I have some experience in using wled and esphome to control segments of digital led strips. I am now looking for a solution to drive 14 different non-digital led strips but am a bit stuck on how to achieve this with esphome. The use case is led strips for my stairs (14 in total) which I want to light up 1 after each other. I need to be able to switch every individual light and need to dim all 14.
Does anyone know where to start? Do I need 1 of those 16 channel relay boards? If so: how would dimming then work?
Non-digital? That would be Analog.
I would use a Wemos D1 Mini (8266) and an MCP23017 to get 16 IO ports, each driving a MOSFET to control a strip of LEDs.
Do you want each circuit dim value to be different, or just to be able to choose the same dim level for the lot? Are you only going to have one step powered on at once, or potentially up to all 14?
Is an three step dimming an option rather than dimming over a range? Full, half, off, rather than variable? If so, maybe two banks of 16 channel relays, one bank connected to a voltage supply for full on, and one for voltage supply for half on, hooked up in parallel output may be an option. 16 channel relay boards are a cheap commodity item these days. Gotcha to watch: Your logic and wiring will have to be carefully structured so the two banks are never on at the same time, otherwise your two power supplies will be bridged via the relays with resulting welded contacts or smoke. Use a suitably rated circuit breaker in-line is recommended for protection.
Analog or pwm?
Alternatively, a digitally controlled power supply voltage as a source for each bank if you are happy with them all having the same dim level.
If you only want one step on at one time, one power supply, suitably dimmed, switched via relay to the appropriately step via the relay bank will be easy.
Otherwise you are back to individually controlled dimmer circuits.
Watch your current draw ratings, and appropriately thick wires to handle it all, keeping in mind voltage drops for long runs. Try to keep your wires away from any footstep areas and hard edges to prevent damage for installation longevity, even if they may possibly be under a layer of carpet. If you have access from the outside of the stairs, consider bringing in each wire individually for each stair horizontally from outside rather than running a bunch of wires up and over each step inside.
The led strips I am going to use are Goming 5mm COB led strips. They are 12 volts and take 6.4 watt per meter on full brightness. Each led strip will be wired directly to the controller. The goal is to have the led strips light up 1 by one (so that when you are on the stairs all led strips are lit). When you exit the stairs on top the lights should, 1 after a time, go off until none are lit.
Width of each stair is about 1.2 meters so I need an adapter of at least 110 watts which translates into roughly 10 amps.
For the led strips I need both dimming (6.4 per stair is way to bright) and switching (for the animation)
Wiring will be done from the back of the stairs (small hole just below each stair through which the cable runs that powers that particular stair).
You can still use WLED with analogue LEDs, in fact this product seems perfect for your use case (15 channels of output), also works directly with ESPhome if you prefer.
I think that is spot on! I just ordered it (a bit of a shame that taxes+shipping is more expensive than the device itself…) Will report back as soon as I have it.
Well, that’s the high cost you and others seem all to happy to pull out a barrel and smile when they tell you to bend over it because thats the price you pay for having zero patience and 0 interest in doing any online research to self-educate yourself and learn about alternatives that will equally do the same things, just no barrel required or public displays of embarrassment with that option…
You have essentially “dumb led’s” and they’re called that because that’s the minimum requirement needed to figure out how to control them…
To each his own though, if you’ve got piles of cash and dont mind burning a few piles now and then, well that’s your decision to do if you want!
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I have his 8-channel digital board and they are well made, with care and attention to ensure that the PCB is well tested and rated for sustained high current. I’ve had mine running 5V at 140W+ so pushing 25A+ through the board and it’s been very reliable.
The individually fused channels are nice too, I had a loose power injection wire and the fuse stopped me overloading the other power connector.
I made my own 8ch boards and they’ve been running most of the lights in my house as I’ve converted most lights to 24vDC LEDs… I’m honestly surprised how rock solid they are, especially because they were the second batch of PCBs I had ever made
I’m toying with the idea of making them for sale, just not sure there is a lot of market need for such a device.
Oh well dear @fversteegen! Personally I would have opted for digital led strips. Could you be as kind as to elaborate why you have chosen analog ones instead?
Great question @JimmyHotcakes02! The rationale is that the strips are visible on the stairs while off. Personally I do not like the looks of a PCB hence I have chosen for 5mm warm white analog cob strips. In total (strips+controller) are about the same price
as opting for digital, so for me it is more esthetics then costs. Let me share a picture of the led strip so that you hopefully understand my rationale.
Agreed - COB strips are much neater than PCB strip + diffuser, I’ve tried both and become quite annoyed with the older strips lack of even lighting. Not sure I’d go digital if it was just a white strip but for RGBW the wiring is much nicer with digital due to the lower wire count.
Running 3x 1024 LED 2D WS2812B panels, adding a 4th soon!
Powering via Meanwell UHP 500-5, plenty of overhead there. Really these power levels only happen when trying to push pure white or blue-white on full brightness. Most of the time it’s happy at 50-60W.
WLED is so much fun, highly recommend. I have the panels mounted in LP frames with 4x116x16 panels in each frame to get a 32x32, then 3 of those frames in a row for 96x32 total. Planning to re-arrange into a square with 128x128 next.
All wired with 5A fuses on the JST-SM signal plugs and 14awg with 10A fuses for power injection on each frame.
Yeah, you can feel a small amount of radiated heat if running on max settings but really that’s not necessary and it’s fun to run music-reactive patterns at lower brightness levels where you can actually look at them without your eyes watering!
