Hey all, I am looking for some stair lights for my Son's loft bed. What have you all done for stair lighting automation? Looking for part suggestions or even some smart device recommendations.
Some sort of strip lighting perhaps? If the steps have open treads you could do a strip on the underside of each.
Depends in their design really, pictures of it would help suggestions.
Could you explain what you mean by automation? Are you looking for lighting types or methods?
Sorry. I am looking for devices or DIY type of lights for stairs.
I see. Are lights above the landing a possibility (in-ceiling or flush mount)?
They are, but I'd really like to do stair lights. I looked at strip lights, but I couldn't find small enough sections nor have i had success with cutting the strip lights to fit. Once i cut it, I have problems getting the extension cable to make a solid connection.
How about a single led every other tread?
I didn’t want it too bright.. just enough to light your way.
Andy
4 Likes
What did you use for this?
I added lights to my stairs going to the bedrooms. I purchased low profile aluminum extrusions, put White LED strips in them and used double sided tape (foam) to attach them to the lip of the thread. My extrusions are about 1/4 inch high.
To control them I made a simple Arduino controller operating at about 100:1 PWM at 234 Hz.
They are much dimmer than the picture would give the impression of. During the day you can barely see them but at night there is enough light to easily see the stair thread. They run from a 12V wall wart.
I was going to do more with the automation but they draw maybe 1/2 watt, so I just leave them on all the time.
If I were to do it again I would use 3M double sided high strength tape (with the black core). It would show less.
If I wanted automation I would use a ESP8266 instead of the Arduino allowing me to control them from Hubitat.
4 Likes
Something like this perhaps?
Made for outdoors technically, but it looks like you may be able to fit them in from the left side, then just plug it into a zwave outlet or whatever.
1 Like
Very similar to these.
But, I actually didn't use any 'true' automation.
Just the PIR that replace lightswitches.
I was lucky when I was doing this, I was covering the stairs in the oak so could hide wires etc.
Andy
This looks like a elegant (stand-alone) solution coming out of Europe.
Interesting, thanks for the link 
I thought of various possibilities during the "design" but for navigation at night, we decided that always on (but Dim) was the best. I don't have to worry about someone falling because the PIR didn't see them and the power is trivial. One has to look very hard to see them during the day.
BTW: I split the LED's into 2 circuits and setup the PWM's so they were offset in time. This kept the peak load low on the wall wart. Or I guess it's 1/2 of what it might be had I not split them.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
