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Started By
Message
re: Permanently installed LED "Christmas" lights.
Posted on 8/18/22 at 3:13 pm to Hopeful Doc
Posted on 8/18/22 at 3:13 pm to Hopeful Doc
I've thought about that a lot but still haven't decided. As usual I will probably have to try a few things for the boss's approval.
I might brick around them and make a tiny mulch bed for each light. Or maybe use some of that flower bed trim material and do the same. Or I might line both sides of the walkway with mulch a foot or two wide.
I don't know, that part was outside the scope of this project and the tech board, and I'm not much of a grounds keeper.
I might brick around them and make a tiny mulch bed for each light. Or maybe use some of that flower bed trim material and do the same. Or I might line both sides of the walkway with mulch a foot or two wide.
I don't know, that part was outside the scope of this project and the tech board, and I'm not much of a grounds keeper.
0
Posted on 8/18/22 at 3:22 pm to Lonnie Utah
quote:I'll have about 30 feet from the power supply to the first lamp with 10 LEDs, then somewhere around 10-12 feet to the next lamp, and then do that a few more times for each side of the path. About 80 feet per run.
How many total LED's in the 100 ft? With 14 gauge, you'll be fine.
quote:Right, each lamp will tap off the 14 gauge.
You're tapping power for each one of the main 14 gauge wire with the data wire going between lights, right?
quote:That's going to be a tricky thing involving a lot of hot glue.
I'd be interested in seeing how you arranged the LEDs underneath each light.
Trimming the length off the 4" cap means I will have to angle the lights due to their length. Will be a bit of a pain but I think it is worth it.
Posted on 8/18/22 at 3:35 pm to Korkstand
quote:
Right, each lamp will tap off the 14 gauge.
You'll be perfectly fine with regards to voltage drop. 12v is much more forgiving than 5v.
Posted on 8/18/22 at 4:00 pm to Hopeful Doc
quote:
I don’t think there’s a better looking path light right now than the Hue Econic
Yeah those look pretty good. I'm not OT baller rich, but even if I was I don't think I would buy the 8/10/12 lights that I need for my front path at $150/ea. Maybe I could get away with only 4 or 6 of them as it looks like they might put out a good radius, but depending on how these turn out I will probably want to put another 10-12 of them in the back yard. I also like doing my lights with WLED.
I do like that style of light though, so maybe I will try to do something similar with cheap stock material and using common hand and power tools. I found some 4" OD frosted acrylic tube on amazon. It's a bit pricey so maybe I can find a cheaper source. Might be a good material to build off.
Posted on 8/18/22 at 7:41 pm to Korkstand
quote:
I don't think I would buy the 8/10/12 lights that I need for my front path at $150/ea
Right now you can get them for $90/light with a 40w PSU (with each light) at Costco, and that’s a sale that seems to happen about once quarterly. It’s still expensive, and Hue has a proprietary 2-pin connector (tons of people online have written about splicing them and using standard lighting cable and third party transformers).
At first, I thought “hm. Neat. Let’s see what other fixtures are available and bulbs that can work with zigbee/Hue/even hubless wifi” and it turns out there’s basically nada with that sort of appearance. But then I learned you’re going to hit $100/fixture (before a color changing LED array) with most of the reputable players in outdoor lighting. And even then, basically none of them are as attractive (to me and how it would look at my house…I could see people not liking that fixture).
Volt is attempting a disruptive pricing mechanism for a decent quality light. Their sealed-LED that changes color (and it’s a “dumb” one, at that) is in that $90-110 range, and when it dies, it’s dead.
What you’re doing still isn’t exactly a replacement for what I’m personally looking for (a light that shines “around” and “down” rather than a “mushroom cap” style path light), but is extremely unique in its cost and function. So I’m super interested in it, and finding some way to repurpose your idea to a fixture a little more like I’m looking for is pretty high on my list! So be sure to keep us updated. I’ll send you a royalty fee.
Posted on 8/18/22 at 9:03 pm to Hopeful Doc
quote:Will do. I'll post pics and maybe videos after it's all done.
What you’re doing still isn’t exactly a replacement for what I’m personally looking for (a light that shines “around” and “down” rather than a “mushroom cap” style path light), but is extremely unique in its cost and function. So I’m super interested in it, and finding some way to repurpose your idea to a fixture a little more like I’m looking for is pretty high on my list! So be sure to keep us updated.
And because I can never leave well enough alone (and also because it's fun), I'll definitely keep looking for more materials to make different style lights. As I mentioned above I've found some frosted acrylic tube that I can use for an "around and down" light (and I would probably use strips instead of string LEDs for those). I do have a 3d printer so I could make almost any style, but I was aiming for something that didn't require any special equipment, knowledge, or skills.
Looking at some other Hue stuff, these look pretty simple to do:
Don't know how you feel about this "modern" style with simple shapes, but they look pretty simple to copy with readily-available, cheap materials that are easy to work with.
Posted on 8/20/22 at 1:05 pm to Korkstand
Well son of a bitch, look what I just saw on reddit: diy Home Pathway Lights for only $13 each!
Not rgb led and quite a bit of work, but they're pretty simple and look nice.
Not rgb led and quite a bit of work, but they're pretty simple and look nice.
Posted on 10/23/22 at 5:23 pm to Lonnie Utah
New take on the old thread:
Holiday Coro puts a “2811” LED (is this the same as ws2811?) in a c9 form factor:
You can buy a string of 50 spaced 12” apart for $47. I have approximately 160ft of roofline that I want to cover (there’s one “split level” spot- I should be able to “extend” space between two lamps without a real problem, right ?)
They show a string of 100 operating without discernible differences between the 1st and last bulb on the brightest white (well, on the video he says in person right next to each other there is a very slight difference, but they suggest practically that a run of 100 should be fine). Fortunately, I’ve got a spot that would split the 160ft of roofline almost equally in the middle, and there’s already a 12v transformer there. And I’ve gotten permission to mount a second one if needed.
Additionally, they make a mounting strip to hold the bulbs equally spaced:
But instead of screwing this into my roofline. I would buy the white strip that matches my roofline and gutters and then mount some J hooks to it and let it “hang” on the gutters.
Now is where I start having questions:
Being a “2811” pixel, would wled work? They suggest xlights, but I’m not trying to put on a light show. I would sort of like to be able to run a schedule (traditional “colored” lights one night, r/g the next, r/cool white the next, warm white one after that, etc). Everything seems to be pointing to these fancy moving lights, and I’m not looking for that.
Am I barking up the right tree? The brilliant thing here is that they shouldn’t need power injection under 100 lights per strand and would be a very easy up/down once I get my hooks set and sections cut.
They also recommend these PSU/controller combos that look pretty nice (and a stand-alone module with wifi, so I could plug it next to the other transformer and hook the pigtails up once a year instead of running an ugly Ethernet cable out of white fascia down brick and into it)
Am I right to assume I’ve barely scratched the surface of the rabbit hole and that the controllers, links here would be able to apply to this?
And then if I were crazy enough to want to do it, I could buy other ws2811 LEDs and retrofit some landscape lights by pulling 3 conductor wire through them and mounting a few of these inside?
Integration (I use HomeKit but have a homebridge that runs) really wouldn’t be necessary if there’s a calendar/time integration in the app itself (like is in xlights).
Basically, I’m thinking I can probably do a way cheaper PSU/controller than what holidaycoro offers. I still want ~$200 of lights and $100 of mounts from them.
And also, damn you people.
Holiday Coro puts a “2811” LED (is this the same as ws2811?) in a c9 form factor:
You can buy a string of 50 spaced 12” apart for $47. I have approximately 160ft of roofline that I want to cover (there’s one “split level” spot- I should be able to “extend” space between two lamps without a real problem, right ?)
They show a string of 100 operating without discernible differences between the 1st and last bulb on the brightest white (well, on the video he says in person right next to each other there is a very slight difference, but they suggest practically that a run of 100 should be fine). Fortunately, I’ve got a spot that would split the 160ft of roofline almost equally in the middle, and there’s already a 12v transformer there. And I’ve gotten permission to mount a second one if needed.
Additionally, they make a mounting strip to hold the bulbs equally spaced:
But instead of screwing this into my roofline. I would buy the white strip that matches my roofline and gutters and then mount some J hooks to it and let it “hang” on the gutters.
Now is where I start having questions:
Being a “2811” pixel, would wled work? They suggest xlights, but I’m not trying to put on a light show. I would sort of like to be able to run a schedule (traditional “colored” lights one night, r/g the next, r/cool white the next, warm white one after that, etc). Everything seems to be pointing to these fancy moving lights, and I’m not looking for that.
Am I barking up the right tree? The brilliant thing here is that they shouldn’t need power injection under 100 lights per strand and would be a very easy up/down once I get my hooks set and sections cut.
They also recommend these PSU/controller combos that look pretty nice (and a stand-alone module with wifi, so I could plug it next to the other transformer and hook the pigtails up once a year instead of running an ugly Ethernet cable out of white fascia down brick and into it)
Am I right to assume I’ve barely scratched the surface of the rabbit hole and that the controllers, links here would be able to apply to this?
And then if I were crazy enough to want to do it, I could buy other ws2811 LEDs and retrofit some landscape lights by pulling 3 conductor wire through them and mounting a few of these inside?
Integration (I use HomeKit but have a homebridge that runs) really wouldn’t be necessary if there’s a calendar/time integration in the app itself (like is in xlights).
Basically, I’m thinking I can probably do a way cheaper PSU/controller than what holidaycoro offers. I still want ~$200 of lights and $100 of mounts from them.
And also, damn you people.
Posted on 10/23/22 at 7:11 pm to Hopeful Doc
Yes these could be controlled by any of the common software, like xlights or wled.
Glad you found these I like them. I use this size light for lining my front driveway. I have 20" pvc pipe that I put white hooks in to hold the c6 light strings.
Not sure if I'd want this size bulb up year round. Would think they would be pretty noticable unlike the led strips.
Also I see how they will make 100ft, they have 2 12V wires. One connects to the first bulb the other runs to the other end.
Glad you found these I like them. I use this size light for lining my front driveway. I have 20" pvc pipe that I put white hooks in to hold the c6 light strings.
Not sure if I'd want this size bulb up year round. Would think they would be pretty noticable unlike the led strips.
Also I see how they will make 100ft, they have 2 12V wires. One connects to the first bulb the other runs to the other end.
This post was edited on 10/23/22 at 7:14 pm
Posted on 10/23/22 at 8:06 pm to mchias1
quote:
Not sure if I'd want this size bulb up year round
Thus the hooks! These will be up/down from the gutters in 10 minutes tops. I would maybe put them up in October for some purple/orange, leave them off until thanksgiving, and then rotate some fun Christmas colors.
quote:
Also I see how they will make 100ft, they have 2 12V wires. One connects to the first bulb the other runs to the other end.
Here is the video of them with 100 but their controller page suggests they can do 175 per output (but they recommend stopping at 100 without injection).
Also, if you look on their website on the page with the mount that I put up there, they list a few other bulbs it clips to, all of which are controllable pixel bulbs (though one of them is a GE Bluetooth-control). These are the cheapest and seemingly highest rated at the same time of them.
Posted on 10/23/22 at 9:07 pm to Hopeful Doc
quote:
And also, damn you people.
Posted on 10/24/22 at 7:24 am to Hopeful Doc
I did some googling for you and WLED should work. However, the 3.3v out of many controllers isn't enough to run the 12v 2811 LEDs. It can work, but you might have to add a logic level shifter to the dataline before the first LED.
Posted on 10/25/22 at 9:47 am to Lonnie Utah
I’ve grabbed:
-200w power supply with two pigtails out
-2 athom WLED controllers (I’m somewhat lazy. They can be here in a week. Simple enough design. $20. Apparent 12v15a capability). I bought two for backup, in case I can’t screw a pair of 18g in the terminals. I guess I could’ve bought a T, but I wasn’t sure how it would do with voltage drop being run like a large T (80 lights on one side, 107 on the other, pre emptively, though it’s very possible I do have to observe the hard limit of 100. I’m thinking it is a soft limit, I’ll never make them brilliant white, and several places on their site suggest 125-175 is going to work fine)
-200 lights (going to be a bit thin on spares, but they’re readily available and get here in two days)
- their easy mounting brackets
I haven’t bought “hooks” for my gutter applications yet. I figured I’d get everything else in hand first. But depending on how this works, I’m debating a string light application on my back patio, and I found a cheap ws2811 (and yes, I understand there are different pixels that may be better) and potentially retrofitting some path lights I already have.
And then, if the controller syncing goes really well, it would actually be easily expanded from 12” spacing to 4” spacing (granted, this is $400 of pixels) because the brackets accept it, and I’d just need to swap power supplies and be patient enough to wait on a digi-quad or get smart enough to build my own + either expanding or adding a power supply.
-200w power supply with two pigtails out
-2 athom WLED controllers (I’m somewhat lazy. They can be here in a week. Simple enough design. $20. Apparent 12v15a capability). I bought two for backup, in case I can’t screw a pair of 18g in the terminals. I guess I could’ve bought a T, but I wasn’t sure how it would do with voltage drop being run like a large T (80 lights on one side, 107 on the other, pre emptively, though it’s very possible I do have to observe the hard limit of 100. I’m thinking it is a soft limit, I’ll never make them brilliant white, and several places on their site suggest 125-175 is going to work fine)
-200 lights (going to be a bit thin on spares, but they’re readily available and get here in two days)
- their easy mounting brackets
I haven’t bought “hooks” for my gutter applications yet. I figured I’d get everything else in hand first. But depending on how this works, I’m debating a string light application on my back patio, and I found a cheap ws2811 (and yes, I understand there are different pixels that may be better) and potentially retrofitting some path lights I already have.
And then, if the controller syncing goes really well, it would actually be easily expanded from 12” spacing to 4” spacing (granted, this is $400 of pixels) because the brackets accept it, and I’d just need to swap power supplies and be patient enough to wait on a digi-quad or get smart enough to build my own + either expanding or adding a power supply.
Posted on 10/25/22 at 10:48 am to Hopeful Doc
quote:
-200w power supply with two pigtails out
FYI, I'm running 900 5v pixels on a 300W power supply. WLED allows yo to limit the current to the system. 12v to 5v is a little apples to oranges, but I'm thinking you're going to be fine.
Posted on 10/28/22 at 12:41 am to Lonnie Utah
After putting it off for a while, I got back on this project to get it done before Halloween. To this comment:
I had to notch the top of the 1" pipe with 8 slots like a crown/castle so that I could tuck the wires down into the pipe with the cap on. It's a really tight fit. I went with the string version thinking I would be able to aim them individually like I want, but it's just too crowded in there. Tomorrow I'm going to pull them out and replace with strips. Hopefully they will project downward enough when rolled into a loop.
I've got all the posts and housings made up though, and I ran them down one side of the walk to test before doing the other side. As far as functioning like an led strip, they work really, really well! The furthest lamp is about 60 feet along the wire from the controller, and it lights up just fine.
WLED makes it stupid easy to light a lamp with one color no matter how many LEDs you have in it. You just set the group size for the segment, 8 in my case, and it will treat each set of 8 pixels as 1.
Here is the 'halloween' effect while testing one side of my path:
So yeah, tomorrow I will finish up the other side, get the control enclosure mounted out of the way, and replace the string bulbs with strips. I've been recording my work for a youtube video which I will not post here, but if interested I will post some photos detailing how I made the parts and how I put them together.
It will be mostly informative about what not to do. I tried various things with adhesive backed foam window/door seals which didn't work and resulted in a poor fit of the acrylic when I removed it. As mentioned I wasted some time fricking with the string lights trying to make them fit.
The end result is a basic little mushroom style lamp that looks like absolute shite up close, but they work and they'll do for now. I'm glad I did it this way instead of buying something because I never have to worry about finding an exact replacement if one breaks or gets run over by a lawnmower in 5-10 years, I can just make another one with ~$10 in parts from the hardware store. Or if some LEDs burn out I have replacements on hand. Or if I decide on another style using similarly cheap off-the-shelf materials, I can re-use the LEDs and controller. Also my power supply has enough oomph to also run some up-firing lights in the flower beds to light up the house or whatever. Maybe I can use these frickin' string lights for those.
quote:It took quite a bit of arranging!
I'd be interested in seeing how you arranged the LEDs underneath each light.
I had to notch the top of the 1" pipe with 8 slots like a crown/castle so that I could tuck the wires down into the pipe with the cap on. It's a really tight fit. I went with the string version thinking I would be able to aim them individually like I want, but it's just too crowded in there. Tomorrow I'm going to pull them out and replace with strips. Hopefully they will project downward enough when rolled into a loop.
I've got all the posts and housings made up though, and I ran them down one side of the walk to test before doing the other side. As far as functioning like an led strip, they work really, really well! The furthest lamp is about 60 feet along the wire from the controller, and it lights up just fine.
WLED makes it stupid easy to light a lamp with one color no matter how many LEDs you have in it. You just set the group size for the segment, 8 in my case, and it will treat each set of 8 pixels as 1.
Here is the 'halloween' effect while testing one side of my path:
So yeah, tomorrow I will finish up the other side, get the control enclosure mounted out of the way, and replace the string bulbs with strips. I've been recording my work for a youtube video which I will not post here, but if interested I will post some photos detailing how I made the parts and how I put them together.
It will be mostly informative about what not to do.
I tried various things with adhesive backed foam window/door seals which didn't work and resulted in a poor fit of the acrylic when I removed it. As mentioned I wasted some time fricking with the string lights trying to make them fit. The end result is a basic little mushroom style lamp that looks like absolute shite up close, but they work and they'll do for now. I'm glad I did it this way instead of buying something because I never have to worry about finding an exact replacement if one breaks or gets run over by a lawnmower in 5-10 years, I can just make another one with ~$10 in parts from the hardware store. Or if some LEDs burn out I have replacements on hand. Or if I decide on another style using similarly cheap off-the-shelf materials, I can re-use the LEDs and controller. Also my power supply has enough oomph to also run some up-firing lights in the flower beds to light up the house or whatever. Maybe I can use these frickin' string lights for those.
Posted on 10/28/22 at 1:32 pm to Korkstand
quote:
WLED makes it stupid easy to light a lamp with one color no matter how many LEDs you have in it.
Hey KS,
I'm assuming you have a ring doorbell? Using the alexa app, you can trigger a motion event via the ring door bell to activate the lights or change their color. WLED has an alexa app integration.
I've used it to change the color of smart light bulb on our front porch on halloween. I had it set up to be normally white, but turn red when it detected motion (or the doorbell was pressed I really don't 100% remember), but the wife made me reverse it (normally red, changing to white).
This post was edited on 10/28/22 at 1:34 pm
Posted on 10/28/22 at 1:58 pm to Lonnie Utah
I do have ring doorbells presently, but they won't detect motion as far out as I'd like to. Eventually I want to detect when someone takes the first step at the very end of the path and trigger an effect immediately.
Posted on 10/28/22 at 3:39 pm to Korkstand
Gotcha.
How are you controlling them? Depending on your setup, you can use a PIR switch to trigger a preset on WLED...
How are you controlling them? Depending on your setup, you can use a PIR switch to trigger a preset on WLED...
Posted on 10/28/22 at 4:25 pm to Lonnie Utah
I'm using HA, and I have experience building DIY sensors, so I will probably end up doing just that with a PIR in the far lamp.
I can probably also put an esp32cam in them.
I can probably also put an esp32cam in them.
Posted on 11/23/22 at 10:15 pm to Lonnie Utah
Two things:
1) my “thanksgiving” lights are up (12” spaced c9 ws2811 12v pixels on an Athom WLED controller). I went ahead and zip tied them to PVC and hung the PVC on J bolts. I bought 1/2” J bolts , didn’t appropriately buy enough for the other half of the house that has lights (I’m on a corner) and then bought 5/8” bolts for the other half which should go up tomorrow (1/2” was a little snug on my gutter lip). So these should come down around Jan 6. And I’ll probably hang them again next October for some fun Halloween lights (several neighbors decorate doors with Halloween lights, and we honestly have more/bigger yard displays in October than December)
2) I’m now digging through direct-from-China permapixel options. I think 30mm LEDs that are “flat” and don’t protrude from their aluminum track are the most attractive (and the wife agrees. Something about strips and diffusers looking “laser” like and too “futuristic” for her taste). Probably not going to upgrade to that until some of these C9 bulbs break, but I have a few applications I’d like the permanent lights on even a little sooner than then (dormers, maybe a couple of windows). I found some that take 48v power. This is intriguing, because they’re advertising 300m of lights before requiring power injection. I do not see any documentation, however, on any controller that supports 48v output. I do see somewhere else where essentially all pixels are going to accept either 3.3 or 5V data, regardless of what the power input is (which is also usually 3.3-5V but with a resistor in line for the application of long runs, which is actually pointless for the application of dormers and windows, but I’m planning long term and will probably wait and buy one set of parts).
So, can I power a controller (and maybe be lazy with the Athom one that I like. Because I know it exists, it works, and it’s $20), not use the + and - outputs from the controller and only use data, then have the power come directly from a power supply that the controller is unaffiliated with? Seeing as I can turn on/off individual pixels down the line, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a problem. I would need either a resistor to use this same power supply with my controller or, if I were real lazy, a real wimpy 5-24v PSU that has enough juice just to power the controller and a separate one for the lights, right?
Yes- power injection shouldn’t be that daunting (and there should be plenty of room in the system I’m looking at to run a few wires in parallel for injection down the line), but if something exists that negates the need for such a thing that’s roughly equivocally priced, I’d rather take advantage of that.
TL;DR can WLED or any other common , user-friendly systems have power and data from separate sources, or do you need the light’s power to run through the controller for reasons other than powering the controller?
1) my “thanksgiving” lights are up (12” spaced c9 ws2811 12v pixels on an Athom WLED controller). I went ahead and zip tied them to PVC and hung the PVC on J bolts. I bought 1/2” J bolts , didn’t appropriately buy enough for the other half of the house that has lights (I’m on a corner) and then bought 5/8” bolts for the other half which should go up tomorrow (1/2” was a little snug on my gutter lip). So these should come down around Jan 6. And I’ll probably hang them again next October for some fun Halloween lights (several neighbors decorate doors with Halloween lights, and we honestly have more/bigger yard displays in October than December)
2) I’m now digging through direct-from-China permapixel options. I think 30mm LEDs that are “flat” and don’t protrude from their aluminum track are the most attractive (and the wife agrees. Something about strips and diffusers looking “laser” like and too “futuristic” for her taste). Probably not going to upgrade to that until some of these C9 bulbs break, but I have a few applications I’d like the permanent lights on even a little sooner than then (dormers, maybe a couple of windows). I found some that take 48v power. This is intriguing, because they’re advertising 300m of lights before requiring power injection. I do not see any documentation, however, on any controller that supports 48v output. I do see somewhere else where essentially all pixels are going to accept either 3.3 or 5V data, regardless of what the power input is (which is also usually 3.3-5V but with a resistor in line for the application of long runs, which is actually pointless for the application of dormers and windows, but I’m planning long term and will probably wait and buy one set of parts).
So, can I power a controller (and maybe be lazy with the Athom one that I like. Because I know it exists, it works, and it’s $20), not use the + and - outputs from the controller and only use data, then have the power come directly from a power supply that the controller is unaffiliated with? Seeing as I can turn on/off individual pixels down the line, I don’t see why this wouldn’t be a problem. I would need either a resistor to use this same power supply with my controller or, if I were real lazy, a real wimpy 5-24v PSU that has enough juice just to power the controller and a separate one for the lights, right?
Yes- power injection shouldn’t be that daunting (and there should be plenty of room in the system I’m looking at to run a few wires in parallel for injection down the line), but if something exists that negates the need for such a thing that’s roughly equivocally priced, I’d rather take advantage of that.
TL;DR can WLED or any other common , user-friendly systems have power and data from separate sources, or do you need the light’s power to run through the controller for reasons other than powering the controller?
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