My goal with regards to the cabling was to find the smallest diameter cable with the needed number of conductors and a sufficient wire gauge to limit the voltage drop for the required current. While CAT5 is a popular choice due to availability, I did not like the fact it had a significantly larger diameter due to:
wires are twisted in pairs
8 wires, while I only needed 6
solid core wires making the cable less flexible
Your suggested alternatives will all work great as long as diameter is not your critical specification. I was wiring kitchen cabinets so I needed the smallest cable possible.
I did a quick search, and as you pointed out, I was not able to source small lengths typically required for these installs so I am sure your shared alternatives will help others
If you are looking for a decent HUE strip controller, I recommend you look for a brand named GLEDOPTO, it’s a Chinese manufacture I found it by accident during my vacation in China this spring. Now I have 3 RGBCW controller and 3 dimmer working with my Hue Bridge since 6 months, everything is going well. They also have other controllers for RGB or RGBB, CW etc, even some controller as 2 channels.
For connection, you need to get some quick push-in connector to connect wires to the led. Something similar to this:
You can found them on Aliexpress and Amazon europe.
I have 2 of them but the implementation in SmartThings is terrible. Even though it appears as a single device the RGB and White LEDs do not operate in unison so, for example, picking any color in the gamut is not possible. You have to adjust RGB and whites so it is nearly impossible to get the intended result. Also, some colors are also totally off (if I recall correctly very dim or bad color). Sorry for the lack of details but since I replaced the controller to Gledopto I stopped using the led strip and forgot the details. However, others reported the same issues… I believe a better DTH is needed, or I might have to pair it with the Hue hub for it to work correctly (but I am also trying to get rid of the HUE system…)
You need some other pimping
I make it short:
Noise while dimming/limiting current: put in a 470-1000uF >=35V capacitor into the power line - either inside or at the plug.
Max current: the controller measures current with 2x180mOhm(=90mOhm) resistors and Limits over all current to 800mA ±~5mA.
But every single FET is capable of switching 7,6A.
See a German article about this from me:
The point is, the RGB channels are always at <300mA/2m. So you can have up to ~6m without limiting the output in color mode. But if you need the real “light” already the 800mA are not enough. 3500K at full power need ~950mA/2m.
In my first project, I replaced the FETs by bigger/stronger ones, but this is not necessary. See the article also for some measurement values. Maybe feed through google translator.
Just solder in parallel some small resistor (one ~50mOhm or multiple bigger ones, I put now 4x150mOhm to get at the end ~30-35mOhm) and that’s it.
Of course you need a stronger PSU…
I have already running several 4m installations with 60W Meanwell PSUs giving A LOT light
The first one, you linked is better. 3,2mm is Fine. 6,3 is far too long.
You can calculate the power dissipation.
U=RI (calc the voltage drop at a certain current) I.e. 0,03Ohm2amp=0,06V
P=UI (calc the power dissipation) 0,06V2amp=0,12W … so a 1/8th watt resistor would fit.
Too bad I did not have all this good info when I first set my Hue led strips up in the kitchen… I am now in the process of replacing them with LiFX led strips as I converted all coloured lighting to LiFX in my home. @mag81 thank you for sharing your knowledge on this though!!
SO what happens if you try to extend the Philips hue lightstrip plus beyond the limit of 32 ft? Does it just stop working or brightest just go downhill? 32 ft is short in tray ceiling application
I believe the controller is current limited so the more LEDs you add the less current there is to go around and therefore brightness per LED will decrease. I am moving away from Hue so I stopped all efforts to get more light out of my led strip setup but I recall seeing an amplifier that was supposedly compatible with Hue (something about very fast PWM frequency). I believe this might be it but you need to check whether it will work with HUE as well:
I was able to try this mod and it certainly works! lights are brighter all around. I don’t have any strips over 3m, but I wanted them to hit peak brightness no matter what. Thank you!! I did have to upgrade the power supplies to support the extra draw.
Edit:
Tested it out with a single 80in strip. At peak it draws 30W. So make sure you have a power supply that can push 30w per every 80in.
