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LED Dream Controller and Strips

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MartinY

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My pin room internals are starting on Monday and I'm wanting to put in recessed led lighting with a dream controller. I know a number of you guys out there have done this but I'm not sure what setup is best for me?

The lighting will be recessed (with a false ceiling) around the edge of my room, which is essentially a square 10m x 6m room. I'll need just short of 32m of LED strip as it goes around the outside of the room. A few questions:
- what's the best SMD strip(s) for this?
- what power adaptor is best for this?
- ideally I'd like a manual switch, app, Alexa and the ability to control to music - are all of these possible? What adaptor(s) do I need?
- I'd like the "dream" LED element, ie, chasing lights
- whilst I'd love to mess around with an Arduino, I don't have the time at the moment, so even if I replace later I need something more plug-and-play now (unless there is a module for this now)

Thanks in advance to the techies who know about this stuff!

M
 
what ever you do make sure you get the individual control ones:
 

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Cheers Neil. So I'm looking at sk6812s or ws2812bs, individually addressable. Did you go for the RGB or RGB+W?

Currently thinking about something like these:
RGB+W: RGB+W, 300 LED 5m
RGB: WS2812B, 300 LED, 5m

What controller did you use and what programming did you have to do?
And 30 LEDs/m or 60?

These things are power hungry! At 5v, 60 LEDs per metre, 60mA per led and 32 metres, that equates to a whopping 115A! Obviously that's if every light was on full brightness (which they clearly won't be). Even still, that means I need a new leccy cable... Hence why I'm also thinking RGB+W...
 
MartinY said:
These things are power hungry! At 5v, 60 LEDs per metre, 60mA per led and 32 metres, that equates to a whopping 115A!
Click to expand...

I dont think these work that way.... There again you seem to be talking 32M which is some distance!!!!
 
Paul said:
I dont think these work that way.... There again you seem to be talking 32M which is some distance!!!!
Click to expand...
Actually, I've over-egged it as it's 20mA per LED and they are in 3's, so it's 38A MAX or 1.2A per metre. In all reality, it'll likely be 1/3 to 1/2 of that as every LED won't be on full brightness all the time, so 13 to 19A. Even still, that's a massive draw due to the low voltage..
 
MartinY said:
Actually, I've over-egged it as it's 20mA per LED and they are in 3's, so it's 38A MAX or 1.2A per metre. In all reality, it'll likely be 1/3 to 1/2 of that as every LED won't be on full brightness all the time, so 13 to 19A. Even still, that's a massive draw due to the low voltage..
Click to expand...

Numbers are wrong as it doesn’t pull anything like that...

Let me find out what I ordered.

Neil


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
So I'm being a bit thick on this then (presumably so!). On a DC transformer (240v IN, 5V out), does that assume that 24A at 5V (draw side) would equate to .5A, 240V on the supply side (same wattage each side and assuming no loss)?
 
The superlight website isn’t responding for me - is it working for you now?

I’ll post up what I ordered as I intended it to go round my room which is 30m so should be fine for what you need.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
MartinY said:
So I'm being a bit thick on this then (presumably so!). On a DC transformer (240v IN, 5V out), does that assume that 24A at 5V (draw side) would equate to .5A, 240V on the supply side (same wattage each side and assuming no loss)?
Click to expand...
That sounds correct to me ?
 
ea. 200W16.7A DC12V Constant Voltage Outdoor Waterproof IP67 Switching LED Driver Transformer Power Supply For LED Light Strips
  • Input Voltage: - 220V±20%
$69.985 ea.2pin +- Power Wire Cable Copper Core For Single Color LED Strip Lighting 1meter by sale
  • Type: - 2-PIN
$4.951 ea.DC7-24V, Newest LED WIFI Dream Color Music Spectrum DMX Cascaded Controller Control by Android Device, For LPD6803,WS2811,WS2812B, WS2801 Addressable LED Lights
  • Kits: - Controller
  • Operating Voltage ： - 7-24V
  • Applies to: - Programmable Dream Color LED Strips
$64.982 ea.WS2811 DC5/12V Programmable LED Strip Lights, Addressable Digital Full Color Chasing Flexible LED Strips, Outdoor Waterproof, 60LEDs/m
  • Kits: - led strip lights
  • Light Color : - Addressable RGB
  • PCB Color : - Black Background
  • Operating Voltage ： - 12VDC
  • Length: - 16.4ft (5 meters)
  • Waterproof Rating： - Waterproof IP67 (Silicon Tube)
$83.964 ea.2Pin Single Color LED Strip Lighting Fast Wire Cable Accesories Lenght 12cm
  • PCB Width: - 10mm (0.39in)
Is what I ordered as I was originally going to stick the lights outside but thought better of it! LOL. It runs of a Kasa tplink plug that is on Alexa so you can turn it off and on - on my Alexa it’s in a group called pinball lights that turns on all the neons, the led ceiling lights, dmd clock and the dream LEDs I have it set to a chase sound mode so the lights chase in colours and the noise of the room determines the brightness - there are thousands of options on this and once I got something I liked I pretty much haven’t fiddled with it. The superlight guys where very responsive and shipped it out fast
The android client for the controller isn’t app of the year but it gets the job done and as I said used it a couple of times and now barely ever.


Neil.
 
Just in case anyone does look back at this thread, here are the figures I've worked out and stuff I've ordered:
For the WS2812B LED strips with 60 pixels per metre, they are 5v, 2mA per colour (6mA per pixel - RGB) and 0.3W per pixel. This means 18W and 3.6A per metre. You should leave a headroom of 20% on top for the transformer. For my 32 metres I need 700W, 138A so I've gone for 3 x 300W, 60A transformers.

At a peak load of 576W (without the 20% overhead), this means a draw on the AC supply side of 2.4A peak. In reality, mostly way under that.

I've gone for the 5v WS2812B because I couldn't get decent 60 pixels per metre WS2811s here in the UK. The WS2811s also come in 12v. I'm sure they are available somewhere though. The WS2812Bs are an updated version of the 2811s where the chip is on the LED itself.

Following Neil's suggestions, I've gone for the following:
LED Strips: ALITOVE 16.4ft 300 Pixels WS2812B RGB LED Flexible Strip Light Individually Addressable Dream color
Transformer (x3): DC5V Power Supply CHINLY AC 110/220V to DC5V 60A 300W LED driver Switch Power Supply
2-Core Cable (for Transformer to each LED strip): 25 AMP Rated 2mm2 Thin Wall 2 Twin Core Cable Wire
And the same controller as Neil: SPI Wifi Music Controller (but I got it from elsewhere - hopefully it will turn up)

I'm planning on connecting each LED strip in series, but need two channels from the controller (for this controller, 1024 WS2812Bs can be connected on each channel or 2048 WS2811s). I'll power each strip individually from the transformer, 17m on one channel, 15 on the other (for ease) and each strip connected to one of the 3 transformers. I'll put the transformers and controller on a single smart plug and cross my fingers.

Edit: I actually got the RGB+W lights in the end as I could do with a proper white also: Dreamcolor 16.4Ft (5M) SK6812 IC (Upgraded of WS2812B) 300 Pixels 5050 RGB+White Individually Addressable LED Strip Light
 
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If you are running long lengths of LED's you may need to put power supply t several points along the run - i.e. pwer at the start, power at the end and power in the middle. I have found that the lights toward the end of the run can dim and change color temperature if you don'tt do this. it all depend on the length and the type of strip you have though
 
Thanks Alan, I'm on 5m strips. Am going to put power at the start of each strip, but if there are any problems, was going to add at the end also. Let's see when they get here!!
 
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