I want to add motion activated lights under my kitchen cabinets. I've got a few door and motion sensors and HSM set up but this would be my first real automation.
My wife likes the Daylight 6500K white color for all over the house. Happy wife, happy life and all that. But I'm having a hard time finding a RGBWW or even just a white LED strip kit that I can hook up to my HE. I got overzealous on Black Friday and bought 4 white LED Govee strips only to realize last night that they are dumb strips and have no connectivity whatsoever. I'd like some strips that do more than dim the daylight white color, so I'd be open to suggestions that are RGBWW but the daylight white is a must.
At this time I only have Zigbee devices so a zigbee controller that's also a repeater would be nice. If I can stay away from running anything through Alexa but if WIFI is the best option I can deal with that. I don't use IFTTT at all.
I had initially thought I had to buy 4 separate sets as my cabinets are on both sides of the room and one side is broken up by the oven hood while the other side is broken up by the sink. However in playing with the dumb lights last night I found that with sufficient length (25-30ft at the longest) I can string them under the oven hood and above the sink. So I've whittled it down to needing only two 25 to 30ft strips.
I considered using the dumb strips anyway with a smart outlet but then they're still dumb lights that I can only turn off and on from the outlet. Same goes for the switch these lights are on. That and I hate to throw more money at it and only cobble it together.
So (despite my utter noobness), I've resigned myself to doing the whole separate LED strips and controllers. But I'm such a noob I don't know what I really need to look for in strips, controllers, or, for that matter, power supplies.
TLDR: I'm looking for some recommendations on RGBWW or just plain daylight white LED strips and something to control them on my HE.
The gledopto pro line work for me. Though I think the high side of the daylight tops out at 6000k.
If you choose to settle for just using your daylight strips, you should be able to use just about any controller and only hook up the cool white (or regular white) terminal on the controller.
It depends on what you want to spend. I am currently using a Zooz RGBW controller with tunable LED strips I went a little crazy on these as I wanted to see what a commercial (aka real good) LED would be like.
They are very expensive compared to eBay LED strips but they are awesome. I use only 2 outputs of the Zooz and can get any white I want from 1800 to 6500 K. I think they offer some "whiter" ones with fewer LED's per foot.
So would the RGBGenie Single channel controller, the ZW-1009, work? Its not on that list but all 4 controllers listed are using the same driver anyway.
If those would work, I could, theoretically, cut off the premade Govee connections on my four 16ft Govee strips, combine them with solderless snap connections for a total of two 32ft strips. Then use two RGBGenie controllers to operate the now two separate strips. And cut the ends off the Govee Power supply and, as long as it is within the RGBGenie power supply parameters, wire those into the controller. Without looking at the power supplies provided by Govee, I'm not sure if they would handle double the length they're intended for so I may have to purchase two power supplies that would handle the extra length.
If that single channel controller model works with HE, then that may be my most efficient and economical solution.
If the logistics work, it's better to have the power supply in the middle of 2 - 16ft strips.
You're less likely to have visible power drop at the furthest LEDs.
Check out the Wi-Fi options. Work great and pretty inexpensive. $16.99
RGBGenie is also a great choice, but it's a bit more speedy. @Gnant is a member of the community, and likes to check in on here every now and then, too
