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LED Strip recommendation for my RGBW controller


Qliver

Question

Hello everyone,

 

I registered on the forum to ask you guys a couple of question regarding RGBW LED strips to be controlled with the fibaro RGBW controller. My plan is to put one behind my projector screen, which is 100", meaning the strip will have to cover 7 meters. Since I am new to this topic I would appreciate some LED strip recommendations. It's fine if you can't answer all questions, any information would be helpful, and make it easier for me to narrow down the search.

 

1. I've read that it is recommended to put strips in parallel if they are more than 5 meters long. (This might not apply to 24 V strips.) But I might as well put two 3.5 m strips in parallel so I don't have to think about voltage drops. Does it matter for me if I get 12 or 24 V? I would prefer a power adapter which looks like a laptop charger, i.e. without a fan since it will always be on. The limit for the Fibaro RGBW controller is at 12V – 144W combined, at 24V – 288W combined.

 

2. Do you think the strips which have all 4 colors together on one chip are better? Some strips which are 60 LEDs per meter, have 30 RGBs and 30 Whites, which I can imagine makes a big impact on luminosity?

 

3. Is the SMD 5050 good, how many LEDs per meter is reasonable? Or is there anything else I need to look at? It's a pretty big screen and I would like the light to reach a few centimeters away from the screen, in order for it to look good on my dark gray wall (5-10 cm would be good).

 

If anyone has done something similar, I would appreciate links to the strips you are using. Thanks!

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1 hour ago, Qliver said:

Hello everyone,

 

I registered on the forum to ask you guys a couple of question regarding RGBW LED strips to be controlled with the fibaro RGBW controller. My plan is to put one behind my projector screen, which is 100", meaning the strip will have to cover 7 meters. Since I am new to this topic I would appreciate some LED strip recommendations. It's fine if you can't answer all questions, any information would be helpful, and make it easier for me to narrow down the search.

 

1. I've read that it is recommended to put strips in parallel if they are more than 5 meters long. (This might not apply to 24 V strips.) But I might as well put two 3.5 m strips in parallel so I don't have to think about voltage drops. Does it matter for me if I get 12 or 24 V? I would prefer a power adapter which looks like a laptop charger, i.e. without a fan since it will always be on. The limit for the Fibaro RGBW controller is at 12V – 144W combined, at 24V – 288W combined.

 

2. Do you think the strips which have all 4 colors together on one chip are better? Some strips which are 60 LEDs per meter, have 30 RGBs and 30 Whites, which I can imagine makes a big impact on luminosity?

 

3. Is the SMD 5050 good, how many LEDs per meter is reasonable? Or is there anything else I need to look at? It's a pretty big screen and I would like the light to reach a few centimeters away from the screen, in order for it to look good on my dark gray wall (5-10 cm would be good).

 

If anyone has done something similar, I would appreciate links to the strips you are using. Thanks!

There is still a project that I would like to do once I find the time for it. I want to install WS281x Digital addressable LEDs on my stairs and link them to, for example, a fire alarm to indicate an escape route, as in the Fibaro video. Of course you can also use them als Ambilight.

 

 

 

You should be able to make this by using Hyperion, an RPI, individually addressable LEDs WS2812B ... and Fibaro :)

 

Some examples.

 

Love this one ... Belgian DJ's ;D

 

 

 

 

grtz

Sjekke


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On 5/13/2018 at 7:08 PM, Qliver said:

Hello everyone,

 

I registered on the forum to ask you guys a couple of question regarding RGBW LED strips to be controlled with the fibaro RGBW controller. My plan is to put one behind my projector screen, which is 100", meaning the strip will have to cover 7 meters. Since I am new to this topic I would appreciate some LED strip recommendations. It's fine if you can't answer all questions, any information would be helpful, and make it easier for me to narrow down the search.

 

1. I've read that it is recommended to put strips in parallel if they are more than 5 meters long. (This might not apply to 24 V strips.) But I might as well put two 3.5 m strips in parallel so I don't have to think about voltage drops. Does it matter for me if I get 12 or 24 V? I would prefer a power adapter which looks like a laptop charger, i.e. without a fan since it will always be on. The limit for the Fibaro RGBW controller is at 12V – 144W combined, at 24V – 288W combined.

 

2. Do you think the strips which have all 4 colors together on one chip are better? Some strips which are 60 LEDs per meter, have 30 RGBs and 30 Whites, which I can imagine makes a big impact on luminosity?

 

3. Is the SMD 5050 good, how many LEDs per meter is reasonable? Or is there anything else I need to look at? It's a pretty big screen and I would like the light to reach a few centimeters away from the screen, in order for it to look good on my dark gray wall (5-10 cm would be good).

 

If anyone has done something similar, I would appreciate links to the strips you are using. Thanks!

 

Responses to your questions:

 

1.

- I have found it hard to buy LED strips longer than 5 metres, so yes you should run 2x 3.5m length in parallel to get 7m; this way the intensity of colour will be consistent for all 7 metres

- I would always buy 24V, 12V are cheaper, buy there can be problems when cable lengths are long and you get brighter light at the powered end of the strip and weaker at the opposite end. Of course with 12V you can literally use laptop transformers which are a lot cheaper versus 24V you require lighting drivers and I'm not saying you can't make it work with 12V, it's just that I had problem with it previously, so will be moving to 24V going forward. 24V lets you run much longer cable lengths without issues in power drops and I'm sure there are other benefits I don't know about.

 

2. 

- I would never buy RGB again, always get RGBW and even better RGBWW. The white created from RGB is naff, you can see some of the RGB colours coming through and it tends to look blueish white. RGBWW is warm white and should look better than RGBW, however I am yet to install my RGBWW cables and when I tested them today on site I found they looked like they were well over 3000k, so I will be posting a question to Fibaro support about that one, unless someone on the forum knowns something about how to get RGBWW to show warm white rather than the cooler white from RGBW.

- There are many CRI numbers for strips e.g. 30, 60, 90, 144. It depends on how the light will be seen. If the strip is pointing directly to the user e.g. when using a diffuser then I would go for 90 CRI (i.e. 90 Leds per metre) this way you minimise the chance of seeing the individual LEDs - the aim (for me anyway) is to have a consistent light showing rather than lots of visible dots, If the LED is being reflected off something at more than a couple of cm then 60 CRI (i.e. 60 leds per metre) is fine. I have never tried 30 CRI, but imagine barring some exceptional circumstance that it might produce an effect that would not be desirable (e.g. blotchy (lots of visible dots) and not bright enough)... but that's my un-tested opinion, someone else on the forum may know more based on actual experience.

 

3. 

- 5050 is the size of the chip, I think it might be 5mmx5mm. I haven't ever bought anything other than 5050. They work fine.

- I tried something similar to what you are trying with my TV. My word of caution would be that it might be a lot harder than you think. With my TV I found that the strip, which i stuck to the back of the TV, was always at an uneven distance to the wall, so the light looker inconsistently bright around the TV. In the end I removed the strip and gave up. I think I need an actual box to be built around the TV so the strip is a uniform distance from the wall otherwise it looks pretty bad. As you can guess, I was trying to light up the wall behind the TV to get a halo effect.

- As for what to look out for when buying LED strips... I too am trying to figure that out. I have a quote for 24V RGBWW 60 CRI non IP strips for £70 per 5 metres which in my mind is expensive, you can buy something with the same spec for half the price online. The problem is that I can't find anywhere what the difference in quality is. All I can say is that my electrician bought cheap LED cables for my last renovation (£20 per 5 metre for RGB 12V - 4 years ago) and I have to replace nearly everyone of them. The LEDs a one by one failing. It's really annoying!  So I am stuck now trying to figure out what is the right price point without knowing what the true difference in quality is.... if i find out what the secret ingredient is I'll get back to you.

 

Good luck with your project. It sounds like fun!

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  • On 5/18/2018 at 10:20 PM, amilanov said:

    2. 

    - I would never buy RGB again, always get RGBW and even better RGBWW. The white created from RGB is naff, you can see some of the RGB colours coming through and it tends to look blueish white. RGBWW is warm white and should look better than RGBW, however I am yet to install my RGBWW cables and when I tested them today on site I found they looked like they were well over 3000k, so I will be posting a question to Fibaro support about that one, unless someone on the forum knowns something about how to get RGBWW to show warm white rather than the cooler white from RGBW.

    - There are many CRI numbers for strips e.g. 30, 60, 90, 144. It depends on how the light will be seen. If the strip is pointing directly to the user e.g. when using a diffuser then I would go for 90 CRI (i.e. 90 Leds per metre) this way you minimise the chance of seeing the individual LEDs - the aim (for me anyway) is to have a consistent light showing rather than lots of visible dots, If the LED is being reflected off something at more than a couple of cm then 60 CRI (i.e. 60 leds per metre) is fine. I have never tried 30 CRI, but imagine barring some exceptional circumstance that it might produce an effect that would not be desirable (e.g. blotchy (lots of visible dots) and not bright enough)... but that's my un-tested opinion, someone else on the forum may know more based on actual experience.

     

    3. 

    - 5050 is the size of the chip, I think it might be 5mmx5mm. I haven't ever bought anything other than 5050. They work fine.

    - I tried something similar to what you are trying with my TV. My word of caution would be that it might be a lot harder than you think. With my TV I found that the strip, which i stuck to the back of the TV, was always at an uneven distance to the wall, so the light looker inconsistently bright around the TV. In the end I removed the strip and gave up. I think I need an actual box to be built around the TV so the strip is a uniform distance from the wall otherwise it looks pretty bad. As you can guess, I was trying to light up the wall behind the TV to get a halo effect.

    - As for what to look out for when buying LED strips... I too am trying to figure that out. I have a quote for 24V RGBWW 60 CRI non IP strips for £70 per 5 metres which in my mind is expensive, you can buy something with the same spec for half the price online. The problem is that I can't find anywhere what the difference in quality is. All I can say is that my electrician bought cheap LED cables for my last renovation (£20 per 5 metre for RGB 12V - 4 years ago) and I have to replace nearly everyone of them. The LEDs a one by one failing. It's really annoying!  So I am stuck now trying to figure out what is the right price point without knowing what the true difference in quality is.... if i find out what the secret ingredient is I'll get back to you.

     

    Good luck with your project. It sounds like fun!

    Hi and thank you for the reply.

     

    2.

    I am also trying to achieve that, i.e. a long light around the screen, rather than individual dots. And I don't want the LED's themselves to be visible. It should also reach a few centimeters outside of the screen, which is rather big. The back of the screen is at a 45 degree angle. The light will be pointed towards the wall, I just want to use it to create a halo effect around the screen, to make it look like it's floating. I will go for a warm white as you suggested.

    When you say 90 LEDs per meter, do you mean 90 LED chips which have RGB+W together on them? Because I've noticed that some manufacturers claim to have 60 LEDs per meter, but then 30 of them are RGB, and 30 are White - which means if you're not using the white you only have 30 on!

     

    3.

    I've read that it is important that the strips are not too thin, or that they are placed on aluminum strips, in order to lead away the generated heat. This is the reason the LEDs are dying. That's one thing that can be different between the cheap and expensive strips. Also, the colors are usually better in the more expensive ones. I've noticed this when comparing regular RGBW bulbs, for example some colors of the IKEA Trådfri bulb are not that accurate.

    It would really suck if the LED's started dying, even if only one dies I can imagine it messes up the effect. For this reason I'm thinking that maybe it's worth paying more to get good quality ones...

     

    Hopefully I won't have as much trouble as you had with your TV to get a consistent light, since the screen is mounted directly towards the wall, and I can put the strips along the edge of it. There is actually an official kit offered by the producer (Elite Screens), but it's just RGB.

    Edited by Qliver
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  • So I think I will settle for these strips, they are quite pricy but at least they offer a 3 year warranty. It was hard to find a SMD 5050 strip with 60 LEDs per meter, 4 LEDs in 1 chip, 24 V, 2700 K Warm white and a good Lumen rating.

    https://www.hiline-lighting.co.uk/de/rgbw-led-streifen/60-rgbw-led-streifen-warmweiss-24v-cri80-ip00-smd5050-5060440710001.html

    I just hope that the 14,4W won't be too bright for my application?

     

    Another question, if I get a power supply like this one

    https://www.hiline-lighting.co.uk/de/nicht-dimmbar/250-led-treiber-24v-200w-ip67-5060440711480.html

    where it is stated that it is not dimmable, will I still be able to dim the lights through the Fibaro RGBW controller? (PWM output) Has anyone tried the PWM by the way, does it flicker?

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    I don't think there are many RGBW cables under 14.4w/metre. The cables I was looking at were 20w/metre for 60 LEDs/m and 30w/m for 90 LEDs/m.

     

    I never checked my power supplies before to see if they were dimmable. I don't think it matters as the Fibaro RGWM module controls the dimming, but you should double check this with tech support as I couldn't guarantee it.

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    4 minutes ago, amilanov said:

    I don't think it matters a

    Correct RGB module after power supply or driver so it makes no difference 

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    That's true actually, I didn't notice any difference as well. I tried it and I did not see a noticeable difference, so it makes no sense to use it. I am using another lightning instead of

    Please login or register to see this link.

    , very cheap, but so good actually. Now my car looks totally different, my kids enjoying it a lot when they go for a ride with me. They change the colors all the time, saying that it's a rainbow in our car, which is partially true because you can switch between 16 million colors, and that's quite a lot I would say.

     

    Edited by nightfae
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