(Part 2) Best products from r/led

Alright, I’ll do my best to explain what I did. First off, material list:

4 x WS2811 5m 30LEDS/m addressable LED strip 12V in IP67 waterproof tube
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01CNL6EG2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

1 x 12V 30A DC power supply
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01EWG6YT8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

1 x Magic LED Bluetooth controller
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01LW1J10W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

1 x Sound activated controller
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0792T73VB/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

10m (cut in half to get 20m) of Gorilla Mounting Tape Clear (link is for black, but I bought clear)
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/gorilla-glue-mounting-tape-black-0671081p.html#srp

14 gauge wire
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/southwire-30-metre-in-wall-speaker-wire-yellow-14-2-0529814p.html#srp

18 gauge wire (brown thermostat wire)
Can’t find a link, but I had it in my garage from another project

There is a strip that holds the soffit in place on the far side from the house that was a perfect channel for the LED strip. You can buy white aluminium channels for LED strips with nice frost glazing that diffuses the light. I would have bought them, but soffit and house trim are all brown and I could not find it in brown. I cleaned the surface of the house, then suck the tape to the strip and ran a knife down the side to cut it in half. I then attached it all to the house. 20m fit perfectly around the lower level trim on my house.

I have built-in shelves all around the inside of my garage. So I put the power supply on an upper shelf near the centre of the strips. I picked 12V strips over 5V strips to minimize voltage drops. There are numerous online voltage drop calculators, I used this one:

https://www.calculator.net/voltage-drop-calculator.html

My electrical engineering friends tell me I need to size the wire for no more than a 3% voltage drop. That might be a bit overkill for low-voltage LED lights, but that’s what is in the CEC for building wiring. I ended up using 14-gauge wire and ran power to each strip. It worked out to be a bit more than a 3% loss. I used the brown thermostat wire to tee off the main line indoors and ran it through the wall to power the strips. Each connection was done using crimp-style splice connectors that I had left-over from wiring a stereo in my boat.

On the far end I mounted the Magic LED Bluetooth controller (inside) and ran an extra run of the thermostat wire for the data signal. The controller worked great once I put in the right settings. I also set the wiring up so I can connect the sound activated controller outside. On Halloween I plan on setting up some singing pumpkins and have the lights dance to the music.

I hope this helps and good luck with your project. A key thing to keep in mind is you need to run power to each strip, otherwise, you will have too much line-loss, generate lots of heat, and the colours will be different on the far end. It can, and should, come from the same power supply, but just run additional power lines out to each strip.

I need natural white LEDs, 30/m, cut to about 3' ft lengths, and powered a portable battery that would last about 10-12 hrs. Here are some links. Thanks!

LED's

Battery

If you have better suggestions, It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

that battery tray you linked doesnt seem to be wired up. maybe this is more what you're looking for?

https://www.amazon.com/Sackorange-Battery-Storage-Plastic-1x18650/dp/B071JBRYF3/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=18650+battery+tray&qid=1551039435&s=gateway&sr=8-2

instead of a 12" tube i'd buy something flat that you can just curl up and insert into the cylinder.

the cooling fans just look like PC case fans. almost every PC guy would recommend Noctua fans for cooling a PC, here's a nice small 80mm that i think would work well, and a controller

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NF-A8-FLX-Premium-Computer/dp/B00NEMG9K6/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=pc+80mm+fan&qid=1551039869&s=gateway&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&smid=A1Z5H6ZGWCMTNX

https://www.amazon.com/Noctua-NA-FC1-4-pin-PWM-Controller/dp/B072M2HKSN/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=pc+case+fan+controller&qid=1551039926&s=gateway&sr=8-4

and i did find some aparently suitable wire, in multiple colors so you can coordinate your color rails.

https://www.amazon.com/StrivedayTMFlexible-Silicone-Electric-electronic-electrics/dp/B01LH1G2IE/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=silicon+allterm+wire&qid=1551039773&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmr0

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Aren't SOME LEDs focused (ie a painting at a display/art gallery)? Like the one with the beam angles while others are omnidirectional?

Also somethign really weird, I bought the Philips slims
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00I134ORI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JM72W58/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

the 2x450lum are DEFINITELY brighter than the 1 900. Why is this? I feel like lum ratings on the LEDs are VERY understated. Compared to my CLFs 900 lum CLF is the same brightness as the 450lum Philips

I purchased an Arduino and 3 sets of these led strips as they go around the ceiling in the room. I also got mounting brackets as it defuses the lights AND can screw into surfaces as opposed to the LED which has a sticker backing, so once on a surface they can't really be moved. But with the mounting hardware I could possibly move them.... maybe.

I also got this power supply but with 3 strips I don't go over a Brigthness of 150-ish. (as opposed to 255) You'll also need a ac power cable to the power supply. However, so good news here, if you're only using one strip you SHOULD be able to get by with only power from the USB.

Now on to programming; There is the Arduino IDE free of course, but you'll have to learn a TINY amount of C. If you've worked with C#, JavaScript you'll be fine. It's not that low level. You will want to get the FastLED library and then select the DemoReel100 project and it will show you lots of options on how to control the LEDs.

As for having your PC control the LEDs, it will depend on exactly what that means. I have a C# app that sends data to the Arduino and then the Arduino deals with the execution of that command.

Thanks for the input! Quick question though, these LEDs ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LG6J39V/ref=crt_ewc_img_dp_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A35UAT07QG3EC6 )

Are they not individually addressable? I can't find anything on the page saying that they are grouped in 3s.

Thanks again for your help.

I was hoping I could match it to the other side. But I did manage to find something that may have the same brightness and diameter on amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IR3G3S4 hopefully that works if I take it apart.

The problem with bulbs meant for sockets is that they are DC internally (usually 12V or 24V), but the housing of the bulb has an AC-DC power supply buck converter that provides the DC current. If you were to battery power this, you would have to convert back to AC only for the bulb to be converting back to DC. Not efficient.

You could also consider using LED lighting strips that are commonly DC 12V which you could wire to AA, AAA batteries (For example 8x1.5V AA batteries in series for 12V).

There are pre-made battery LED strip sets available that might be easily adapted for your purpose. Wrap an LED strip around a cylinder and its a lot like a bulb. They come with sticky tape on one side so they are easy to apply.

Here is an example that comes wired to a battery box:

https://www.amazon.com/Battery-Controller-Waterproof-Changing-Lights-2M/dp/B07CDDJRZJ

You can then cut the strip at specified points to make it shorter. You can also re-wire the strips into different configurations. The voltage will remain the same as long as they are wired in parallel. Here is a video showing a DIY light panel wired in parallel. Not exactly your goal, but it clearly shows how to cut the LED strips, then wire them in parallel. At the point this video wires those into the back of the panel, you would just wire yours into the battery box, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBatJNqUewk

Save your self a headache and get these: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01A77RU5I/ref=twister_B01GR2YUYG?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

They work great.

What do you mean they don't like the small increase? you're looking for DC to DC step up modules like these, just check on the current capacity.

https://www.amazon.com/Mini-DC-Voltage-Regulator-5V/dp/B01N6EKHZR/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1549996952&sr=8-7&keywords=3.3v+to+5v+step+up

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Is there a reason why you don't want to just get a normal USB battery? They're just 18650s with the necessary charge and boost circuits built in already

I've gotten random chinese led's off of ebay. Some are alright, some are not so great. I wouldn't buy a large number of a kind you haven't tried. Walmart started carrying great value brand 40w replacements($5) and 60w replacement (~$7) that I think are decent (and I believe 2700k) and that's what I use in my bedroom at the moment. I got the cheaper non dimmable, and they're better in downward facing lamps (not as good multidirectional) Home depot carries some "philips slim style" (http://www.amazon.com/Philips-433227-Equivalent-SlimStyle-Dimmable/dp/B00I134ORI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421924669&sr=8-2&keywords=philips+slim+style)

That are dimmable and produce light in all directions that are decent too. Only downside is a very faint buzzing sound (not loud, but it's there) emitted from them.

Thank you so much for your response! I was thinking that the Pi wouldn't be feasible on it's own for just that reason.

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For the driver, would something like this be able to run all 8 strips separately if I were to run the output signal through an 8-way splitter?

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Here's the strip I'm using. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018X04ES2/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1. I'm using these lights for a music performance so just white strips aren't an option. I'm currently using these https://www.amazon.com/Makerfocus-Charging-Lithium-Battery-Protection/dp/B071RG4YWM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1549826895&sr=8-5&keywords=charger+module. With a fully charged battery, I'm still not getting as much brightness as when I have the charger module plugged in via USB or adding a battery at both ends, but would like to just use 1 battery if possible. I won't be running the lights at full white except for the end of the show.

Mine is https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MYV70NJ , and just controlling it with the pin outputs on the raspberry pi at brightness 10 (out of 255) lights my room up a fair amount. I'll eventually move to a 40amp setup.

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I think the thing to look at closely is how many watts are being used. The reviews on that strip don't look so good (17% 1 star)

So while it may be enough light, there may be other issues with it.

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Yeah I should have included a screenshot of my calculation. Here's what I went off of, from led.linear1.org: https://imgur.com/a/O8o4Zo2

The power supply I bought is rated to 5A max, so I don't think it's the power supply. I bought this one specifically: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GEA8PQA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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As for the resistor, the calculator said it only needed to dissipate 1/4W so that's what I went with. Or it might have been 1/2W but it definitely wasn't super high power. Is that not accurate?