I am exploring this area right now as well and looking for some good options. There is lot of US-based recommendations, a lot of them not available in the UK, so would be keen to hear about your experience.
I love my inovelli light strip. Pricy, but worth it. It has buttons on it so you can program them as scene controllers too. It in my sons room, and have it set when he pushed the up button 3x it makes his light strip and hue bulbs turn red and blue. He uses it when his sisters come in the room.
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Im a big fan of these LED strips, really great quality light that does make a difference to the feel of the room compared to cheapo ones. I have some RGB strip aswell, but actually installed this in addition and now always use this instead (perhaps I'll use RGB once we're allowed to have a party again).
I combined them with an H801 which works super well and a standard 12V power supply which can be ordered from amazon or wherever quite easily. The only good off-the-shelf ones that Ive found in the UK are Hue strips, but again you pay a premium for them! (though it does take away hassle/setup faff, if you want an off-the-shelf product).
@cjcharles -- these look great! I am a bit overwhelmed about how all the other bits (controllers, power adapters, etc.) fit together to provide the overall solution. Could you share a couple of links to the controllers / power adapters that you are using with them? I swear it's not my laziness, just not wanting to get stuff that is not compatible with each other...
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Can you say a bit more about your use case?
What length of strip do you want and for where? Is it just the one strip? Do you care about colour? Or how about colour temperature (e.g. changing between warm and cool white)?
(mainly because I'd probably recommend an off the shelf option for a shorter strip, or one where you want full colour aswell)
This is a link to the H801 controller, though would need reflashing with a different firmware to integrate locally (easy to do, but its an extra step, and maybe not worth it if you just want one) - H801 RGBW WiFi LED Controller for RGBW led Strip Light tape DC5 24V input;4CH*4A output|RGB Controlers| - AliExpress
Probably a couple of strips -- one for underneath the side of my bed, so a couple of meters, one for kitchen counters so another couple of meters but higher up.
White only. Colour temp is a nice addition but not a requirement.
Yes, this controller appears to be WiFi, so I'm assuming that's what you are referring to -- the need to 'reprogram WiFi to Zigbee'..?
The H801 comes with firmware that is closed source and Chinese written so I inherently don't trust it... Reprogramming it just means it runs different (open source) software (I even partially wrote some of it), but still sends/receives messages with Hubitat via WiFi. This is an option with higher customisation, but more complexity as a result. There is a huge thread about it on the ST forums here and covers the flashing process - Or here for Hubitat setup
Roughly roughly:
2x 2m Philips Hue strip = £140
(RGBWW and likely easy setup - not sure if you would need a hub though)
OR
5m Warm/Cool/Daylight/... white LED strip (link above) = £25
2x 12v 60W power supplies = £18
2x H801 controllers = £14
1x FTDI to reprogram the H801 = £2
(this would just be a single colour white, and more DIYing, but might be fun and would be a nice LED colour, less than half the price)
Or some IKEA Trdifi (or something like that) strips - would work out somewhere in the middle pricewise (probably still a single colour, slightly less customisable but easier setup than with H801s)
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@cjcharles -- this is a brilliant comparison and neatly shows the trade-offs between price and convenience. I will need to give it a bit more thought and decide if I have the energy to go the DYI route. Thanks again!
