I’ve never used light strips before but am looking to add them to one of my closets, that will be triggered via motion sensor.
A lot of them are to be their own closed systems with random remote controls or wifi based
I don’t care at all about RGB. Adjustable temperature might be nice, and dimmable would definitely be a nice bonus!
I am not seeing many zigbee type ones. Are these ac controlled? I could plug into a smart outlet I guess. Or is there some other good way to integrate these?
It seems a lot of people in “techy homes” throw the rgb lights everywhere but I don’t actually know how they’re integrated.
I also have Hue light strips connected to a Hue bridge. The Hue bridge integrates nicely with Hubitat. The only downside is the Hue products are a bit pricey. But they work very well.
Check this post for the community Govee integration. It is Wifi based and you cannot control every aspect of the light strip through the APIs but on/off dimmer and setting color/temp works. The integration supports both cloud API and a local integration (for devices that support local control). I would make sure it supports local control before purchasing if you go that route.
Ah I must have missed that I could have sworn I read that govee was cloud only. Will look into it more.
I've also since noticed you can get zigbee RGBW controllers decently priced off AliExpress, and then I think they would basically universally work with any LED strip... and at least some of them already have drivers too
They were cloud only up until about 4-5 months ago.
Last i checked about 140+ devices supported the cloud while about 52 are enabled to be controlled locally. Definitely check the list provided on that link for what devices support local control. Allot of the newer devices are lan enabled but not all of them.
There are options on amazon for zigbee controlled strips from gledopto. I have one that is zigbee and it work pretty well.
Obviously I am a fan of Govee, but they are really focused on RGB, and RGBIC for light effects. If all you want is a good white light and maybe some CT control there are other options that may be better for white light. They will probably cost more though.
Govee will use the RGB pixels to try to make white. That just isnt as good as dedicates pixels. The options from govee with Lan control will be the Govee M1 strip, the strip in protective cover, or the basics strip.
They do have a RGBWW strip but it is cloud only i believe.
One thing to remember is they are upgrading firmwares to support lan so just be cause it doesn't now doesn't mean a device won't in the future.
I've been looking across amazon and aliexpress at light strips, and aliexpress for example has some simple white-fixed-color-temp strips, but then the end of the cord is a red+black power wire. So, I still need to power the strip and or/control it? I guess that part is confusing. Also saw some units have some little inline dial dimmer, would cutting this part out and using a "dimmer control" unit have the same effect?
I guess at this point mostly confused beyond the light strip itself now multiple connection points, voltages, watts needed, etc. etc...
Yea. I understand. I went through the same thing when picking out the gledopto i got. Govee is nice because of how much of the complications they take out of it.
You are right though. First you find the strip you like. Then based on its power needs you need to find a controller that supports the right voltage. Then the controller has to be able to be integrated.
If all you saw was a red and black wire that means it was just the V+ wire and ground. As long as you had a ac adapter the right voltage you could splice it all together and use a smart outlet. If you have more then 2 wires. Then you would need to get the right controller for thr strip tech and pixel arrangement.
I have several RGW strips that I control with GLENOPTO Zigbee controllers and they work great. But I also have two closets that I put cheap warm (because we prefer the color) LED strip lights in that use completely local motion sensor control. They are instantaneous and doorknob simple to set up. My two cents. Recipe:
This is a good point. I have zero experience with LED strips so it's a bit hard to know exactly how much light I'll get - but surely lining the inside of the door frame should give plenty. There just seems to be multiple LEDS - 5050c 2835, etc... plus LEDs per meter. Yeah lots of stuff that is just new to me so hard to imagine the effect/compare/etc. in a real-world scenario.
I have an overhead light there (currently just builder-installed) and my thought was to trigger that AND the LED strip - but maybe if the LED is more than enough, I simply forget all about the overhead light. Hmmm!
I am seeing in their specs it's a 5m reel, 95lm/W, 9.6W/m
Sooo assuming I am using all 5m which matches my door frame relatively closely, that's 5959.6, 4500lm? And that's not even their high one? That seems vastly higher than I would need (I see there is lower one, but using this as a baseline of sorts)
Like even if I wanted to use something like this in my walk-in closet, 4500lm sounds wayyyy too bright no? So how are people using these - and even brighter ones?
I use a higher powered one without dimmer (with high CRI) with a door sensor to light the clothes of my wife in a wardrobe. (Nothing smart about it ).
I did order a high power one to use as main lighting in the bathroom, indirect light. But there I plan to add a manual dimmer (set and forget) if necessary
Guess higher ceilings and indirect lighting will be the use cases.
Note we do need a lot of light in our house, so that's what I am focussing on.
Wow. Yes, a lot of lumens. I'm using these in one closet 16' 1200lm (around frame only) and the longer one 32' 2400lm to light up under shelves where I store DVD/BluRays. They are lit up way better than the single 100w bulb. Mainly because the light source is from multiple places. The bulb at the top tends to leave tons of dark places. I did much the same thing in my pantry. But there, I did use a Z-Wave outlet to turn them on (mirrored) when the top light turns on based on a Zigbee motion controller. For a closet, I found the non-smart method cost effective and super reliable.
Well, I don't know Aliexpress so I'm a bit confused about the multi selections... But, it's quite easy to buy strip lighting that comes with the power adapter that already has a 2.1mm barrel plug on it so you don't need them. Something like this; Amazon.com
I see you chose cold LEDs (6000K) and that might be what you want. We find them harsh, and prefer 2700K - 3000K (warm white) so just making sure that that is what you want.
multiple connection points, voltages, watts needed, etc. etc...
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