I recently encountered an issue with my Aqara lighting setup where the lights would turn on and off sequentially, creating an annoying visual delay often referred to as the ‘popcorn effect.’ After some research and experimentation, I found a solution that completely eliminated this issue. Here’s how I did it:
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Group Your Lights in the Aqara App: I started by grouping all the bulbs I wanted to control together in the Aqara app. This allowed me to test the group and ensure all lights responded instantly.
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Create Scenes in Aqara: I created two scenes—one to turn the grouped lights on and another to turn them off. These scenes were set to control the group as a whole, not individual bulbs.
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Sync Scenes via Matter: I synced these scenes through the Matter integration, making them available in Home Assistant. This step was crucial as it allowed Home Assistant to send a single command to the entire group.
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Set Up a Template Light in Home Assistant: To make the group easier to control, I created a template light entity in Home Assistant. This entity acts as a switch, calling the appropriate Aqara scene when toggled.
The result? Perfectly synchronized lighting with no visible delay. This solution has transformed my lighting setup, making it much more enjoyable and reliable. I highly recommend this approach to anyone experiencing the popcorn effect with their Aqara lights.