Hi All
I'm quite new to the Home Automation community but been doing days of reading about LED RGBW strips and how to control and integrate them with HE. I've got myself a Shelly RGBW2 and use it to control the "mood lights" under my bed which is awesome!
But for our next project I'm going to need something a lot LONGER!
We are running LED perimeter up-lighting around 3 rooms.
The longest zone will be about a 32-35m run
Using 24V system as advised for long strips
The strip I'd like to use is 15W/m
Power consumption approx. 525W
I've run 6 core cable from each corner of each room back to a central location where I plan to install the controllers and power supplies. (lots of cables) This will mean I can split up the individual runs of LED strip into 5-10m lengths to avoid voltage drop dimming.
Ideally, there will be 3 zones (coloured yellow, blue and orange on pic) each with a controller and this is where I am stuck...
Please can people make a recommendation for a controller with the following:
Integration to HE (whatever connection protocol is best WiFi/Zigbee/ZWave)
Capable of handling 550W of LED's
NO flashing or major electrical/programming surgery to drivers to make them work - it needs to be off the shelf
Not essential but ideally would also respond to Alexa / Google home / Tuya etc
These are the products I've found that look like they may do the job:
GIDERWEL Smart ZigBee RGBWW LED Strip Controller Pros
[+] Off the shelf
[+] Others on HE verify it works
[+] Relatively cheap at £28 per unit Cons
[-] Only 360W so wouldnt be enough on its own
[-] May need the Hue Bridge to be used (can anyone confirm?)
HiLine Lighting Zigbee RGBW LED strip Controller Pros
[+] Off the shelf
[+] Powerful 480W but still not enough Cons
[-] Expensive at £50 per unit
[-] Cant find verifcation it integrates with HE (do you know?)
[-] Still 480W so wouldnt be enough on its own
[-] May need the Hue Bridge to be used (can anyone confirm?)
Any Other Suggestions?
Do you know of any others that would work?
If these are the best available, do you know of repeaters that could be used?
If repeaters not possible, does anyone have experience using 2 of these drivers and then just using HE to adjust them both at the same time so they effectively operate as a single unit?
Unfortunately I can't help with the control approach and it seems you've looked into this quite a bit. However in case you've not gotten there yet; you cannot run 525W in a single end to end strip. You will have to run regular wire to segments based on the current the RGBW conductor strips can handle. Not a big deal if you plan for it in the beginning.
What strip are you talking about? Presumably not 15W per channel per metre, but does that mean 3W/channel/m which seems low (based on RGBWW).
I assume you will not be running RGB in parallel with WW? It makes the colours virtually invisible if you do, given the higher brightness you often get with white strips...
@JohnRob - yes I'm not running it all from one end. I'll power inject along its length, thats not an issue. What I'm trying to find out is if i can use just one controller or if i'm going to need multiple.
The best controller I've found have a max amp rating 5A per channel which is 480W. Not enough for the longest run. so I'd need some other device to boost this or a second controller.
I dont know what this other device would be - can you make a suggestion?
I dont know if 2 devices can be linked so they operate in tandem - do you know if this can be done in HE?
@cjcharles - This is the strip I want to use from HiLine becasue it seems nice and high quality with a good CRI of over 80.
The average power consumption is 14.4W/m when in general use becasue with a RGBW strip you wont need to power all LEDS to get white (hence the choice) We will only be using the colour channels to tune the white colour to warm or cool if needed but unlikely
Id say if you link two devices it will be a bit like marmite, you'll either like the fact that you can have two different shades and put them in party mode, or you'll get annoyed every time they turn on at slightly different times. You probably want a good quality RGBW amplifier and it will do most of what you want. Get a decent one though as you want good switching speed/power handling/build quality to prevent failure, something like this.
Cool LEDs! Never seen a 4 in one COB led like that. Weird they don't break out the power per channel though, does make me a bit suspicious as the power usage will vary so much depending on how you use it! I would also say that a CRI of 80 is standard (gut feel is fairly common with anything but the worst LEDs), 90 is good and 95 unnecessary imho. Did you say they were already used in another location and looked good?
I would consider trying a Fibaro RGBW2 controller. You would be within the devices current limits but exceeding the total output wattage specification. But unless you are running a full power on all channels all the time I believe you will be in good shape.
You should however mount the Fibaro in a location where free air can circulate (just as an extra safety measure). So while there is a risk of it not working, it would be a very clean installation if it does. May be worth the risk to you.
Not that it matters but I've been building electronic controllers professionally for many years, so I'm not just blindly guessing.
I would advoid the LL ones as you will need the hue bridge for them. Stick to the ZigBee 3.0 ones, I have one like the 1st link that has "pro" on it. They are the 3.0 once. The other one looks like the sunricher ones, just the older models as most of their stuff is ZigBee 3.0 now.
Get a decent one as I mentioned though, not a cheap one off eBay or with fake reviews off Amazon (it's a fairly niche product so I find the score can be highly skewed by fake reviews).
I've seen controllers that make lots of noise as they switch slowly, ones where one channel breaks rendering the whole thing useless, and most often where they get dangerously hot as they aren't built properly. Just my pov, especially given you're likely to put it out of easy access.
