Led Strip Lights

[bmiller]

I currently have 4 small fluorescent kitchen under counter lights, and would like to install LED strip lights. The present lights are hard wired with a leviton noise filter and controlled by a 2476S on/off switch and also linked to a 2487S keypad linc. I'm looking to replace them with LED strip lights and was wondering if there are any restrictions on make, size etc. I only need 6-8' of lights, but finding hardwire options may be harder.

I found these lights on Amazon. Has anyone tried these type of lights with the ISY?  They would be the right size, linkable and easy enough to hard wire.

https://www.amazon.ca/Nadair-Dimmable-Cabinet-Lighting-Setttings/dp/B0753K7M7P/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_201_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=14XH9YYQT6RAS4HGN8S3&th=1

Thanks

Brad

Edited November 8, 2018 by bmiller
Added link

[giomania]

I currently have 4 small fluorescent kitchen under counter lights, and would like to install LED strip lights. The present lights are hard wired with a leviton noise filter and controlled by a 2476S on/off switch and also linked to a 2487S keypad linc. I'm looking to replace them with LED strip lights and was wondering if there are any restrictions on make, size etc. I only need 6-8' of lights, but finding hardwire options may be harder.
I found these lights on Amazon. Has anyone tried these type of lights with the ISY?  They would be the right size, linkable and easy enough to hard wire.
https://www.amazon.ca/Nadair-Dimmable-Cabinet-Lighting-Setttings/dp/B0753K7M7P/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_201_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&refRID=14XH9YYQT6RAS4HGN8S3&th=1
Thanks
Brad

If you are into DIY, just buy the LED strip lights in a roll, enclosures for the strips (optional), and a transformer.

I have a bunch of info on various BOM options I collected in a Word document when I was doing my research. If interested, let me know and I can share it via Google Drive.


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[larryllix]

Have a read about strip LEDs here and many threads around that era.

 

[bmiller]

I ended up ordering:  Colohas Led Strip Lights, 2018 New Upgraded 32.8ft(10M) Waterproof Flexible RGB Led Strip Light Kit,5050 SMD 300led with 44 IR Controller,Extra Adhesive 3M Tape Strip for Home and TV Decoration.

This kit came with 90 degree connectors and multiple cables. I'll need another power supply for another setup, but that shouldn't be to hard to find.

 

[larryllix]

I ended up ordering:  Colohas Led Strip Lights, 2018 New Upgraded 32.8ft(10M) Waterproof Flexible RGB Led Strip Light Kit,5050 SMD 300led with 44 IR Controller,Extra Adhesive 3M Tape Strip for Home and TV Decoration.
This kit came with 90 degree connectors and multiple cables. I'll need another power supply for another setup, but that shouldn't be to hard to find.
 

Are your strips 24volt? I find the 12volt strips get dim at the far end when I attach two 5m strips in series.

The strips come with connectors on both ends and it makes it easy to split the strips into two pieces without soldering new connectors onto the LED PCBs.

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[bmiller]

The strips are 12v. I only need about 8'. These lights were bright enough, but the white has a blue tinge to it, and my wife and i both didn't like it. I'll need to find a 5050 strip of led lights only that are more in the 2700k - 3000k range, or i'll use this set somewhere else. I've since order a $24 one colour, dimmable led set that is supposed to be 3000k. We'll see how the white looks on this one.

 

[Scottmichaelj]

The strips are 12v. I only need about 8'. These lights were bright enough, but the white has a blue tinge to it, and my wife and i both didn't like it. I'll need to find a 5050 strip of led lights only that are more in the 2700k - 3000k range, or i'll use this set somewhere else. I've since order a $24 one colour, dimmable led set that is supposed to be 3000k. We'll see how the white looks on this one.
 

Could get the 4in1 5050 LEDs that have RGBWW or RGBCW from ebay (Supernight) then mix the colors/white to get the “perfect” white you desire.

[midrar]

On 11/8/2018 at 2:53 PM, larryllix said:

Are your strips 24volt? I find the 12volt strips get dim at the far end when I attach two 5m strips in series.

The strips come with connectors on both ends and it makes it easy to split the strips into two pieces without soldering new connectors onto the LED PCBs.

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If your lights are getting dim at the end of the strip, it’s more likely due to the size of the power supply. Take a look at the current capacity of the one you have and get one that’s bigger as they are generally inexpensive. 

 

What i I did in my home to reduce the number of power supplies, I ran an independent wire run for each strip of led lights to a common location where there, I used one 12v 5 amp power supply controlled by a outletlinc. Works great  

 

Good luck. 

[larryllix]

1 hour ago, midrar said:

If your lights are getting dim at the end of the strip, it’s more likely due to the size of the power supply. Take a look at the current capacity of the one you have and get one that’s bigger as they are generally inexpensive. 

 

What i I did in my home to reduce the number of power supplies, I ran an independent wire run for each strip of led lights to a common location where there, I used one 12v 5 amp power supply controlled by a outletlinc. Works great  

 

Good luck. 

It isn't the power supply.  The 6A 12V PSU feeds multiple strips just fine in a radial configuration, but the tiny conductors in the strips have too much voltage drop to feed a sequential 5m of strip.

I was thinking of beefing up the power supply trace with an external conductor also but every one of the five would need to be done or just one single negative return.

The best way I have found is to use a common box with two sets of electroncs and feed both directions every 10m, 5m each direction. PSU can be shared if 6 ampere.. Only one receptacle end required and the RGBWW strips run just fine on a 3A supply anyway.

[bmiller]

On 11/15/2018 at 12:37 AM, Scottmichaelj said:

 

Could get the 4in1 5050 LEDs that have RGBWW or RGBCW from ebay (Supernight) then mix the colors/white to get the “perfect” white you desire.

I ended up with a single colour 3000k strip that is the right colour. It wasn't bright enough at the sink for hand washing dishes etc. so i ran 2 extra runs in this area. Barely enough light

but acceptable.

[larryllix]

I ended up with a single colour 3000k strip that is the right colour. It wasn't bright enough at the sink for hand washing dishes etc. so i ran 2 extra runs in this area. Barely enough light
but acceptable.

The light can appear very soft being so evenly dispersed

Contrasting that with a single point overhead LED or halogen (like jewellers prefer) that make your pots and pans sparkle so much it's hard to see what you are doing.

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[Scottmichaelj]

I ended up with a single colour 3000k strip that is the right colour. It wasn't bright enough at the sink for hand washing dishes etc. so i ran 2 extra runs in this area. Barely enough light
but acceptable.

Hmm my 5050 strips are bright. Maybe your under powering them or have a bad power supply? My strips (the same I recommended) are so bright I have to turn them way down and sometimes even wish I could dim them more.

[bmiller]

They are 2538 300's. I have about 13' of lights powered with a 6A power supply. The one that came with it was 2A and had no cord from the transformer to the 120vac supply, just a direct plugin type. Not enough clearance to add a box and plug without it sticking out. I used the one from the 5050 set i bought earlier, cut the plug off so i could wire it into a junction box hidden under the uppers. I was shocked at the small fine wire in the cord.  I had to solder it onto the 120v connecting wire in the jb just to get a marr on it.

[bmiller]

Ive decided to remove these cheap offshore led strip lights and buy some "24 led light bars with dimming switches built in. These led strips some times flicker, the backing tape is beginning to fail, and they aren't quite as bright as i expected. It's a good thing they weren't all that expensive. Lesson learned. The old saying," you get what you pay for" holds true in this case.

[larryllix]

None of them stick with double sided tape. You require clips shown in other threads, or stuff track channels as Mr. Cold White (Scott above) used.

My 230 feet of cheap RGBWW led strips work fine and other than the orginal section of bad red elements that were replaced, I have never had a problem with them at about $35 per 5m section.

I do have some white 18 inch hard tube ones purchased for about $40 each I wish I had never seen but then I can hardly see anything with them

How the technology changes from last week.

The mounting quality is in the B holder.

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[Scottmichaelj]

Yeah I have had some of the glue unstick from the strips but at the end of the day I feel like its all the same stuff coming from China. So I just get a bit of glue and stick it on. My LEDs are bright and with the MagicUFO NodeServer they have been working well.

-Mr Cool White

[bmiller]

I ended up getting 3 - 2' and 1 - 18" Led fixtures with off-50%-100% switches. They are 100% brighter than the 14' of led strip i had before and the colour is actually 3000K and not the yellow of the strip lights. They were supposed to be 3000k but were no where near that. That old adage , you get what you pay for, holds true in this case. Lesson learned at minimum cost. We are much happier with these. They work fine with insteon so far, although i've only tried them with the keypad switch.

[JDuncan]

I've had good luck with this strip under my kitchen cabinets:
http://a.co/d/5AqQGlx

I've used wifi controllers like this one:
http://a.co/d/fDSkVfN
And Z-wave controllers like this one:
http://a.co/d/evi01EN

All hooked up with Chinesium solderless [90*] connectors and attached with screw-in silicone clamps. Powered with whatever 12V 10A brick was on sale at the time. Been running flawlessly for a little over a year now.

Wifi controllers are triggered with network resources; z-Wave can be managed with scenes (the zwave controller links to the ISY as three devices; on/off, dimmer, & RGBW color.)

I've found the wifi controllers to be useful for "art" installations (like lighting Christmas decorations) where it makes more sense to trigger with a program. Zwave, IMO, is better for "functional" installations (like under-cab lighting) as scenes are easier to manage and more responsive for "push-button" control with a KPL. YMMV.

Here's an early proof of concept test of the zwave controller in my kitchen; KPlinc handling on/off/dim of a warm white the wife doesnt hate; Remotelinc triggering other scenes to change color. Touching KPL resets to warm white.

 

[larryllix]

4 hours ago, davis phillip said:

There are internal connection issues within my led lights strips. They’ve been properly set up, cut, and connected. On one light strip, the tail end is a different color than the rest of the strip. For example, if the color i want to use for my lights is green the single problem section will be purple. On another light strip that’s connected through a power connector the light will only connect to one wire port even though they’re all touching the metal wires. I’ve switched and flipped and fumbled with these strips for weeks and have yet to find a consistent solution. 

Welcome to the UDI forums!!

 

I have a few dozen of these strips and many of them have different wiring. First when cut the opposite end has the wiring reversed.
The ends of the LED strip may be marked RGBWC for Red, Green,Blue,White, and Common. First you need to find the common conductor on the strip and wire it to the C on the controller. Then turn on one colour only and touch the wires from each LED contact to it until the colour matches the selected colour. Repeat until all proper colours are wired.

Edited September 28, 2020 by larryllix

[MrBill]

15 hours ago, davis phillip said:

There are internal connection issues within my led lights strips. They’ve been properly set up, cut, and connected. On one light strip, the tail end is a different color than the rest of the strip. For example, if the color i want to use for my lights is green the single problem section will be purple. On another light strip that’s connected through a power connector the light will only connect to one wire port even though they’re all touching the metal wires. I’ve switched and flipped and fumbled with these strips for weeks and have yet to find a consistent solution. 

Are these strips 5050, 2835, 3528, etc?  or are they individually addressable--which is different technology. ?

Assuming 5050, 2835, 3528 style, that's an unusual problem.  Green Lights is a single LED of the RGB color scheme, purple is not--it's a combination of Red and Blue.  When we diagnose problems with this style strip the best test is to set GREEN and observe, then set BLUE and observe, then set RED and observe.  All other colors are just a combination of those three.   What we normally see completing that test is that sections of the strip just don't light under one or two of those 3 color combinations, they don't suddenly make a mixed color--like purple.   Anyway if it's a 5050-like strip as discussed in this paragraph and your getting weird results in a single section of the strip, not where it's been cut, then it likely means the strip has been physically damaged at that point, and is likely beyond normal repair.

[larryllix]

3 hours ago, MrBill said:

Are these strips 5050, 2835, 3528, etc?  or are they individually addressable--which is different technology. ?

Assuming 5050, 2835, 3528 style, that's an unusual problem.  Green Lights is a single LED of the RGB color scheme, purple is not--it's a combination of Red and Blue.  When we diagnose problems with this style strip the best test is to set GREEN and observe, then set BLUE and observe, then set RED and observe.  All other colors are just a combination of those three.   What we normally see completing that test is that sections of the strip just don't light under one or two of those 3 color combinations, they don't suddenly make a mixed color--like purple.   Anyway if it's a 5050-like strip as discussed in this paragraph and your getting weird results in a single section of the strip, not where it's been cut, then it likely means the strip has been physically damaged at that point, and is likely beyond normal repair.

I wondered about that combo colour also. I agree it sounds like a hardware problem now. Likely software colours are mixed up with hardware colours as well as two traces shorted together where the cut was made, or a connector doesn't line up with the traces on the LED strip. RGBW strips have at least 5 traces to connect to while RGB only has four traces to connect to. They cannot be interchanged. Things are not always solderless, just plug and play, in this world.

[MrBill]

29 minutes ago, larryllix said:

Without a local API they are mostly useless to HA people. These companies all want to hide their local API and cut their own throats.
HA people don't want a cell phone app.

The poster above you is just a link spammer...   He got you to bite.... you're quoting his links (that's what he hopes people will do because that is what helps his link spamming cause).   I reported all 3 of his posts early this morning. 

[FarmerGeek]

blmiiler said he had a hardwired leviton noise filter.  Where did you find the filter.  I just installed two LED lights in my workshop and I can turn them on but once they are on the produce so much noise I can't remotely turn them off.  I would really not have to install an outlet and put a plug on the run going to the lights.

[MrBill]

17 minutes ago, FarmerGeek said:

blmiiler said he had a hardwired leviton noise filter.  Where did you find the filter.  I just installed two LED lights in my workshop and I can turn them on but once they are on the produce so much noise I can't remotely turn them off.  I would really not have to install an outlet and put a plug on the run going to the lights.

The Leviton 6287 5-amp Noise Block is a disconnected product.  Sometimes you can find them on ebay.   

The two LED lights, what style are they?  just a bulb?  strip fixture or what?  If you can still return them you might want to do that and buy a different option.   Part of my evaluation of any new device or bulb anymore is if it makes noise that disturbs insteon it gets returned immediately.  then I buy something else.

[FarmerGeek]

It figures.  Have had the lights to long.  They are in a workshop that was built almost a year ago.  I had the lights and switch installed then but just now getting around to wanting to switch it remotely.