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  • April 25, 2018

The Unofficial Nanoleaf Setup Guide (AKA My love letter to Nanoleaf) 😍

November 27, 2017 by Will Lam Leave a Comment

I wrote this after a good amount of friends and acquaintances reaching out to me to ask about Nanoleaf’s groundbreaking Aurora smart lighting product. This is to help friends and probably many more others who they’ll influence and will be picking up a Nanoleaf Aurora with the Rhythm attachment.

This is by no means an official set up guide (hence my calling out that it’s unofficial), and is useful after you’ve followed their official instructions included with the product.

So let’s just get this out of the way. I’m a huge Nanoleaf fan and now own the official maximum supported panels of 30. 😍 I first cold emailed them just for kicks to see if I could get a response, typos, run on sentences and all.

Below is my email to them back on January 17, 2017.

Subject: Toronto Startup Deal?

Hey guys!

I work at Taplytics in Toronto, and I walk buy your goddamned awesome display at MaRS everyday. It TAUNTS ME to buy it. I may have considered stealing it…. BUT.. I’ve left my life of crime and look to pursue a legitimate lifestyle.

Soo.. I’m pretty much SOLD on your Aurora LED Panels.

Can I buy from you guys directly? I’d rather support you guys directly rather than going to Best Buy.

Looking to recreate some of the magic from Burning man in my own bedroom with your Aurora LED panels 🙂 https://www.instagram.com/p/BPYSIrVAiMN/

Also, if I buy now, can I buy the Rhythm upgrade as an add on? I’d hate to have to wait until summer to be able to have stuff sync to music.

It would be awesome if you guys take me seriously.. but if not let me know what my next steps are, because you guys have something amazing going on and I can’t wait to have your product in my home 🙂

Cheers,

Will

 

With that said, let’s get onto setting, they really do make the effort to help you out in terms of customer support and answering all of your questions online. You can check out their FAQ or give the Nanoleaf Sub-Reddit a peruse to see how other folks are using the Aurora and their other products.

Checklist for your new Nanoleaf Aurora Kit

Having been an owner for almost a year, here are a few things I’ve learned and picked up along the way.

  • You’ll be compelled to re-arrange your panels, so it’s best that you get some 3M Command strips (the ones that look like Velcro) so you can apply and re-apply to different parts of your home or elsewhere without having to shell out more money to stick them back on your panels.
  • Get inspired and check out some patterns on the Nanoleaf blog. 
  • If you want to go out and create a pattern on your own with whatever number of panels you own, lay them out on the table on or the floor to see how it might look or sketch out pen to paper on what you think might be cool.
  • Pick up flexible linkers. While not mandatory, you will at some point be compelled to have your Aurora span from wall to ceiling. It should be about $10 USD or $13 Canadian. You can get them on their website or you can get them through Best Buy and other prominent online retailers.

Once you’re ready and committed to the design you want to put on your wall

  • Have a ladder handy if you want your Aurora set up that’s taller than you.
  • Pencil – to mark where you want to place your Aurora panels.
  • Measuring tape. If you’re especially anal-retentive about how your installation might look and how much space your this will come in handy.
  • Leveller (you can search the App Store and download a free one) or use real one.

Where to place your Nanoleaf Aurora

One of the first things you’ll notice is when you place your Aurora somewhere near the middle of a wall is that you’ll see the unsightly cord from the Aurora controller to its power source, while unavoidable, there’s a few ways to get around it.

  • Use a lamp to block the full length of the cord
  • Place it behind your couch
    Start from the ground up if you have a good amount of panels for your design
  • If you have the flexible linkers, you might want to start with setting up your installation at the 90 degree angle first where your wall meets your ceiling and then design from the ceiling, and then finally switch back your design on your wall.

For those with more than 9 panels.

You might want to link up two panels in advance and and have the 3M command strips ready to go and linking them up 

The TL/DR is they’re not cheap, but they’re infinitely configurable to fit your life and home. They’re especially cooler with the Rhythm attachment they released back in August 2017, which seems to be included as part of the standard Nanoleaf base package.

Coming soon.

Getting your Smart Home Automations to work… 

Filed Under: Gadgets, Tech

The Aeropress – Probably the best and easiest coffee gadget money can buy

October 11, 2011 by Will Lam Leave a Comment

aeropress full setTo start things off, the Aeropress has improved my life in 3 ways.  After playing around with my not so new Aeropress for the last 7 months now, I’ve almost always had a fantastic cup of coffee, drastically reduced my monthly coffee expenses, increased my tips to our under appreciated barista with the savings I’ve had and as a result given more awesome treatment (*ahem* free cappuccinos once every so often 🙂

Even Geoff Polci, owner Crema Coffee says, “almost impossible to fuck up a cup of coffee with this device, I love mine.”

What is the Aeropress?

The Aeropress is best described as a plastic “syringe-like device” with a filter at the bottom allowing you to use paper filters that it comes standard with or you can buy a Coava disk filter if you like to taste all those delicious coffee oils.

My Aeropress Review

It takes about a good 10 minutes from the point of boiling water of your coffee to the first sip from your cup (or faster if you own one of these babies)

While it may seem a little flimsy at first, it makes rock solid cups of coffee full of flavor, consistently. This thing isn’t a joke. Heck, there’s even a World Aeropress Championship being held in Milan on October 23, 2011 this year.

What the Aeropress is great at

Through my experiences, it makes a great and consistent “Americano style” cup of coffee, meaning I don’t put anything into it after “pushing a shot” into my tumbler.

It offers a very clean cup of coffee, and depending on whether you use the supplied paper filters (it comes with 300) or if you pick up an Coava Disk Coffee filter to capture all the tasty oils, you’re going to get a consistent cup of coffee if you tinker around enough to your own tastes.

Who is the Aeropress for?

The aspiring home barista – people who enjoy a great cup of coffee and who want to explore the world of coffee.

Those who can’t afford a shiny new Slayer machine or La Marzocco. At least not right now, anyway…

Different Aeropress Brew Methods

Besides the standard out of box method, there’s also the inverted method for those who are daring enough to try…

A quick search on Youtube serves up a long list of different approaches to using your Aeropress.  Depending on the variables you can change such as  how hot the water should be, the grind, how many grams of coffee per shot, and even the timing it can all.

My Aeropress recipe

As I’m usually on the go in the morning, I usually stick to one scoop of coffee with the scoop provided as part of the Aeropress package and pour water at 95 degrees celsius up to the “4” setting to get a nice round cup of coffee that I can savour in the morning.

I handgrind my coffee with my Hario MSS-1B Mini Mill Slim Coffee Grinder.  It makes a world of a difference.  If you don’t want to pick up a manual grinder, getting an automated burr grinder would be your best bet in getting a consistent cup each time.

In terms of timing, I usually like to let it steep and let it drip without having to put too much work by pressing down on the Aeropress.  If I’m in a hurry, I usually wait for about a minute or so to steep then I plunge.

Conclusion

It’s an entire brew system that fits into your backpack.  You get a really great tasting cup of coffee at a fraction of the cost compared to stopping over at your favourite cafe for an Americano.

Pick up your own AeroPress for about $30.

Filed Under: Gadgets Tagged With: aeropress, coffee gadgets

New Chemex!!

July 10, 2011 by Will Lam Leave a Comment

new chemex 3 cup coffee

New Chemex I got for my birthday from Irene 🙂

Filed Under: Coffee, Gadgets Tagged With: Chemex, coffee gadgets

My newest coffee toy – Hario Ceramic Coffee Mill :)

April 26, 2011 by Will Lam Leave a Comment

Just picked it up from Te Aro for about $43 taxes in. Can’t wait to play around with it and see what coffee magic I can pull off alongside my Aeropress!

20110426-040848.jpg

Filed Under: Gadgets

Hottest new coffee toy? Coffee Joulies from Kickstarter

March 31, 2011 by Will Lam Leave a Comment

Coffee Joulies Kickstarter
Depending on which way you look at it, I found quite possibly the hottest or coolest new coffee toy through a link on one of my favourite website’s right now (HackerNews) to a new and innovative product the “Coffee Joulie” on Kickstarter.

It solves two different problems in one that we face as avid coffee drinkers. – helping take absorb the heat of hot coffee from scalding to a luke warm 140 degrees (60 degrees Celsius) and helps your coffee staying warm twice as long (I hate cold coffee) through the magic of thermodynamics. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Gadgets Tagged With: coffee gadgets

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