I’ve got a bathroom counter that underneath it I would like to run an LED strip so that if I get up in the middle of the night the lights turn on to a soft white so that I don’t walk into walls in the pitch black.
I’ve got an AC 120V outlet in the wall, but that is it. I can, if I have to, drill down through my countertop, through the wall and come out near where I want the LED strip to be placed under the counter.
My question. How do I know what kind of LED’s to buy, how do I know what controller to buy, and how do I get power to it? I’ve seen 5V and 12V and don’t know how I would get power from 120V AC to the voltage I need.
Any help is appreciated. If there is a simple plug in Zigbee / Zwave light that could sit on my counter and do the same thing, that would be fine too, and probably less work.
So, my basic thought here is to give you some ideas about some of these very low cost LED lights that can be make 100% local control with not much work. I have converted a number of these ‘Tuya’ type lights, there are a number of very interesting lighting devices in this space, though note, not all can be make to ‘get off the cloud’. This specific device is not a really ‘nice’ looking, not sophisticated and is on WiFi, which you did not ‘specify’. All that said, it might give you a start and some ideas for a relative low cost (other than your 'mental sweat equity ) 100% local in home only starting point. Also, there is lots of interesting work going on around these new high gHz motion sensors as well. Adding these into a setup might be interesting (another rabbit hole to go down). Links below :
Good hunting!
Globe Electric Wi-Fi Smart Ambient Night Light with Motion Detection
If you have a Raspberry Pi or similar setup that lets you create a control a ‘separate’ WiFi network, you can convert this USD 20 device to 100% all local with only in software an very easily set of steps:
Thanks. That looks interesting, but was hoping to get more information on the LED strips, how to power them, etc. Is there a good guide out there for that?
Yes, apologies. I kinda grok’ed your question then went a bit on tangent.
However, it does seem like you want a ‘combo’ of a presence sensor and a ‘out of the way/invisible wiring’ LED strip. From my reading, if my ASSumption is correct, there is not much out there. So why my thoughts went to someplace ‘custom’ that you can integrate into your bathroom that ‘works’ and meets the ‘significant other’ acceptance factor for aesthetics. Hope you hit that sweet spot!
But you can’t time restrict it and there’s no dimming.
To answer your question, typically 12V/24V LED strips are “dumb”. They use the return power to control the color and the whole strip is set to the same color.
5V use a data pin to control the color, so it gets you the ability to set the color per LED. These require a more sophisticated controller.
The power type doesn’t overly matter as long as you keep it the same across the board; e.g., 12V LED strip with a 12V power supply, and a controller that can do 12V.
The easy button here is to just get a kit but you’ll have to add your own motion sensor (if you don’t already have one) and setup some automation to control the light with motion.
No worries. I think I got it working by buying a standard Edison base and put in a zigbee A19 dimmable bulb and a motion sensor. $25 and its done, no drilling, just all standard stuff.
) 100% local in home only starting point. Also, there is lots of interesting work going on around these new high gHz motion sensors as well. Adding these into a setup might be interesting (another rabbit hole to go down). Links below :
