Ikea launched the Ormanäs, its first smart RGB LED light strip, in the Netherlands. The news comes by way of Dutch tech site Tweakers, which notes that the Ormanäs is a four-meter, or roughly 13-foot, dimmable Zigbee affair for €29.99 (about $32) that works with the company’s Dirigera smart hub. The light strip is only available in the Netherlands for now, but Ikea typically starts its rollouts there before bringing products to the US and beyond.
The strip is simple and, judging from the images on Ikea’s site, won’t have individually addressable LEDs like some of the fancier strips on the market — which means the whole strip will show only a single color at a time. Still, it supports multiple control methods like the Ikea Home app and the Ikea Styrbar remote as well as Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa smart home platforms (through the Dirigera hub). It also supports Google Home and Amazon Alexa. And being a fairly standard LED strip, you can cut it to length in designated places.
The Ormanäs has a nice balance of features — it’s affordable, long, dimmable, and with Zigbee control, is likely to be very responsive. It’s rare to see a smart LED strip that ticks all of those boxes and also supports HomeKit and out-of-home control via the maker’s app — something the Dirigera hub improves on over Ikea’s now-defunct Trådfri Gateway.
Were you able to directly access the VINDSTYRKA vias zigbee?
Or do you have to talk to it through IKEA’s hub? I’ve fancied one of these for a while, but don’t fancy another hub.
It connects directly to my Silicon Labs Zigbee/Zwave combo stick. That’s the great thing about Zigbee, you aren’t stuck on someone’s hub.
That is indeed good news! I’d held off buying IKEA’s stuff previously, as I thought it had to go through their gateway. Thanks!
I finally migrated my Hue bulbs over recently (previously, I had bad information), and direct control is so much nicer. Plus, they work as repeaters.