My kitchen current uses old school G8 bulbs for the under-cabinet lights. Planning to switch that out for LEDs instead. I have a smartthings hub and google home. Any good smart under-cabinet lights to recommend? The plan is to turn on/off those lights with Google Home as well.
Hue or Osram strips for a one and done solution and you can adjust/change color in app. Any LED strip plugged into a smart outlet or wall wart is a cheaper way out of it if you only want/need the ability to turn on/off with ST .
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I’ve just done exactly the same thing using a Fibaro rgbw controller and custom device handler by David Lomas (codersaur) connected to cheap 50/50 rgbw strips bought of Amazon.
Setup works really well using the smart lighting app to set brightness and colour to varying levels based on current mode and motion triggers to great effect.
A little DYI solution that works very well…
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Hello everyone,
New to strip lighting, here is my use case.
I have a China Hutch with 7 unique sections that I currently have lights in, ones that I installed 20 years ago and want to convert to LED if possible.
Each light currently is mounted and the electrical runs out the back and down to the lower section where they all plug into a power strip bar which is currently plugged into a Smart outlet which I control through CoRE. It’s neat, clean and works, however they do get warm and they are not LEDs and well, it’s next on my list.
6 of the sections are about 8-10 inches long, the last one is about 3 feet long
My question is around cutting the light strips. Once you cut the first one to length, how is the next strip powered? Do I need an additional power source for each strip?
Sorry if this is a basic question, just don’t get how this works
Thanks in advance
Rick
I’ve been wanting to do this in my kitchen also. I have an outlet above the microwave in a cabinet. Also have cabinets on the opposite side of the kitchen from the microwave. I would like to do a strip on the very top (cabinets are ~1 ft. from ceiling) and a strip under the cabinets…on both sides. Could I somehow plug all this into the one outlet and run some wire safely through the attic to connect to the other side??? Any very detailed write up on what all I would need?
If you cut the strip, you have to solder ends to the new piece, there are clip on connectors, but they aren’t super reliable. All you do is solder a long enough length from each to go out the back and down to your controller if Fibaro or H801, and wire them in parallel. That’s it. Not sure on the premade strips if you can easily do that though.
Well, bringing this old thread back to life to see if anything new has come onto the market to fit my original use case
"I have a China Hutch with 7 unique sections (see post 5 above) that I currently have lights in, ones that I installed 20 years ago and want to convert to LED if possible.
Each light currently is mounted and the electrical runs out the back and down to the lower section where they all plug into a power strip bar which is currently plugged into a Smart outlet which I control through CoRE. It’s neat, clean and works, however they do get warm and they are not LEDs and well, it’s next on my list.
6 of the sections are about 8-10 inches long, the last one is about 3 feet long"
Any ideas or point me in the right direction???
Thanks in advance
Rick
To answer what I think is your question , when you cut a string of lights at one of the cut points it will have connections to solder to. So in your case you would simply solder a connecting wire & run it to the next section until your entire cabinet is done. Given your description of about 8-9 feet total it can easily be done with one strip & a single power supply & controller .
Hey RLDreams
So there are no connectors out there to use, I must solder my own connections? I can do that so it shouldn’t be an issue.
What type of connection wire is needed to go between strips?
Which light strip product do you recommend?
Thanks again
Rick
There are solderless clip connectors but they are junk. There are also some with an RJ45 connection to use cat 5/6 cable but for the short runs you’re talking about it would be a waste. You would have more connector than wire.
Depending on what you get for LED strips will determine how many wires you need to connect the strips. Some are 4 wires , some are 5 . Etc. A good network cable seems to be one of the popular choices. Especially since the wires are all color coded & double insulated already.
I have done both, i have changed out the Under cabinet bulbs for Yuip G4 12v Wam White LED Bulbs which BTW are fantastic for those of you with G4 Bulbs. i then used a Everspring Zwave module within the switch back box to control these lights.
I have then also used a Fibaro RGBW strip controller with an RGB strip to control mood lighting. this gives the best of both worlds IMHO as the lighting fulfils different needs.
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I bought the IKEA Led Strip lighting and also spots, and then powered it with a smart switch. Works quite well, and pretty cheap - I didn’t need colour, but if I did, I’d go for Lightify LED strips, as they come in sections, and then you just need to buy the extender leads (female - male) to chain them together.
I’ve been searching for best smart lighting system and found your recommendations were the best. Thank you!
I got some Hue strips on sale ( when HD mispriced new gen2 as gen1 on clearance) which is why I have them in kitchen, grabbed some of the $17 Osram last month at Lowe’s to run up the stair cases. They are the perfect length.
Front & back porches are just cheap generic strips plugged into ZW modules. I hung a Harmony extender out the living room window to change colors on front porch & keep the original remote in kitchen drawer to change colors on the back porch.