The Lightstrips choice thread

Hardware
87

Hi,

Bulbs and led controllers turn to solid color when pairing is successful. Afterwards they are turning to the last used setting (in order to be used with “dumb” wall switches, although they’re not fully usable as such as it takes about 1.5 - 2 seconds to light up).

FUT038 and FUT044 are similar (RGBW) so a RGB + white (either cold or warm) led strip could be used; of the RGBW flavor are also FUT027 and FUT028 (however I think it is a different protocol compared to FUT038). FUT039 and FUT045 (probably LS2 also) are RGB+CCT although it seems that FUT045 is FUT089 remote compatible and FUT039 is compatible with FUT092.

We should start a wiki page to document the protocols (which are not always backward compatible), remotes (wall mounted and handheld), bulbs and led strips controllers as there are a lot of confusing, different options for rookies.

88

1.5-2 seconds to light up is common with lightstrips, as it takes some time for power adapter to ‘fire up’. Or maybe it just depends on DC adapter. I don’t think it’s such a huge problem, but yes it’s worth mentioning.

I do have a ‘dumb’ LED strip, which is connected directly to power adapter, and it takes 2 seconds for it to light up.

Yes, wiki page with all of that would help a lot. Even for non rookies, it’ll make it one less thing to keep in your head :slight_smile:

89

I would LOVE A wiki, I have been wanting to get into DIY LED Strips for awhile now but have not had the time to wade into the nitty gritty of it.

90

Oh man a wiki page always helps! I always have to scroll back through this thread looking for details lol.

91

I am planning to get these

SYLVANIA SMART+ Flex Strip

as I already have Smartthings Hub V1 integrated with HomeAssistant (HassIO).

Can I control the light behaviour/color/brightness/temperaure with HA automation commands based on different event triggers.

Although this thread is now all inclined towards a DIY custom setup, however a newbie like myself would like to go with a ready made product as starters.

Would appreciate the reply.

92

Hi,

I would suggest ditching the Smartthings Hub and going with native integrations into HA.

In regard of the current technologies to be used by lights, the best choice I consider to be Zigbee (however :smiley: there is a big issue with the Zigbee as it is not really a standardized set in the sense Z-Wave already is). As a result, nearly every manufacturer has its own Zigbee implementation. If not willing to go DIY in order to be able to control a great variety of Zigbee products (Zigbee2mqtt: getting rid of your proprietary Zigbee bridges (Xiaomi, Hue, TRADFRI)) then I suggest getting the Philips Hue and for a budget option a Gledopto led driver at 30 USD (https://www.amazon.com/Zigbee-Controller-Compatible-Lightify-Control/dp/B075SZZS49/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1544029711&sr=8-2&keywords=gledopto) or 20 USD from aliexpress to go with the led strip of your choice.

93

Has anyone tried the Magic Hue light strip yet? They are available today on Amazon for $30:

Any chance these would work with Home Assistant?

94

when you buy such stuff you better buy a cheap RGB light strip and connect it with something like limitlessled.

  1. you are cheaper
  2. you are sure it works with HA.
95

It should be noted that, regardless of whether it does work with Home Assistant, the controller is using wifi.

Wifi, according to Murphy’s Code of Laws (Article 745, Para. k, Section 9), will stop working exactly when you need it the most. Even (much) more expensive products like Philips Hue can have issues from time to time, but wifi is simply not meant for low latency, low power, always on IoT devices.

If planning to use IR to control light strip from Home Assistant you can do it with a Broadlink IR: https://www.amazon.com/Broadlink-RM-Mini3-Universal-Controller-Compatible/dp/B01FK2SDOC or a DIY such as OpenMQTT: https://community.openmqttgateway.com/

Limitless/MiLight controllers are quite nice, however iBox hub implementation in Home Assistant is a disaster, after each major update the component stops working and sometimes stops reacting after 2-3 consecutive commands. MQTT JSON light implementation of the emulator I mentioned above is way better (and cheaper too, as it doesn’t require an iBox per each 4 lights/group of lights).

96

i made an esp milight hub.
its quite easy and way cheaper then the hubs from milight, and you only need 1.
i even made an appdaemon app to make it possible to add lights without restarting home assistant.

97

milight hubs are not so expensive actually. And if you account time you spend on learning+making your own hub it can be worth just buying one, if you only need 1-2 hubs.

However I must agree that if you need more than just a couple of them it’s worth investing time into making your own hub. Once you learn how to do it it’s gonna be copy paste for new hubs (not to mention that, as far as I know, there’s no limit on connected devices with esp hub)

98

its not that much time to learn. (if you know a little about esp, maybe 30 mins, if you dont know about it 1 to 2 hours)

i have 1 that is way more powerfull then the bought hubs. i works over 3 floors up and down with very high ceilings and very thick walls.
and i can connect as many lights as i want.

i have bought 1 when i started using it, its now lying somewhere being useless.

99

Hi there,

So i am looking for something that easily integrates with Home assistant.
I am looking for a controller that fits the following

  • wifi/zigbee/zwave
  • RGB (RGBW+ is a plus)
  • Addressable LEDs
  • A controller capable of different modes where HASS can actually toggle them

Any ideas? Also strips compatible with them are welcome as well

Cheers

100

Hi,

Requirement for addressable led strip would take out of the options Zigbee/Z-wave (as these work with analog led strips; otherwise, an analog led strip with a Gledopto controller it would be cheapest and most feature rich https://www.amazon.com/Zigbee-Controller-Compatible-Lightify-Control/dp/B075SZZS49 as it can be controlled through a Philips Hue bridge).

Digital led strip mostly require DIY products based on Arduino/ESP32/ESP8266 or RaspberryPi and some of the compatible digital strips would be WS2812b, WS2811, WS2813.

Although it is not all comprehensive and not maintained, have a look at the implementations included in the HA light integration (the bottom of the page):

Otherwise, my personal recommendation would be to go with https://hyperion-project.org/ and a RaspberryPi (v3 if wifi is a must and cannot use lan cable for which a v2 would suffice; it could use a Zero too but if you need the USB connection on the Rpi, then Zero doesn’t have one full sized); of the compatible strips I would choose APA102. It also require a logic level converter (from the 3.3V used by the Rpi to 5V used by the led strip) but it works very well with HA and doesn’t loses any commands.

Additionally, I mentioned USB connection above as, in conjunction with several components, not quite expensive (USB grabber, a hdmi splitter, hdmi to rca) can build a perfectly compatible Ambilight controller which works with any hdmi source connected to the tv (Xbox One/PS4/HTPC/Chromecast) and any content (is not limited to non-DRM such as Netflix).

1 Like
101
102

Thanks for all the contribution @sparkydave @Petrica

I am starting to get ready with buying components.

Anything in particular i should know of? any components i need more? (especially power)
Any help especially wiring guide will be very helpful

103

You will need a pretty beefy power supply for that LED strip. I have bought a 300W 5Vdc supply in the past for running such strips. You can get them at a reasonable price on AliExpress.

Example ESPhome code:

esphome:
  name: arcade_table_lighting_controller
  platform: ESP8266
  board: nodemcuv2

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  manual_ip:
    static_ip: 192.168.0.63
    gateway: 192.168.0.1
    subnet: 255.255.255.0

api:

# Enable logging
logger:

ota:
  password: !secret ota_password

light:
  - platform: fastled_clockless
    chipset: WS2812B
    pin: GPIO15
    num_leds: 60
    rgb_order: GRB
    name: "Arcade Table LEDs"
    effects:
      - random:
      - strobe:
      - flicker:
      - addressable_rainbow:
      - addressable_color_wipe:
      - addressable_color_wipe:
          name: Colour Wipe Christmas
          colors:
            - red: 100%
              green: 0%
              blue: 0%
              num_leds: 5
            - red: 0%
              green: 100%
              blue: 0%
              num_leds: 5
      - addressable_scan:
      - addressable_twinkle:
      - addressable_random_twinkle:
      - addressable_fireworks:
      - addressable_fireworks:
          name: Fireworks Random Colour
          use_random_color: true
      - addressable_flicker:
104

Thanks again

Im a bit confuse about power requirement (ive been reading quite a bit) so i want to make sure im getting this right

Lets say i get this one instead:

So its a 12v, 5M roll (60 led per meter, total of 300 leds)
I should be ok with a power supply (12v 10amps)?

Also i read that the WS2815 is newer and i think it is simillar to the WS2812B

105

Both strips use the same SMD 5050 component and each led draws around 0.3 W. A 300 led strip would then require at least 90 W of power supply (for 144 led/m ~ 250 W).

In the WS2812x/2813 flavor the voltage is 5V thus 60 mA are drawn. To prevent the voltage drop you would need to connect additional power wires at each 1.5 - 2 m (in addition to ends) and use thicker cables.

For WS2815 there are 12V * 25 mA. Connecting only the ends of the strip to power should suffice as the wires resistance is lower.

Might also need a logic level converter (I used for mine although people are using it without). From what I’ve read WS2815 uses the same libraries as WS2813.

Even if going for the WS2812/2813 5V led strip, don’t power it from the 5V pin of the ESP8266 as you’ll fry it (instead ground them together).

I would recommend a WeMos D1 R2 board if you haven’t already bought a controller as I found it more stable on wifi than its smaller counterparts.

2 Likes
106

So i got my strip finally in the mail!
Upon inspecting i am seeing that there are 4 wires namely:
12v , GND, Bin(out) and Din(out)

My guess the Bin is for backup.
I am interested in knowing how would one wire those to a nodemcu
Anyone?