing especially that these animations are not exposed to in-app scene panels either. Otherwise, you could create a smart scene with a selected animation and play it when required.

The typical controls like timers and smart scenes to add some colour to your life at sunset etc are still present, so at least you have that. If you have other devices in this ecosystem, you’ll be able to link the smart scenes and trigger lights based on motion sensors or camera events.

Tasmota-proof

This iron-cast enclosure is not only bullet-proof but also Tasmota proof. With Tuya-Convert no longer on the cards, the only way to ever flash it is to break the glass. Something that only the bravest would do in the name of science.

While Tasmota is off the table, you can still integrate the light into your home automation with Tuya API – the guide I wrote covers how to interact with devices.

Final thoughts

As this unit needs 110V, it’s not going to end up on any of my walls, but if you are living in the US or other countries with compatible voltage, you can grab this beast of the floodlight from the Novostella store at $79.99 (Amazon, Novostella Official Store) – and feel free to use the code from this article to get extra $10 off!. I’d like to see animations exposed to the Scenes panel soon and perhaps an in-app ability to make your own. That would really set Novostella AuroraLux apart from other lights. Let me know what you think about this panel in this Reddit thread.

🆓📈💵 – See the transparency note for details.