Hey guys, Andrew Esquivel here back with another review and today I'm going to be reviewing
a garden laser light with Christmas displays courtesy of a company called 1byOne.
Now right off the bat I just want to apologize for a review I just did of this a few hours
ago and I just want to point out that there were some really, really untimely coincidences
during some parts of the test that led me to believe that there was an issue with the
device and there is not.
I want to redo the review properly.
Let's dive on into it.
First off we've got the device itself.
Before we delve into the device I still have some things that I'd like to point out.
Being that this is an outdoor and indoor device there are certain things about it that you
should take into account and these things are clearly detailed in the cautions and warnings
section which is actually relatively extensive compared to most devices.
Now this device does not have a grounding wire built into it.
That was actually one of the things in the previous version that kind of caught me off
guard.
Normally a lot of my outdoor electronic devices have a grounding wire by default this doesn't
have that but it doesn't really pull all that much power and it is made of plastic on the
outside and the inside, I can't imagine would be an issue for possibly pulling any electrical
strikes from the clouds towards it.
There probably actually isn't even a need for a grounding wire on this its most likely
got proper insulation on the inside so what would happen is if there was a serious malfunction
the device would just burn up and it would just be dead like any other electronic that
gets exposed to water.
That being said the construction here is actually designed to encase the electronics.
I'm assuming around here is probably a gasket of some sort that gets screwed in to keep
it all nice and tidy because as I said before it's designed to be outdoors during the holiday
season so that means it could be subjected to snow or rain depending on which part of
the country you live in.
And on the back here you'll see even the wire is got a nice little gasket seal right here
going on to it and one thing I will give them credit for is the gauge of the wire is pretty
hefty so that's 1 plus about it that I do like about the wire.
Moving on, as you'll notice there's two lasers right here it's because this has two different
projections one involves green Christmas trees the other is kind of like a red starry laser
show I guess you would say.
Over here we have a photosensitive light detector, so in other words it will detect when the
sun is out and about and will turn itself off if you have it set to that mode and when
the sun goes down it can turn itself back on.
Or if that doesn't tickle your fancy there is a mode that you can use to go on a timer
basis where according to the instruction booklet, it will stay on for 6 hours in the dark and
then 18 hours during the daytime provided you time it properly or you can just do a
manual override and just have it on all the time.
Each option overrides the other two options so if you want the ambient light sensor to
take control it'll override the manual and the timer function and vice versa for all
the other options.
Now, let's talk really quick about the plastic construction here.
The plastic construction is just moderately thick plastic for the main components.
Down here this is a mounting bracket so you can have this on any flat surface and you
can screw it into a wooden surface if you so choose.
The plastic down here is not what I would consider equivalent grade plastic to up here.
That being said it also comes with a spike that you would stick in the ground instructions
do tell you not to use a mallet of any sort to stick it in the ground so basically if
it's going in an area and it's too hard to push in with your own hand don't force it
because you may end up breaking it.
Now there is one gripe about this system that I feel is worth pointing out is, yes, the
system like this makes it very easy to be festive for those of us who don't want to
take the time to put up a ton of lights and whatnot and it's great for the purpose of
the person who purchases it, buys it and sets it up, but these are also notoriously easy
to unplug and just steal.
Now, from what I'm told there are other manufacturers out there that have devised mechanisms that
make it more difficult to steal but as you can see this just pops right off there's nothing
that really keeps it in place other than a little bit of friction and gravity and it
would have been nice to see some sort of mechanism that would at least try and make it a little
more difficult for thieves, but, at the end of the day a thief is going to do what a thief
is going to do.
Now, the cord itself is another thing i want to talk to you about really quickly.
If this is going to be used outdoors I'll just tell you right away this cord is nowhere
near long enough to be useful.
It's only 11 feet and it doesn't give you a lot of distance realistically to place this
in a potentially good spot.
If you're planning on using this outside invest in an outdoor extension cord and you might
as well try to look for those plastics that go over the end connections in order to waterproof
the connection as best you can.
Now that we've gone over the construction and the basics of the device let's plug it
up and see what it looks like.
For this part of the test we're going to keep it inside of the house because it will be
easier to show you how the function button works while inside of here compared to outside
where it's a little dark and there’s mosquitoes everywhere.
First off let's dim the lights.
Now that we have the lights turned off we're going to go over how to work the device.
There is only one button in the back here and pressing and holding it does one thing
pressing in multiple times cycles through some other stuff and we're going to go over
that now explain what I'm doing with my hand as we go along.
First off I have it manually turned off I'm going to turn it on manually again, I press
the button once and this is the general pattern that we start with.
It's got a Christmas trees red laser lights and they spin around.
If I press the button in once really quick, it holds the pattern that it's currently at.
If I press it again, it should do a blinking system.
Now, the blanks are well, not all that great ,there are times relatively decently if you're
trying to attract people to your store maybe it's not fast enough but if it's just recreational
I can imagine it being okay.
Now you'll notice they don't sync perfectly with each other that could be a little annoying
depending on how OCD you are about that sort of thing but let's go ahead and press the
button again.
Now it brings us to a continuous motion with just the red lasers and if I press the button
again, it stops the lasers at the position in which you wanted it and I press the button
one more time and you guessed it, it will blink the red lasers in the position in which
you stopped it that.
Let's press the button one more time.
Now we have the green Christmas trees and I’m sure you can see this in the center
there is the focus light and it's got some sort of refracting kind of system that repeats
the pattern outwards and then some sort of spinning cylindrical system on that refracting
system to make it kind of spin around but they always stand upright that's true for
the lasers as well for the red portion.
As you can see it’s just the trees and as you can imagine we press the button again
it stops it in place, press the button one more time and then it goes through the blinking
motions.
Let's press the button once again and we get brought back to the original system which
is what I personally think has got to be the best out of all of them but, hey whatever
tickles your fancy.
But this last mode I believe this is the last mode or the last mode set where it will actually
alter through all the different modes automatically.
So it will continuously change through as many different options as the device has.
We can sit here and continue to watch it do what it does but I think that the point it
just cycles through it does the everything spinning and then stopped and then blinking
for each set.
Let's press the button again and as we have the last button again, that brings us back
to the normal function where it's just this one system all going at the same time where
it’s the trees, the lasers in the spinning affect all at once just continuously no variations,
no alterations etc it's just the standard thing.
Like I said I like this one the best so total that's about 10 different options; there's
three sets for each color and then there's one last one for the ability to cycle through
them all.
That's what it looks like in doors will give it a shot outdoors and see how it looks on
the side of the house.
Alright, it's currently a little damp outside because it did rain relatively recently.
This is the little spike that comes with the device they just kind of pushing the ground,
it doesn't recommend using a mallet or anything.
Makes me think the plastic is probable too fragile to use a mallet to get in there but
if we take a look this is how it looks on the outside.
As you can see you know the further away from the center, the less bright the device is.
It looks nice.
Now then one-by-one did state that in the instruction booklet that the device is capable
of handling itself in a situation where it is raining outside, this being an outdoor
device you would imagine that it would have to put up with the elements anyway.
Now then, there is an exception to this rule that I just want to state for documentation
purposes, it did say never to submerge the device in water, not sure why you would but
just stating it for the record.
Now what better way to test the device than during an actual rainstorm here in Illinois?
As you can see we've actually got somewhat sideways rain going on and we may even have
a tornado coming about.
So, this should be an interesting test.
As you can see it's raining really hard, let’s try to see if the device will work, manually.
So, pressing the button we do not get anything on the wall.
Alright now it is time for me to give my final thoughts on the product but before I do I
want to explain what you just saw in the little segment of this device outside while it was
not functioning.
This is actually with the issue that I was going over in the original review that I had
removed because I wanted to make sure that I get the correct information for you guys.
It was a really unfortunate timing events, you see the wall outlet that I had been using
to power this device outside was being used for several days and I had had no issues with
that wall outlet.
Now, after a few days it started to rain that's where I started to record because, hey, it's
a great way to test the device while being subjected to the elements of the weather.
Now, it just so happened that when I went out there to check on it the device no longer
was working, which seemed awfully convenient that a device that's outside stopped working
when it was raining being an electric device.
I thought well something might be wrong and I wasn't sure if it was the product or if
it was the outlet.
We tested the outlet and the outlet wasn't producing any power, however, when we re-plug
this up to a different outlet the device continued to work again.
We got us thinking, “Well did this device somehow trip something in the electrical lines?”
Well long story short, no it didn't and it's not physically capable of doing so and I’ll
explain why in a minute.
You see there are power outlets in the house that have ground fault circuit interrupters.
now these are these little power outlets that you see with the red and black buttons and
it's kind of like a mini circuit breaker I guess you would say for more sensitive detection
of anomalies.
But the only way that the GFCI could be tripped is if it detected a current in the ground
line.
This does not have a ground line, therefore it could not have sent any electronic signal
through the GFCI and made it shut off.
Now, the GFCI would did indeed shut off but something else had caused it to shut off.
See the GFCI is responsible for several outlets throughout the house; not many but some.
And it just so happened that one of the devices that happened to be used around the same time
for whatever reason tripped off the interrupter right before I went to check on this thing.
With that being said the device still works, it was able to brave the elements and I just
wanted to clear that up.
However, I do want to point out that I do notice one little issue after being used in
the rain.
As you saw me cycling through the lights you'll notice that at some point during the blinking
section there is a lag time between the synchronicity of the green and red laser.
That issue has been exasperated ever since bringing it out of the rain and letting it
dry off.
It's not something that I think is going to really impact anything and I'm not going to
dork a star for it because I think that it might just be some sort of anomaly and I don't
think it's anything to be concerned about.
Like I was saying before in the beginning of the video if you feel right here you can
actually see it as a rubber gasket that keeps this completely enclosed and over here this
little thing that has the wire coming out of the back has a rubber gasket that encases
it as well so it is a completely encased products and I don't see anything on it that would
suggest that the plastic hardware has failed at allowing moisture to get in so as far as
i can tell everything's A-ok.
The construction of the device is decent.
I don't think this is a device that's going to last many, many years just based off of
the plastic construction, I could very well see something happening where projectile of
some sort penetrating the plastic or worse yet the glass right on front here causing
an issue that would prevent the device from working properly.
If you're in a warmer part of the country and you have a lawn to take care of just be
careful that your lawn mower doesn't accidentally spurred up some rocks and whatnot that may
hit the device if you decide to leave it out while tending to your lawn.Other than that,
it's a decent product.
The modes that you have, I mean there's really only a few good ones that I think are actually
work using but that's completely subjective you may have a use for having this static
display versus the dynamic display and maybe you like the blinking version.
I personally think the best one is the combination of everything and just keeping an ethic combo
of everything.
That being said thanks for watching guys don't forget to comment, rate, subscribe or show
your friends.
Check out my videos.
I've got plenty of them and I will see you next time.