OK, I’m going to setup 5 to 6ft light strips down each side of our bed and want to control it with a Fibaro RGBW (since all this seems cheaper than Hue lightstrips). I’m a little confused at all the parts I might need. So, I’m looking for suggestions / additions to my list below (in case I’m missing something) besides the Fibaro.
I didn’t follow the links but I did something similar to this a while back with LED strips about 16’ feet long. They also have cut points that leaves you solder points. I cut the strips to my desired length at the cut points and mounted it on the 3 level aquarium rack. I used small wire pairs to reconnect the cut points. You can do the same to reconnect the two sides of the bed. One end would have the power supply connected to it.
Unless you use the full length, you probably will have to solder. They don’t make connectors for RGBW which require another wire for the white channel (6 total). I wouldn’t trust them anyway because the connections are so small. Soldering is a challenge but not too hard once you get the hang of it.
You might want to consider wrapping the single strand around the bed to avoid cuts. If too long, it is real easy to cut. But if you do use the full length you will need a bigger transformer because the Fibraro will sap just enough juice that the end of your string will be dimmer.
The extension is four wire RGB, not RGBW five wires. The five wire strips are too small for connecting without solder.
I’ve seen some listed like this:
However, I can’t imagine they would work and reviews indicate that. And I believe the Supernight LEDs are 10mm anyway.
The power unit that comes with the 16.4 foot strip will work fine at 12 feet, it just can’t handle the full 16.4 feet AND the Fibaro controller.
Thanks @beckwith. I’m not married to those particular light strips. Do you have a different recommendation in mind? I’m a little new to the LED light strip scene and the selection is a bit overwhelming! I would love to try and not have to solder.
Also, what are you thoughts on this device?
I read in another thread you have it and have played with it.
I bought different brands from Alibaba before they became ubiquitous on Amazon. I’ve pretty much settled on Supernight though they all seem about the same.
The Dresden ballast doesn’t handle the white channel as well as the @wackware Fibraro device type.
If you don’t want to solder, you could cut it in half and use two controllers. If you did this you would have to reverse the polarity of the back strip. At least I think this would work.
Granted, but the white channel actually gives you greater color choice. The resulting pastel colors tend to jump out more especially during daylight. It has a more classy appearance and less gimmicky in my opinion.
Most of the parts are not expensive - especially the lights themselves. So, I may experiment.
Also, I was thinking about just using blue rope light. I’m not sure I need al the colors. Just really wanted to play with multi-color since I’m sure I’ll use it somewhere around the house in the future!
If I were to do a single color strip, such as the one below, could I still dim it? Does a dimmer work with the transformer or does the transformer just crap out with lower input power?
Though I read one person say he dims using an AC dimmer, I can’t see how it would work. I have several white only LED strips that Fibaro dim successfully. So it should work great for you. I would suggest you connect your blue lights to the blue channel so the animations work somewhat logical.
@beckwith,
i am curious. i am looking to do under my kitchen cabinets i’d guess it is no more than 14’ of led. but they run as an L in my kitchen with my stove splitting the counter areas where i’d put them. power source is above the stove in cabinets and my intent is to hide power source and wiring in the cabinets. so wiring will be much longer than 14’. i assume the power supply issue is with driving the length of the LEDs and not length of basic wiring correct? of course now that i think about it i have to run 5 wires that length. ugh…
thanks for your help
