Hi everyone - the wife has asked for "Christmas Lights" this year on the front of the house. She specified wanting Red and White alternating lights and the C9 / large outdoor type.
But you all know I'm not going to stop there. I started looking for C9 RGB lights and was very happy to find that they exist - but they all seem to have their color options baked into a built-in controller. This 100 bulb string is an example of what I've been looking at, and my current front-runner for testing.
The intent is that they'll stay up year-round and be used for multiple holidays. While the above-linked string undoubtedly has options that will work, I'd obviously like to have addressable RGB lights that I can control via HE.
I'm not planning any major animation or sync work - I'd just like to be able to specify things like red/white/red/white (or whatever colors are appropriate for the holiday rather than digging out a remote or app and manually choosing things. I'm especially trying to stay away from things that use phone apps for control.
So does such a beast exist? My optimal requirements / wish list would include:
C9 outdoor type bulbs
6" to 12" spacing
Ability to run non-lighted cabling extensions to jump gaps
Individually addressable bulbs, or at least able to do a two-color alternating pattern
If not directly addressable, having an inline controller that HE can talk to
I haven't found anything like this yet, but I'm still looking. I'm also willing to hack a bit if someone's already gone down this road and is willing to provide some pointers or guidance (e.g., cut off the inline controller and wire to a zigbee/z-wave device).
The key here is the C9 form factor. There are tons of LED strip options, but I haven't found any that are "holiday lights."
Just a quick bump in case anyone has resources or ideas. I did find one company that makes what I described , but they’re geared toward commercial and large residential (e.g., Bill Gates’ house). I may reach out to them, but I’m afraid of seeing the price list.
Anyone have a recommendation? As mentioned before, I’m willing to do some cutting and soldering if anyone has done a Frankenstein job on one with an inline controller.
Thank you both! I don't think C9 is a hard requirement, she just wants a "substantial" bulb as opposed to LED strips or the smaller bulbs you see on pre-lit trees. I think it's more about apparent size/brightness of the point source than an authentic shape.
The Sylvania kit probably won't work for this because of the length limitation and bulb spacing, but it does look like an excellent solution for garden bed lighting (probably a Spring/Summer 2022 project).
The Pixel stuff looks like a rabbit hole for me to spend some time in. Starting to wish I'd asked about all of this in June.
I also found these sources, in case anyone else is looking for a starting point:
Are you willing to go the wifi route at all? If so, you can do a lot of DIY stuff with wled. Get yourself a quinled dig uno, a power supply, and your choice of LEDs and you're set. You can go as far as this: PermaTrack – 50′ Pack – PermaTrack
There are a bunch of different C9 strings on AliExpress also.
Just a thought. There are a couple different ways to integrate wled into hubitat as well.
Thanks for the link! I’m open to most options, though I’m trying to avoid things that rely on mobile apps for programming.
I’m not planning on big shows or music sync, etc., I’d just like to be able to do some basic patterns (red-white-red-white, purple-green, red-white-blue, etc). Ability to do basic animation like a plain chase is nice, but not essential.
My plan for HE integration is that it will automatically know what holiday it is, set the right color scheme, and schedule on/off times.
I’d really like to check out the app you have for the garden spots. I use several strings now but just with the Lightify bridge and Adam Kempenich’s Lightify Bridge integration. Always interested in other ways to control them.
It is in package manager if you search for gardenhue
or here.
That said I am not sure it will work as I have mine directly on hubitat as there is no need for the bridge. They can be regular rgbw devices.
