After parties such as Philips, Ikea and Trust already made a contribution in terms of making your home “smart”, discounter Action also launched its own line of smarthome products at the end of 2019. With the LSC Smart Connect range, the originally Dutch retail chain tries to offer cheap options for your smart home. Time to see how you install these products and how they relate to other products on the market.
The discounter Action has launched a fairly wide range of smart products under the name LSC Smart Connect. The chain comes with a fairly large number of smart lamps. It not only introduces a simple smart LED light, but also has five different types of smart filament LED lights (which are lamps that look like old-fashioned light bulbs) in the range. In addition, two types of multicolor LED lamps are available and a multicolor spot lamp with GU10 fitting. A ceiling lamp and a smart LED strip are also available.
In addition to the range of lamps, this series also includes a siren, a motion detector, a door sensor, a remote control and a smart plug. So you can not only smartly illuminate your house, there are also other options to make your house smarter. This makes the collection of smart products from Action a fairly complete package.
All these products can be controlled via an app on your smartphone or tablet. You can find the complete range on www.lsc-smartconnect.com.
Test procedure
We have purchased and tested fourteen of the total of 15 LSC Smart Connect products at home. Different combinations of products have been tried. The lamps and sensors are placed in two rooms in total. This is done to see how the products work together in the same, but also in two different spaces. All products have been added to the accompanying app and where possible also to the remote control. Where possible, every scenario, theme and schedule has also been tried to map out all functionalities.
Installation procedure and app
The installation of the products is fairly easy. The instructions all start in the same way. First of all you need to install the app via the Play Store, App Store or the supplied QR code. First create an account. You must then add each product. It actually speaks for itself, but the app also gives clear instructions. Then you turn on the devices. The lamps will blink and are then ready for use. You must first reset the other devices, such as the door sensor and siren, via a button on the device.
You can then operate the devices in the app. You will probably have to do a small firmware update per lamp and sensor.
To link the lamps to the remote control you have to switch the lamps on and off once. The devices then go into “learning mode” for twenty seconds. Then press and hold the on button on the remote control, which will flash three times when pairing is successful. Now you have the option to switch the lights on and off, create groups or adjust the brightness and color.
Automation
Via the LSC Smart Connect application, there are various options for automation. You can make specific settings per lamp or per group. You create groups between the lamps via the app. Here you can make a distinction between the space in which you have placed the lamps, such as the living room, bedroom, etc. This way you can switch the lamps on and off automatically at different times. You can, for example, make this depend on the time or the weather.
In the app you also have the option to set scenarios. With such a scenario you can link certain actions to each other. If you have both the siren and the door sensor in the app, you can use this to create a scenario that works as follows: if the door is open, the siren will sound. Ideal for when you go on vacation!
Voice control
The smarthome products can also be controlled with your voice. The devices have support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Log in to your Google Home or Alexa account and link the LSC products to your service of choice. Via Smart Life you can log in with the account that you have created to use the LSC Smart Connect app. The smarthome products can now be controlled with your voice. You can, for example, dim the lamps, switch them on or have their color changed.
IFTTT
The scenarios and schedules can also be set via IFTTT (If This Then That). This platform makes it possible to connect different smart home devices. This way you can also connect your LSC products with products from other brands, such as the Philips Hue products. The IFTTT app already has several preprogrammed “applets” with which you can set nice things. In this way you can, for example, switch off all your lamps as soon as you leave the house or have a lamp blink when you receive an e-mail. You can determine and set these types of scenarios and conditions yourself.
Remote control
As described earlier, the lamp range is supplemented with five other products, namely accessories and sensors. The first product is the remote control. This is a fairly simple model with an on / off button and two buttons for adjusting the brightness. It works indoors up to twenty meters and is supplied with two AAA batteries. The remote control only works with the lamps, or lamps that are connected via the smart plug. You cannot adjust the brightness of the lamps that you have connected with the smart plug: these lamps can only be switched on and off. Unfortunately, the sensors cannot be controlled with the remote control at all. Linking the lamps to the remote control sometimes works a bit difficult: the remote control does not always detect the lamps. This can be solved by switching the lamp in question on and off three times.
Door sensor
The door sensor consists of two elements that can be easily attached to the door with an adhesive strip. At first, this seems like a pretty useless addition. The sensor only registers when the door opens and closes and lets you know via the app. You will have to give the sensor more meaning through the scenarios and linking to other devices. Turning on your lights as soon as you open the door is very handy! The sensor is therefore only a supplement to the range.
Siren
The siren in the LSC range is one of 110 decibels, adjustable to three positions. With those positions you determine the height of the sound. You can set whether the alarm gives sound, light or both via the app. Our experience is that the sound is not very loud. You don’t have to be in the same room when it goes off, but we think the neighbors don’t just hear the alarm either.
Motion sensor
Both the siren and the door sensor can be linked to the motion sensor. That motion sensor was by far the worst in our test. During testing, the sensor is placed in a corner of the room, next to the door. However, the sensor did not register any movements. This movement was only registered when the sensor was turned in the hand. The sensor would indicate via the app whether little or a lot of movement was detected, which unfortunately could not be tested.
Smart plug
The smart plug is still a welcome addition. With this plug you ensure that products that cannot normally be operated with an app can be operated via the Smart Connect app. This way you can remotely switch an old desk lamp or your coffee maker on and off.
LSC Smart Connect door sensor
price
€ 9.95
    8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Easy to install
- Detects excellent
- Negatives
- Can only be linked via scenarios or IFTTT
LSC Smart Connect motion detector
price
€ 9.95
    4 Score 40 
- Pros
- price
- Negatives
- Does not detect properly
LSC Smart Connect remote control
price
€ 9.95
    7 Score 70 
- Pros
- Simple design
- Possibility to dim lights
- Negatives
- Can only be connected to the lamps
LSC Smart Connect smart plug
price
€ 8.49
    8 Score 80
- Pros
- Easy to install
- Integrates older devices
- Negatives
- Can only be switched on or off
LSC Smart Connect smart siren
price
€ 8.49
    7 Score 70
- Pros
- Can be linked to other sensors
- Choice of sound and light
- Negatives
- Relatively soft sound
Filament lamps
LSC supplies various smart lamps. There are five types of smart filament lamps. These are all gold-colored LED lamps, of which you can adjust the brightness and color temperature via the app. A lamp has an E14 fitting, the rest an E27 fitting. The appearance difference: one is round and the other is more sharp in shape. The lamps have a very nice warm glow, especially when you adjust the color temperature. Some lamps seem to change little or no more than other lamps in the same group. When you have created a group and adjust the brightness, in some cases not all lamps go on the same level.
You have many options regarding scenarios. You can, for example, have the lights switched on or off at specific times. Unfortunately, you cannot use the app to set the lights to turn on slowly in the morning, for example, whereby the brightness is slowly built up. This also applies to all lamps in the range.
Multicolor LED lamp
In addition to the filament lamps, there are three multicolor LED lamps. These are available in an E14, E27 and GU10 version. Unfortunately, we were unable to test the GU10 version. It is striking that these RGB lamps actually have a fairly large color range. Just like with the other lamps, you can set scenarios and schedules. With these lamps you can also set themes where the color changes after a few seconds. The app already has a zipper of themes, but you can also choose to determine the color gradient yourself and create your own theme.
Multicolor LED strip
You can also set a color gradient with the multicolor LED strip. The low price of less than two decades makes this a really good deal. Alternative multicolor LED strips with 1500 lumens usually cost about twice as much. The length of five meters is enough LED strip to place behind your television for a nice light effect, or to illuminate on a cupboard, shelf or wall. The strip can display nice warm white light and all kinds of other colors.
Ceiling light
The last addition is in the form of the ceiling lamp. This ceiling lamp of 1400 lumen gives nice warm and white light. Another advantage is that the lamp remembers settings. When you adjust the brightness or color temperature, the lamp will retain these settings when you turn off the device. A small side note is that the lamp does not have the correct holes for direct mounting on a central box.
LSC Smart Connect smart filament LED lamp
price
€ 7.95, € 8.95 and € 9.95
    9 Score 90 
- Pros
- Nice warm color
- Large assortment
- Economical
- Negatives
- Not every lamp changes with it
LSC Smart Connect smart multicolor LED lamp
price
€ 7.95
    10 Score 100 
- Pros
- Color range
- Setting themes
- Negatives
- No
LSC Smart Connect smart multicolor LED strip
price
€ 19.95
    10 Score 100
- Pros
- price
- Length
- Themes and scenarios
- Negatives
- No
Ceiling light
price
€ 16.95
    8 Score 80
- Pros
- Saves settings
- Warm color temperature
- Negatives
- Holes do not fit
Tuya platform
Many smart products that we know, certainly lighting, work through a bridge or a hub. Via this bridge you connect the smart products to your home network and internet connection. The tested Action products work directly on a WiFi connection (2.4 GHz). However, this does affect the reliability of the products. A bridge is capable of storing settings such as time schedules locally. If the internet connection fails or is temporarily interrupted, the bridge will still remember all the rules that you have set. For example, have you set that you want the lights in the living room to be on every evening around 6:00 pm? Then this will continue to happen even though the connection is broken. Since the Action products work on Wi-Fi in combination with relatively simple chips, your pre-set rules will also disappear if the connection fails.
The accompanying app and the (software on the) WiFi microcontroller in the smart products was developed by Tuya. This is a Chinese cloud platform for smarthome products. Other manufacturers also use Tuya technology. For example, you can use the HiHome Smart or Woox home apps for operation. All these apps have a different name and logo, but are made on the same architecture and work the same. After a firmware upgrade, Tuya uses encryption for all traffic between devices, app and the underlying cloud service.
Conclusion
One thing is certain: the price could easily have been stated as a plus for each product. Action offers extremely cheap options and a fairly complete package. The door sensor, siren and remote control work well with the lamps. The motion sensor leaves a lot to be desired. The lamps perform very well and the LED strip is definitely recommended in terms of price-quality ratio. In addition, it is possible to integrate these cheaper products via IFTTT with other smart devices that you already have. They can also be controlled with your voice via Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
The app offers enough options to change color, brightness and other settings. For a perfect adjustment, however, you will have to create your own scenarios or find extra functionality in apps such as IFTTT.
Anyway, thanks to the low price, LSC Smart Connect is an excellent set to discover what is possible with a smart house. Even if you only buy a light bulb, you can’t really bump into it. The LSC Smart Connect products from Action can in any case not be treated as waste.
