Hasta La Gadget!

Just like how one cannot put a good man down, so too, is it difficult to ensure that a device or product that resonates well with the market be kept under wraps for long. It seems that the LuMini is back, and boy, is it ready to rock and roll! TABU Products first introduced the LuMini as a small, colorful and affordable Bluetooth bulb, over on the crowdfunding site known as Kickstarter in February. The LuMini happens to be an LED RGB (Red, Blue and Green) bulb which makes it perfect for mood lighting purposes, being 50% smaller compared to traditional LED bulbs with the ability to fit into most lamps.

In the Kickstarter campaign, it did help TABU Products figure out just what backers wanted exactly, and they decided to make sure that the project is revamped and re-launch the campaign. The first project saw TABU offer a quartet of socket sizes, and it was discovered that most of the Kickstarter pledges that came in happen to concentrate on two types of sockets, the E26 and E27, which tend to be used as standard bulbs in the US and Europe. Through the removal of the least popular two, which are the E12 and E14, TABU managed to reduce their production cost by 50%, which then enabled the company to lower the goal from the $50,000 to $25,000, where pledges will begin at $25.

Tabu will also offer stretch goals for the E12 and E14, just in case there happens to have any demand, so that they will be ready to produce these, too. Using the funds that were raised from the Kickstarter campaign, Tabu will then complete the firmware design and production molding as well as increase Android device compatibility. The LuMini will play nice with all smartphones that rely on Bluetooth Smart. The estimated project delivery date has been set to May this year, which ain’t that far off actually.

Press Release
[ LuMini set to make a smashing return with revised goals copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

A new Kickstarter project debuting today offers a lower barrier of entry to those interested in testing the smart lighting waters. At just $25 for an entry-level pre-order of a single unit, the LuMini is the cheapest way to get started with a smart home lighting system, albeit with some trade-offs compared to category leaders like the Philips Hue.

The LuMini comes from TABU Design, a Hong Kong shop that makes the Lumen Bluetooth smart bulb. The full-size Lumen is fairly large, though, and has a 40-watt equivalent output all for $69. The LuMini has the lower retail cost, but it’s also less powerful: TABU Design says it’s ideal for a “night lamp,” but doesn’t specify how many lumens it actually outputs. It uses 3 watts, compared to 7 watts for the standard-sized Lumen, so you can expect it to be probably around half as bright.

With a companion app, you can control the light color, brightness and scheduling, but the difference from most other connected lighting systems with the LuMini is the Bluetooth connectivity: It uses the low-power standard introduced in Bluetooth 4.0 to connect, which greatly simplifies the connection and setup process, but which also has some disadvantages in terms of range (20 ft. maximum) and the ability to remotely connect to your lighting system, which allows you to control bulbs like the Hue from anywhere with connectivity.

The BLE approach still allows for things like proximity activation, however, and it can even be set to trigger light-based notifications for incoming calls. The real innovation here is on price, however, since this is a long-lived LED bulb (rated at 30,000 hours) that will retail for around $30. Also, it’s a very small bulb, whereas others like the LIFX smartbulb have been criticized for their larger-than-normal size.

The TABU Design team hopes to ship the LuMini in April this year, which isn’t that much of a stretch when you consider that they’re already actively shipping the original Lumen, which is sold via its website and through Amazon. The project is seeking $50,000 in 30 days, and hopefully it gets there, because what this market really needs is more price pressure to drive mass market adoption.