I’m looking for some advice for a LED setup for my wife’s library build.
I’ve used Sengled LED strip lights in the past, but I just had a lot of frustration. I purchased the 16’ lengths and connected two together (says you can connect up to 32’), but I needed 34.5’ and thought it would be fine. Somewhere along the way something burnt out. Also, the 16’ length and the 3’ lengths came with different color variations which was super frustrating so I went down a rabbit hole in hopes to replace this.
Given my current project I’m looking for a bit more flexibility. After this extremely helpful post and a lot of great feedback from @vitaliy_kh on there, I’m looking at using Hubitat’s integration with Pixelblaze along with COB addressable LEDs.
They’re 896 LEDs per meter, I need 17.25 ft (≈ 5.26m) so total LEDs per run = 5.26m × 896 LEDs = ~4715 LEDs per strip. I believe Pixelblaze can handle only 2,500 LEDs (for WS2814 LEDs). I’m almost double past the max on one run alone.
Then for the power supply I was looking at DC24V 20amp to handle these four runs.
So am I heading in the right direction or can someone else recommend a different setup?
I'm a bit confused why I'm having so much trouble trying to find a solution due to the length of runs. Appreciate any advice!
WOW!!! The most I have ever seen readily available is 90 LEDs/m
If you want more flexibility, I would break the data line away from power and run it like this as one long run instead of 4 parallel ones. In the parallel setup, all rows will have to run the same color and/or effect.
Ah that's interesting and good to know! Yes, I would want to be able to configure each row independently.
Here were the Sengled Lights. They were just different colors (2 controllers, 1 for 2 runs), but they looked really bad. This is also before I installed the face frame.
I liked the fact COB gives it a much smoother diffused light and gives me greater ability to get the exact length I need. But open to recommendations too!
This is exactly my final choice for the LED Strip Lighting
Ideally you will need an IO Expander from Electromage:
DO NOT EVEN TRY TO RUN SIGNAL LINES IN PARALLEL!
This will be nothing more but troubles.
For that long run (32ft) and for full LED Brightness you definitely will need a multiple point Power Injection (at the beginning, at the end and at least one in the middle). This means you will need to run at least 18 gage wire in parallel to the strips. But you your plan to limit Brightness to 40-50% you could be OK without Power Injection.
Just to clarify, I won't be running a 32ft run (that was my first attempt). Below was my next thought powering each of the (4) 17.25' runs at 24v with a power supply that can handle the lights (400 or 450wt would give me 20%+ cushion).
To you and Stephen_nutt's advice, I'll need to run the data line in series though. If this is the intended setup, would an Output Expander still be necessary? Sorry not too familiar with that device. Thanks
OK, for the 17.25ft runs @24V you should be fine without power injection points.
Well, you can run all strips in series but they must be connected in zigzag. I still recommend you to use the IO Expander. This way the setup will be much cleaner electrically but what is more important, you will not loos lighting behind potentially dead led (this unfortunately happens). If say, third pixel will die you will have only 2 working leds in the entire setup. With IO Expander you will have 4 individual segments and failed pixel will kill only portion of one segment.
Ah I see your point and will incorporate the IO Expander too. Just ordered it! I had planned to have two access panels, one on each side of the library cases, just in case, but rather only have one that I would need access to for simplisticity. Thanks again for all your help!
