I personally can not justify spending $60 on a LED 5’ strip as most of my displays require at least 15’ per implementation. SO while randomly hunting around the internet on how to use Individually addressable LEDs I found this cool project that I am about to venture down as soon as my Banggood strips come in.
https://github.com/mariusmotea/diyHue?files=1
There is a possibility to create very low cost HuE replicated LED strips using WS2812B.
Thoughts?
This guy:
Paired with whatever LED light strip you want. I have two of them connected right to hue. The RGB and the white connect as two separate bulbs. Which I've found has been a bonus. As an example I used an RGB strip around the back of my china cabinet and a separate white strip inside under each shelf. For $33 plus the light strip of your choosing i think it's pretty reasonable.
Yeah but that doesn't even come close to doing what a HUE strip can do. Meaning being able to control multiple colors simultaneously on the same strip. Example is a rainbow effect. But are you using this Pi add to do this?
This works just like a regular hue strip (which is what I Thought you were trying to replace). The difference is that it links to the HUE hub as a separate white light bulb and another RGB light bulb. You can then use a whole host of LED strips found on amazon or the internet.
You are aware that the Hue LightStrip and LightStrip Plus don't have individually addressable LEDs, right? The entire strip, plus any extensions, must be set to one color (or shade of white with Plus).
You can find them on sale quite often (they're going down to $60 from $90 for Black Friday, for example), and with the cost of a controller plus other LED strip, if you don't need long lengths, I don't think it's that bad of a deal for something you'll know will work well on the Hue ZigBee network and match other Hue devices. But if you don't have a Hue network and price is important, the DIY route may be more cost effective if you find cheap enough strips that work well for you. For off-the-shelf solutions, Osram/Lightify also has LED strips that tend to be cheaper than Hue and can be paired directly to Hubitat, though again you'll need a couple extensions to get the length you want.
It isn’t just about price. It is about control. Here is another video which may make more sense of what I am talking about.
I have a bunch of WS2812B strips around the house. Right now I am running McLighting on the Wemos D1 minis that run them. I am controlling from HE using HTTP calls from RM or webCoRE but it is a real PITA. Would be much easier if I was able to control them direct from HE. I will definitely take a look at this! Thanks!
Holy crap, it worked!!! Super easy to setup and pair and got a strip up and working in under an hour, from start to finish! This is great. I do like some of the animations that are available in the McLighting package though, so I might keep some of them through that. But I will definitely use this for some others. Thanks for sharing!
Would this work with the H801? I have a spare now...
I don’t think so as it is tied to an Arduino. The light is what matters. Then just use a WeMo D1 mini to control it like a hue bulb or strip.
Ryan,
I am so happy that you’ve finally got some Neopixels working! Sincerely, as I know you’ve been after a solution like this for a long time. Congratulations!
Thanks Dan. I'm always dubious about new projects too. When it all worked the first time I almost didn't believe it.
This isn’t really a cheaper or easier solution... but, I installed these in my great room: Sowilo DS Bifrost
I have 6 two meter lengths all wired to a single 150 watt power supply and a pair of amplifiers. I took a hue strip and cut the control module off and wired in to control everything. I now have about 20,000 lumens of any color I want directed at my ceiling. It’s then connected to my hue hub, and from there to Hubitat.
The Sowilo guy was super helpful getting it all setup. Way more powerful and configurable than the hue strips.
Interesting! I've never seen those. I've got about 12 of these.
I need a few more, and will have check them out. Thank you for the link!
I really like the CRI on those
Those might work with some code changes. Since they are not RGB but look to be individual accessible you may just ha e to modify the color spectrum supported.
I’m still waiting on my 5 channel Zigbee controller; magichome will have to work until then 
These Sowilo Bifrost look like nice quality CRI strips and he is pretty local to my location here. Hard to tell from pics on site and no reply to my email yet, assuming these can be cut and connected just not seeing cut lines in his store pics.
Also they seem to base running them off a hue controller cutting off stock LED strip, I assume could run them on a 3rd party controller like his perhaps
They can be cut for sure. To reconnect after cutting you’d have to do some soldering.
I used a hue light strip controller I had, which works great and is super reliable, but I don’t see any reason that you couldn’t use a different rbgw controller. I got the amplifiers from the sowilo guys.
ok thx, they are 15mm wide the bifrost strips? guess I either need a soldering gun or find solderless 6 pin connectors.
Want to run bias lighting in diffusers on back of tv with 90 connectors at corners. Can find plenty of 2 - 5 pin connectors 4mm - 12mm but 6 pin 15mm solderless clip connectors seem to not exist.
I would prefer the ease of solderless 90 corners if anyone know a source for 6pin 15mm connector kits.
not sure about 90 degree corners. I used two 3 wire connectors which works fine.
Download the Hubitat app
