Mi Light Wi-Fi Strip Lighting

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  pjetson on 08/06/2015 - 22:36

  Where did you get the led strips from? Their characteristics are going to set the current you need. For example, if the led strip you use requires 1A per metre, you'll need a 28A power supply for your 12m + 16m strip. 28A is a bloody big power supply!

  You say that you want to install the strips in four rooms - do you mean 28m of led strip in each room? If so, you must have very big rooms!

  Bottom line - your RGB led strip supplier will be able to tell you how many amps maximum you will need per metre. You will need at least that many amps from your power supply - add some extra for reliability, because it's not good to run electrical equipment at its limits.

  You'll also need very thick cable to connect the power supply to the controller and the controller to the led strips, so that you don't get a large voltage drop. And it may be that there is a limit to the length of led strip that you can use, again due to voltage drop.

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    [Deactivated] on 08/06/2015 - 23:03

    Bloody hell, I have no idea where I got the LED strips from. Maybe Ill just buy some more. Where do you recommend?

    The rooms are 5.33.6 and 4.13.6 so 17.8 metres and 15.4.

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      DJ on 09/06/2015 - 12:04

      +1 for pjetson's coment.

      If it's a "typical" 5050 RGB LED strip with 60 LED's per metre (count 'em :-) ), bank on about 1.2A per meter max draw. A 5 metre strip will usually have an accompanying 72 Watt Power supply. I've measured draw on a 5 metre strip doing all sorts of fancy light shifting/sequences etc as well as solid lighting, and my strips maxed out well short of the 72W/1.2A.

      As for voltage drop, You'll probably be OK with that 17.8 metre length, just be aware the tail end of it might not be quite as bright as the start. If it noticeably bothers you, you'll need to get a power injector.

      For buying them, any ebay seller, or Ray Wu on Aliexpress. Might be better of sticking with eBay, as Ray Wu's options for strips might overwhelm you :-)

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        [Deactivated] on 09/06/2015 - 17:28

        So for 17.8 metres how many watts do I need? I'm assuming something like a 200w power supply?

      • 

        DJ on 09/06/2015 - 21:17

        @thorton82:

        17.8 metres x 1.2A per metre x 12V = 256 Watts. That's absolute max, depending on the colour you set them to and what effects you might be running (chasing/strobe etc.) it will be less.

        Not being condescending here mate, but make sure you know what you're doing. Just because it's 12V DC doesn't mean incorrect wiring or incorrectly sized PSU's can't be dangerous or start a fire.

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        [Deactivated] on 09/06/2015 - 21:56

        @DJ: Yeah that's why Im asking. I do a lot of soldering and basic electronics (Drones, RC planes, Arduino), so I should be alright, and I appreciate the advice. I've done a fair bit of LED strip wiring before, including making my own parallel rigs to power 8 strips on a quadcopter, so I get the process, I've only previously used Lipo's for power.
        Im not going for any fancy lighting, I have a federation house, and Im installing the LEDs in the architraves to do uplighting on the ceiling. 99% of the time the lights will be used for white or yellow light.