Under cabinet strip lighting

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21

Are you absolutely set on strip lights? I did undercabinet lights using some really thin LED fixtures. I used a regular Zwave GE dimmer switch to control them. The fixtures I have fit nicely into the recessed underside of my cabinets.

I used several of these (in various sizes): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N9OFPNM/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Not that theres anything wrong with light strips, these just worked out to be easier, and I didn't have to use a transformer.

I have light strips downstairs and that works too, I just learned that not all dimmer switches work equally well with LED light strips (or rather their transformers), and I ended up with a Cooper Zwave switch down there (which works but irritated me).

Scott

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22

Would you prefer LED bars, pucks, or DIY-strips+aluminum channels?

23

Those are nice - I have something similar above the sink, its older and puts out a poor amount of light, so its time to trash it. I could replace it with a new one line this, but since the location is not on a switch, I want to make it a "smart" light. The strip lights solution came to mind since getting the Wifi/Zigbee controller onto my HE would then give me the ability to switch it. And then there's color - it would score me some more WAF points which we all know are sooo valuable.

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24

Tie score between bars and strips... kicker for me would be whichever is an easier installation.

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25

Yeah, I was lucky with both of mine, I had the walls torn out, and new sheetrock going in...so...yeah. I get it. I had intended to start with light strips, but I'm pretty glad I didn't (in the end). Mine have 3 "colors", but we tend towards daylight white in the kitchen as it's a bit dark (our cabinets are "espresso").

WAF points are critical!

Scott

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26

in regards to that zigbee controller you linked to - are you using this? any mesh/repeater issues? i'm tired of bulbs making my zigbee mesh flakey and i don't want to introduce anything to the network that isn't vetted at this point.

thanks

27

I’ve been using it pretty constantly. I have 14 zigbee bulbs (OSRAM and Hue mix, with some really cheap ones I found on eBay.

The strip controller works great—I haven’t had any mesh issues. It also pairs with a hue bridge if that’s your style.

28

I set out to install strip lighting under my kitchen cabinets and found this thread to be very helpful. I also found navigating the number of choices in lighting, power supplies, etc. to be pretty cumbersome because I want to do things right and really don't want to burn my house down.

LED Lights: I didn't want or need RGB, but also didn't want low quality lighting. It may not have been worth it, but I chose the Lumilum 24 volt LED strip because there was an actual company behind it. I tried a few color temperatures, but liked 4000K the most.

Controller: I went with the CCT version of the Zigbee controller mentioned above, paired directly to Hubitat (not Hue). It works fine with a single color LED strip, though through Hubitat, it still operates as CCT. 100% brightness works fine, but to reach the lower limit of light output, you have to set a very low/high color temperature in the device setting (opposite whichever physical port the lights are connected to). Otherwise, Hubitat/the controller adjusts output assuming its controlling an actual CCT light strip.

Power supply: this gave me the biggest headache, because it's the part I worried most about. There are SO many cheap power supplies out there, but for now, needed to power it via the outlet for the microwave above the cabinets. I did end up with a cheap power supply, but plan to replace it with something that is permanently wired sooner than later. I went with this - it works fine, stays cool, and doesn't seem concerning.

As far as mesh issues, yes, the Zigbee controller did create problems. Hub is in the basement, and until last week (after adding three peanut plugs), it prevented zigbee contact sensors from working. With more and better repeaters, this is no longer an issue.

I would suggest soldering all connections, as the crimp style strip lighting adapters have been unreliable. I installed the strip directly to the bottom of the cabinet, but decided to eventually install in aluminum channel like this.

29

Do you find that adding too many wifi devices to your network causes any issues? I mean routers can only handle so much traffic.

30

I've got 20-some of these active on our work network (100-200 hundred devices total there) with no noticeable impact. At home, I've probably got 30-100 devices on the network at any given time, and again, no noticeable impact from these devices. I also have these devices locked down to be internal only---I don't like them phoning home.

There's not much I/O with these devices. Each packet is either 13 bytes or 8 bytes, so, but it may impact some routers more than others. I've been doing some stress testing with 5-second refresh rates with all my devices and haven't seen any effect there. We're talking 260-1000 KB every 5 seconds, so not a ton of traffic.

I know that @Ryan780 has discussed how some routers begin experiencing trouble once they have 32+ devices on them, I've been fortunate to not experience this.

31

It's not trouble....it's a hard cap. And this is true of many consumer grade routers. Netgear specifically caps the number of devices per band at 32 for the consumer grade routers. Anything higher and you have to go to a commercial grade. Don't take my word for it.

https://kb.netgear.com/24043/How-many-clients-can-you-connect-wirelessly-to-a-NETGEAR-router

I started experiencing this cap on my 2.4 ghz band because of the number of devices I had on it. It was starting to slow down my wired and 5 ghz wireless speeds. So, I moved all of my "low traffic" devices over to a different access point in bridge mode hardwired to my Netgear router. The router can handle the traffic fine. Like @adamkempenich said, these are VERY low traffic devices. The router was just spending too much time keeping all the wifi connections active and maintaining them. Offloading that workload to another access point was much easier. All I used was my old N router that I had replaces with my current AC (Nertgear R6250) router. Most IOT devices don't support 5 ghz anyway, so it doesn't make a difference what router they connect to.

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32

@adamkempenich, As I continue to develop my home system, I do see specific applications for strip lighting. And, I have this post bookmarked so I can reference back to the control devices you mentioned above.

With future development in mind, I would appreciate hearing how you locked down these devices. I'm assuming you set a firewall rule. Did you study port activity or something? Or, maybe you placed them on a vlan that has no outgoing access...

Thanks in advance!

33

There are a few ways to do this ....

  1. Limit device bandwidth to 0 up/0 down
  2. Block app.magichue.net on your firewall---most of these devices use this service, but there may be another
  3. Simply don't add your Magichome devices to an account (when I tested this a year or two ago, they didn't phone home until this is set up)
  4. Whitelist your traffic by using a vlan setup

Or ... all of the above :slight_smile: I'm sure there are some other clever methods. I use 1 & 3.

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34

Stupid question on an incredibly old post, but what's the difference between all of these?

And is there a really simple tutorial for all this? I want under cabinet lighting more than I want to retire and it just seems So. Complicated. Or am I just making it harder than it is?

Is it as easy as the Controller + Power source + LED Strip? And I just need to find a way to hide the cords??

Thanks for answering a noob question,
Hubirat :rat:

35

Not stupid at all :slight_smile:

RGB is color channels. CCT is correlated color temperature.

RGB gives you colors, but isn’t accurate for white shades. CCT obviously only gives you orange and white.

Having both gives you the best of both worlds, meaning you can get colors, and way more accurate whites.

As for making the lights for your cabinet, it’ll depend on your cabinets. Mine have about a 1” recess under them, so I had to cut aluminum channels, and daisy chain the lights between them. I soldered them in place, but I also wanted them to be pretty obscure. You don’t see them unless they’re on.

Realistically, you could just use the sticky back on your led strips and hold them in place. I am probably pickier than most about this :slight_smile:

An LED strip, controller, and power supply will work fine, just depends on your needs and how fancy you wanna get :slight_smile:

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36

Cool. This is way more impt to me than color, though color could be 'fun'. :man_shrugging:

Mine do not... :frowning_face: The bottom of the door is flush with the bottom of the cabinet. This makes it harder, I think. It means that I can't put a diffuser on the strip (or I could be I'd be able to see it which I don't really want...). And given this, I think I need a strip where the LEDs are super close together. Maybe? Is that a thing?

I think I just need to buy a controller and a strip and play with it. Get it to work and then just stick 'em to my cabinets. Any new recommendations for a controller + power + and RGB+CCT that is all supported by HE?

Thanks a ton by the way!!

Hubirat

37

I got the Giderwel kit from Amazon. It seems to work pretty well. Comes in 9.8 and 16 ft options. It ia RGBWW and it uses a Gledopto zigbee controller.

There is also the Inovelli strip that is zwave that looks really good. It is a bit pricey though. It is RGBIC so fully addressable if you like that kind of thing.

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38

Yes, and no. At our office, I use 45° channel on our cabinets to light our kitchen. They’re white, so they match our cabinetry and don’t look too odd. You can run as many feet as you need, and trim the excess. I think there are 2m versions available, too, so you can avoid seams.

Gledopto is a solid choice, there are lots of others.

If you’re looking to use Z-Wave, OOMI/Aeotec had a good RGB+CCT controller. It’s still available on ebay, and I’ve written a driver for it.

For Zigbee, Gledopto ($30) + any RGBCCT led strip works great. Sengled lacks the cold color channel, and instead uses a mixture of warm white and blue to create the CCT.

If you’re okay with WiFi, MagicHome is great. I run a lot of these devices (anything that’s not Z-Wave is WiFi, for the most part, in my setup). Controllers are like $10, and the app is decent. Plus, they integrate nicely with HE.

For LED strips, there are a few varieties of RGBCCT out there. In our office, I made a bunch of custom fixtures using the 5-in-1 5050 LEDs. They have RGB, Amber, and Cold white on each LED, so you get a restively high density.

In my kitchen, I have these under our counter. I really like them:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075DWDM5Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_TBM8K5FNBMW5GC5MEE8V

I also have these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YHMTHQ3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_F4ZP6TJ6AW3YSNX7YX43

We also have a high-density cold white strip that almost doesn’t need diffusion. Not sure I recommend CW-only in a kitchen, though.

As I’m sure you can see. I have too many lights… :joy:

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39

If you don't care about having RGB the Ikea zigbee controllers and lights work good for undercabinet lighting.

40

Adam,

I have developed a preference for zigbee devices and, based on an earlier part of this thread, I chose...

this LED strip:

LEDENET RGB W WW 24V Flexible LED Strip Lighting ... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XCGKM3Z/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_glt_fabc_9EBN5HCPJT1Q689ANFMW?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

And this controller:

GIDERWEL Home Smart Zigbee LED Controller RGBCCT ... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FTD9H7T/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_api_glt_fabc_95CCH7F6HCXQTHB5HB9Y?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

QUESTION:
Have you had any issue with getting a low output, like nightlight level, out of these or similar configuration? My problem is that I turn them down during night mode and cannot get below 15% output level or they just turn off.

Do you have any more specific advice for a product that gives both decently bright output with nightlight level low capability?

Thanks in advance!