Awesome! Thanks for the writeup!
edit: I'm toying with the idea of lighting my Aladdin lamp display cabinets. Some of them glow under UV light, so there's another wrinkle. 
I'm making walnut live edge shelves for our bar that look somewhat like this and I was wanting to add uplighting towards the back of the shelves using RGB LED strips. I just assume that I needed to cut the strip to the length of the shelves (48" each for ours), then run the wire to the controller / power supply.
Also, good point on just buying 4 different ones haha. I can always just use groups/scenes and control them all at the same time.
This would be ideal as I don't want to have to buy a separate diffuser channel. Do these not come in RGB? I really wanted to be able to change colors in the bar haha. Is this the key search words for find these: COB LED Strip Flexible Tape Light?
Yea.. I would do the COB lights. Probably start with getting one to test with. They seem to be the shallowest strip and should provide decent light effects while being fairly invisable.
Something you may want to consider is that though LED strips can be cut, that doesn't mean anywhere. You may want to consider that when looking at the lengths. Some strips do allow you to cut more frequently the others though some will be every inch while other may be every 4 inches. This could be a win for DIY kits as you can select the strip you want to allow for more cutting options.
Something else to consider if you are wanting to reduce the number of power connections. The controllers run on DC power so in theory you could get 4 strips with 4 controllers and then have one power supply connected to all strips. It should be a fairly small added cost or just use barrel plug Y Splitting cables.
Also a question i feel needs to be asked is do you care about the light automation part of the device? or do you just want a single color on each strip?
I do! I would want to be able to change the colors. It's probably going to be a blue most of the time, but may change colors during different seasons haha. I do want to also turn these on using a Zooz Scene Controller we have in this room so that when I press the button on the Zooz, it'll turn on our hanging bar lights, our soffits, a picture light, and these LED strips.
That isn't exactly what i am talking about. I am asking about the light effects like in the video of my outside led strips.
This is the difference between RGBIC vs RGB. All of the Govee Stuff will have light effects like this, and is largely why the cutting aspect on some devices is a questionable idea.
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Ahh! The light effects would be cool, but not required In that case, then yes, it would just be one color at any one time, but I'd like to be able to change the colors, instead of let's say always just Warm White.
I bought this Tuya Zigbee 2M to play around with. I think 4 of these could work with just separate controllers and I'll just create a group/scene in Hubitat for them. But what I really need is to replace this piece I circled in red. It looks like a 4-pin connector on one end, but I'm not so sure what's on the light strip end. Do they sell extensions for this?
ok so all new Govee Stuff now is RGBIC with the light effects. If you went DIY you could possibly reduce the price a small amount with strips that are just RGB and don't have the light effects. The controllers are also much more plentiful.
You mention blue as your most likely color, and I can't agree more. In our Master we have 4 Govee light devices and a few wiz bulbs. They are often used just to relax and we almost always settle on one of their blue light effects(Govee Scene).
All of the drivers I have for Govee Devices will allow light effects one way or another.
The IC also allows you to control sections of the strip so in theory you could turn parts off, or even have shelves with different colors connected to one controller. If you found a way to hide the wires you could get a 16ft strip cut the lengths you need and then just use wires between the shelves to attach them in series. The important thing is always to keep the data wire in the right direction though. For simplicity that is probably what I would do. If you are making them I would imagine you could create a wire channel somewhere. The one big problem with this idea. and it is big. is that MATTER doesn't really support controlling parts of strips so you would need to use the Govee Drivers i have to create DIY Scenes and manage the strip with them
Maybe in the pipe?
That was my original idea and hide the wire under the shelves and through the pipes. Just put all the "strip sections" in series and "zig-zag" around the shelves. Would the Govee allow me to cut to length and connect them via wires? Haha I guess that was really my question.
Yeah using the pipe was the plan. I originally wasn't going to have the pipes, but it's the main reason we added them to the design.
No ideas about extensions. Most likely under that plastic at the end of the strip are just some solder pads you would attach a new wire to. That would be typical of LED Strips.
Typically the pads you see on the strip depend on the type of strip it is is RGB, RGBIC, RGBWW. The reason is that each color has it's own wire and then there is generally a common wire to complete the circut. The exception is RGBIC where the IC handles the power going to the Pixel. So IC strips generally have few pads.
I haven't seen it done with the new COB strip I mentioned above, but i have seen that 100% done with the M1 Strip. There is zero reason it wouldn't work because of how the connections are made on led setup. The most important thing though is to make sure you keep the Data line going the right direction. You may want to apply some silicon to the ends where the cuts are made since Govee only provides one end cap. Well or find someone to 3d print some. I would also suggest before installing permanently check that after the wires are connected with the needed lengths you don't have any dimming on the last segment. Sometimes as you add length the voltage can start to drop toward the end and brightness can be lost. There are ways to overcome this like pulling the power from the source and injecting it later in strip, but it would be good to know that before you get the end.
This would allow you to put them in series and only need one controller for all of them.
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I hope you share the outcome of all this discussion. What you are creating sounds awesome.
For sure! This bar / gym area has come a long way from being a completely unfinished room TV will be in that back wall covering that outlet. The shelves I’m talking about will be on the left side. We are getting a shuffle board on the right side with this really cool 50” x 69” flamingo painting one of our project managers painted. The building in the background is the Watch Factory apartments, where my husband stayed during the project. We are getting a cocktail arcade table underneath that table. This room looks so different from the rest of the house with its industrial and eventually quirky vibe. I wanted to make it feel like we are being “transported” without leaving the house everyday for after WFH “Happy Hour” haha.
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Nice.. It looks fantastic
I am watching this thread and I more convinced you really should considered COB addressable strips driven by Pixelblaze.
I am curious what is the functional advantage of the pixelblaze controller in this scenario for this use case.
The OP (@HarleysWorld) few times mentioned some sort of customization such as "cut to length", "driven by single controller", simple wiring and maybe few other things.
Readt-to-go led kits may or may not satisfy all the above requirements however easy DIY projects definitely will.
Here is a short summary coming from my experience with custom led lighting projects:
- COB LED Strips is the way to go.
If color is not a requirement I am using 24V COB (preferred color is 2700K) driven by Zigbee low voltage dimmer.
But if color is a must I am using Addressable COB LED Strip (24V if 5sm pixel size is OK, otherwise 5V) driven by Pixelblaze. - Addressable RGB COB LED Strips have very nice Light Diffuser so mixing RGB to a White is very nice. Another words, individual whatever extra White Led is not required.
- Strip length could be precisely custom cut to whatever desired lengths.
- Addressable strip requires only 3 wires for connecting to the Controller or daisy-chaned.
- In a past I tried many different Zigbee/Zwave and eventually Matter RGB(WW) controllers but neither one satisfied my needs which is very flexible and independent control for each individual channel. Either Device itself or Device Driver had/has to much of unnecessary intelligence which effectively prevented me to achieve my lighting preferences.
- Pixelblase integration with the HE is 100% local (in my case anything cloud-based is ABSOLUTELY no go) and very flexible.
- Single Pixelblaze can drive huge number of LEDs (I forgot the exact number but it is in thousands range).
- Pixelblaze Driver can create up to 12 individual segments/zones so it will look like you have up to 12 individual controllers (I am not using this option but it does exist).
- Pixelblaze itself has hundreds of built-in lighting patterns but user can create whatever is desired. i am actively using this option because for instance Kitchen Undercabinet Strip is not only used for lighting but it also is a colored Status Bar for which appliance is currently active. (this is avery welcome option for my wife). Basically I have many cases when LED Strip is a Lighting Device and Status Indicator at the same time.
Thanks to the Pixelblaze I created many lighting projects just for fun and relaxing:
- Artificial Waterfall at a day time and Fire Place at a night time. Waterfall and Fire looks very natural and easy customizable if desired.
- Artificial Torches (4 of them) also running different lighting patterns depend on day/night time.
And many other nice lighting projects (more than 10 at this time).
Bottom line:
Thanks to the Addressable COB LEDs and Pixelblaze lighting in my apartment is very relaxing and 100% automated thanks to the local HE integration.
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