Rithum Switch Smart Home Control Panel review

Key options

• Set up: A number of energy choices, however gentle swap with impartial current is greatest setup.
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi.
• Integrations: Philips Hue, Sonos, Tado, Homey, Lutron, BlueOS, Fibaro, Rako, Hdanywhere.

(Picture credit score: The Ambient)

The Rithum Change Sensible House Management Panel is basically a touchscreen management panel, designed to provide the kind of high-end expertise you’d get with the likes of Control4 or Crestron, at a a lot smaller price-tag – it’s £249 within the UK.

Designed primarily to suit the place an present dumb gentle swap sits, as per the likes of Good or Sonoff’s NSPanel Professional, the thought is to provide you a number of lighting, sound and heating choices the place a easy on/off gentle swap as soon as sat.

I initially posted this evaluate again in August 2023 after I had the Rithum Change put in for just a few weeks.

Nonetheless, the fellows at Rithum – a British firm – have made just a few tweaks to the system previously few months and have truly addressed just a few factors that I raised in my preliminary verdict.

So, learn on for my full Rithum Change evaluate to search out out why it now boasts our coveted Really helpful badge.

Design and set up

• Ideally suited to a lightwitch with a impartial wire current
• A number of various set up choices additionally doable

Primarily, as talked about within the intro, the very best place to put in the Rithum Change is the place you’ve presently received a standard gentle swap.

That’s as a result of the dimensions, form and construct is the precise design wanted to fit into an everyday UK/EU again field; UK sq. (71mm) and EU spherical (68mm) again bins to be particular.

Issues do get a tiny bit complicated relying on how your lighting circuits are wired. In older homes you’ll in all probability discover a impartial on the swap, which is sweet as a result of the Rithum Change wants a impartial to energy it; you possibly can’t simply run your common dwell/swap dwell gentle energy via it and hope for the very best.

In newer builds, and in homes the place the electrics have been up to date, you’re going to be fortunate to discover a impartial on the swap as they’re usually discovered on the gentle fittings themselves.

Or, you might have switches that management a number of lights and also you’ll discover a great deal of wires behind the plate and also you’ll be in a world of confusion.

Worry not although, as a result of Rithum has guides on all matter of sunshine swap and electrical setups and also you’re sure to search out one which works for you, albeit with a little bit of tinkering along with your present wires; there’s even choices to energy utilizing PoE or a DC adapter.

For me, the best route, was to easily wire my Change into an everyday plug socket, utilizing an outdated cable I discovered within the storage. I may merely depart my single gentle swap wired completely ‘on’ utilizing a connector block, because it’s a Hue bulb that may be powered down in quite a few different methods than a bodily swap.

This isn’t actually a standard setup in any respect, nevertheless it did the job, and was tremendous simple because the wall I had the Change put in on backs onto a storage cabinet in my backyard workplace, so I wasn’t too involved with maintaining it neat and tidy behind.

Forgive the dodgy paintwork across the Change within the image, I’ve had quite a few sensible switches put in within the sport I examined the Rithum over time.

The Rithum Change set up course of, when you’ve selected an influence possibility, could be very simple; the gadget itself simply pops off of that silver again plate – which will get screwed into an everyday again field – and also you simply clip it again on. It’s a 5-minute job at most.

As soon as it’s powered on, and in contrast to what you’d anticipate from an Android pill or a sensible TV – or principally something with a show these days, you aren’t introduced with a setup display. The Rithum emblem comes up because it boots after which you might be simply introduced with this:

A number of random faucets later and I did discover my approach to the settings display (it’s by way of that little notch up prime) and was in a position to scan for Wi-Fi networks (2.4GHz solely) and enter my dwelling community’s password to rise up and operating.

The subsequent factor to do is to set your location, by way of your postcode, in order you get the native time and climate information introduced in that notch.

When you’ve sorted your Wi-Fi and site out, the subsequent factor to do is to setup your integrations…

Options

• Sonos and Hue work out of the field
• Different integrations are further value
• System is predicated round scene management

The factor to get your head round with the Rithum Change is it’s not a light-weight swap, nor an app, it’s primarily a scenes controller and depends on you having your scenes and teams already setup and streamlined in no matter integrations you propose on utilizing, whether or not that be Hue, Sonos or the rest.

It’s Sonos and Hue that work natively with the Rithum Change and you’ll be able to add in your programs after only a few faucets via the setup menus.

Philips Hue is a little more clunky than Sonos, as a Hue Bridge is recognized as an IP tackle, reasonably than simply saying ‘Hue Bridge’, and also you additionally must faucet your Bridge’s centre button to verify entry, however that’s about as complicated because it will get.

As soon as synced, you’ll see your whole Hue rooms, zones and scenes out there to decide on inside the Scenes menu.

Once I first examined the Rithum Change in the summertime of 2023, there was no means of controlling particular person Hue lights – both a fundamental on/off or color management or dimming. It was restricted to scenes, rooms and zones solely.

Nonetheless, extra granular controls have been added to the combination, due to the brand new Ranges function, which is now dwell.

This allows you to, utilizing the icon on the appropriate of the display, hearth up new display the place you possibly can select to change the on/off standing and the brightness of particular person lights inside a room.

In my workplace, the place I’ve the Rithum put in, I’ve quite a few Hue bulbs and I can now management them extra granularly. By default, it presents the room as entire, however when you faucet the little orange arrow, you’ll be introduced with all the particular person lights (and this view appears to stay, so that you don’t must do it each time.)

Sonos management is similar to what you get with Control4 and works properly on the entire. When it comes to scenes, initially there have been 4 pre-set scenes, of which I’d say none are all that helpful. I don’t suppose I’ll ever want to manage each single Sonos speaker I’ve received in a single hit, from a person room in my home.

That’s partly as a result of, though it clearly is smart to manage scenes within the room during which the Change is put in, you aren’t restricted to only controlling that room. The Rithum Change doesn’t know the place it’s put in, it simply is aware of it’s a part of your community, so it may discover and management and Sonos speaker or Hue gentle in your house.

A brand new replace since I initially examined the Rithum Change although is a few new Sonos controls, together with the power to play your Sonos Favourites in rooms or zones you identify, corresponding to this scene I created the place 6 Music performs on my workplace audio system:

For controlling your Sonos system you merely use the media button – the little notch that comes up on the backside of the homescreen and appears like a Hello-Fi equaliser.

When you faucet this, you bounce into a pleasant display whereby you possibly can scroll via all of your Sonos Favourites, create teams, ungroup audio system and the like.

(Picture credit score: The Ambient)

You possibly can select a most of 8 scenes and you may change the textual content and icon dimension of those within the settings menu.

You possibly can create single scenes or group scenes, with the thought being with the latter you could mix a number of scenes collectively that simply require one faucet to provoke; suppose turning on some lights to a dimmed setting and beginning your music with only one faucet.

(Picture credit score: The Ambient)

When the Change wakes up from standby, with a fast faucet, it’s the ‘Scenes Display screen’ you might be introduced with and that actually is the last word function of the Rithum Change – to provide you fast entry to manage units and alter their behaviours with out having to open up separate apps.

Nonetheless, it could be good – as talked about – to have particular person gentle management, for instance to create an much more bespoke controller.

The brand new Ranges possibility does imply although, that this particular person gentle management is just one faucet away although, however it could be good to pin a particular gentle to the homescreen.

What you are able to do although, on a room stage at the very least, is toggle lights on and off utilizing the standby gesture function. With out waking the display, you’ll be able to faucet and maintain the show – earlier than it wakes – to toggle the lights.

You may also use the gesture options for a double faucet; I presently have it set to renew music playback on a particular Sonos speaker from the place it left off.

For those who do wish to take issues additional and add much more scenes and automations into the combination then a Homey Professional is the way in which to go.

For those who’re unaware, then the Homey Professional is a really highly effective, multi-skilled sensible dwelling hub that works with an absolute plethora of sensible dwelling units and types.

Due to this fact, you get tremendous detailed creating Homey automations (they name them ‘Flows’) and have these because the presets in your Rithum Change scenes.

At practically £600 for the 2 units mixed, plus £20 for the combination plugin, that’s a little bit of a wallet-bash, for certain – nevertheless it’s nonetheless a fraction of what you’d pay for related controls with the likes of Control4.

Again to what the Rithum can do natively and, at a £20 value, you can too add a Tado sensible heating system to the combination too.

This works rather well, with the little thermometer icon on the left hand dimension pinging open an easy-to-use digital thermostat. You possibly can toggle between Tado rooms and zone utilizing the notch within the prime left nook.

(Picture credit score: The Ambient)

You possibly can set the heating by sliding the digital dial and you can too resume your preset Tado schedule utilizing the button within the prime proper nook.

There may be truly a temperature sensor constructed into the Change itself (on the backside) which powers the Rithum Stat function.

That is fairly a nifty means, if you happen to’ve received a lighting relay already in place along with your boiler, of including an additional sensible thermostat to your property; merely pair it with a Zigbee relay from the likes of Shelly, Fibaro, Hue or Luton.

The Change additionally presents a few neat gesture controls: maintain for a sure gentle scene or double faucet to resumer music playback, that are helpful for the actions you’d use probably the most within the room the place you could have your Change put in.

There’s a proximity sensor up prime of the Change, which I believed would convey it to life when it was on standby and I walked previous (or waved at it) however that wasn’t the case.

Further plugins for the likes of Lutron, BlueOS, Fibaro, Rako and Hdanywhere are all out there; you’ll want to speak to your common pro-installer or vendor to get these up and operating.

In on a regular basis use

I’ll begin with the positives and the general expertise with the Change, when you’ve received your self across the scenes-only setup, is fairly good.

Audio management is nice, when you get your Sonos favourites sorted inside the S2 app and the Tado integration is seamless.

However whereas the Rithum Change works properly, the general navigation and wording used for the menus and settings is a bit sophisticated.

(Picture credit score: The Ambient)

I’ve received a Control4 system put in in my home and I discovered massive comparisons between the person interface on the Rithum Change and a Control4 touchscreen… and it’s not an excellent comparability; Control4 annoys the heck out of me too.

It’s simply not as apparent and person pleasant because it actually ought to be. I’m a large sensible dwelling nerd and I’ve spent years testing varied sensible dwelling ecosystems, apps and controllers and if it’s not apparent to me the right way to do one thing then it’s going to be close to inconceivable for a ‘common’ person.

Touchscreen controllers and the UI they current must be tremendous intuitive, and that is simply isn’t in the mean time.

The group behind Rithum boast that there isn’t any further app and no browser interface. And whereas that’s a great factor for streamlining the method and making the product as standalone as doable, I do truly suppose a extra detailed smartphone companion app would enhance the settings aspect an excellent deal.

Ultimate ideas

Again once I reviewed the Change in August I stated that, finally, as a lot as I’d wish to because it’s a swanky trying piece of equipment, I couldn’t extremely advocate the Rithum Change in its then present state.

I discussed that it nonetheless feels considerably like a piece in progress and lamented that, whereas some options work rather well, all the things felt a bit restricted, and also you’d must faucet into one thing just like the Homey Professional to essentially make use of its scenes-first strategy.

I concluded that primarily, it was practically there.

Quick ahead six months or so and is it there now then? I’d say sure.

It’s not good nonetheless and it’s nonetheless too expensive for fanatic to take a punt on, as you possibly can tinker round with one thing just like the NSPanel Professional for the same expertise, at a fraction of the value.

However the enhancements with ranges, Sonos Favourites and the group scenes have elevated the Rithum Change to a brand new stage.

However, greater than that, the dedication from the model to make these enhancements show that the Change is a worthwhile funding and I get the sensation that the gadget will go from energy to energy and the neighborhood expands.

I Iook ahead to testing out any new options and integrations as they drop, however for now I’m completely happy to bump up my authentic rating and provides the Rithum Change my suggestion.

How we check

Once we publish our opinions, you possibly can relaxation assured that they’re the results of “residing with” long run assessments.

Sensible switches often dwell inside an ecosystem, or a spread of merchandise that – supposedly – all work in concord. Due to this fact, it’s inconceivable to make use of a tool for every week and ship a verdict.

As a result of we’re testing sensible dwelling equipment all day, on a regular basis, we all know what issues and the way a selected gadget compares to alternate options that you may also be contemplating.

Our opinions are complete, goal and honest and, in fact, we’re by no means paid on to evaluate a tool.

Learn our full information on How We Take a look at to search out out extra.

FAQS

Do you want a impartial wire for the Rithum Change?

No, there are workarounds and tweaks if you happen to don’t have a impartial wire at your gentle swap.

Does the Rithum Change have Zigbee?

No, it’s Wi-Fi solely – if you need one thing related that additionally has a Zigbee controller then try the NSPanel Professional from Sonoff.

Does the Rithum Change have Alexa or Google Assistant?

There’s presently no voice assistant integrations for the Rithum Change.

Full product title: Specs