CW WW LED Strip (2 pins) with ESPHome?

ESPHome
1

Hey there,

I have several CW / WW LED strips installed in my home. They are currently driven by this setup:

12 V Power Supply

IMG_20250223_153312
IMG_20250223_1533121920×1080 250 KB

RF LED Controller - Output seems to be 2 pin 5V

IMG_20250223_153318
IMG_20250223_1533181920×1080 171 KB

Splitters - 2 pins per LED strip. Here two strips are connected.

IMG_20250223_153338
IMG_20250223_1533381920×1080 157 KB

The controler allows to set the brightness and color temperature of the strips but it requires an RF remote control and I would like to replace it with a smarter solution.

How exactly are LED strips with warm and cold white LEDs controlled over two wires? And how can this be realized with ESPHome?

I hope someone knows how to do this.
Thank you in advance!

Best,
GaRv3

2

Only way I’m aware of is configuration where warm and cold LEDs have opposite polarity and the driver is switching polarity at high frequency based on color asked.

3

Have a look at the H Bridge component, you will need a driver for it.

4

Oh, okay. I did not know this exists.
What kind of driver can I use?
Thank you.

5

Any h-bridge driver that doesn’t use separate pwm channel.
But be aware of the note on that esphome component page.
To have flicker free experience the polarity has to be switched really fast and I seriously doubt Esphome can make it.

6

Oh, wow. So the better solution would probably be to create an ESPHome RF remote to control the original drivers…

7

To my opinion yes. Or find a driver that makes the polarity switching on hardware. Or hack the original controller.