Bwired LED Project

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Bwired LED Project

Post by Bwired »

I have done a lot of experimenting with LED strips in my house. I tried RGB but that was not the best option for us.
It's very cool if you change the colors on certain wall but after a while you mainly want warm white. And warm white is not that good on a RGB strip (my opinion).
So I used a very good warm white LED strip instead.

I installed the LEDS (total 25 meter) on:
- behind all my curtains (12m)
- In the bathroom under my bathtub (2m)
- under the (hand)rail of the staircase (5m)
- in front of my house (6m)

I control the LEDS with two Chromoflex RS232 controllers
So the LEDS are completely dimmable and can be controlled per curtain, staircase etc.
Nice thing about thew Chromoflex controller that the controller is initially for RGB, so if you use only white LED strips you can control 3 LED strips independent.

So if my curtains close the LED lights go on automatic, If I'm not at home at night only the LED light go on, saving energy and from the outside give a good at home impression :D
The power usage in DIM (mood) mode is just around the 2.5 watt. If you need some bright light then you can get a huge bundle of light by setting the controller to max.
I can control everything with my domotica system and of course with Pronto 9600.

On the images below the light looks somewhat bright, but in real it's a very cozy (mood) light.

The LEDS on the staircase have a very good function, I keep them on till late making it very easy and save going up and down the stairs.
Specially in very Dim position.
IMG_2557.JPG
IMG_2557.JPG (39.39 KiB) Viewed 21711 times
Looks blue but that is outside light :-)
Looks blue but that is outside light :-)
IMG_2551.JPG (36.86 KiB) Viewed 21711 times
IMG_2550.JPG
IMG_2550.JPG (35.95 KiB) Viewed 21711 times
IMG_2555.JPG
IMG_2555.JPG (55.79 KiB) Viewed 21711 times
Chromoflex RS232 LED Controller
Chromoflex RS232 LED Controller
IMG_2553.JPG (33.52 KiB) Viewed 21711 times
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Jeroen Bartels
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Jeroen Bartels »

Hey Pieter,

Looking good. LED strips are high on my wish list as wel.
Maybe you should talk your neigbour into taking LED in front of his house as well. That would make it look even better.

DJF3 are planning on visiting Marco's shop and buy some stuff soon. (Did you buy (or get them ;-) at mood led light as well?)
**Jeroen**
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Esteban »

Lookin' good 8)
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Bwired »

These LED strips are from Marco's shop, very satisfied with those and very good color.

@Esteban: I have two chromoflex controllers which can linked together (BUS). Question, do you know how to approach them via the BUS
This way I only need 1 RS232 connection. I know a lot off values in the protocol are 0, on of them to 1 could do the trick?
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by TANE »

well done..:)
Enver Tanriverdi | http://blog.tane.nl
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Post by DJF3 »

Nice!

Mijn probleem is dat ik waarschijnlijk een chromoflex per led strip nodig heb omdat ze ver uit elkaar liggen en er geen bekabeling ligt. Plus een lan usb hub met RS232 om ze aan te sturen..

Als ik ooit nog een nieuw huis laat bouwen wil ik in iedere hoek van alle kamers een twee loze leidingen leggen :-)

LED staat hoog op m'n lijst. Jaybee, we gaan binnenkort eens naar Almere!

DJ

English please...
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Harry »

@bwired
how dit you overcome the distance between the leds and the server? :shock:
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Bwired »

The Chromoflex can be used even over a long distance.
I have wires in every corner where also my curtains start.
So I use a 4 wired cable which goes to the fusebox, over the same cable I can give power to all my electrical curtain rails, so 1 power supply from fuse-box closet.
The other two wires on the cable are connected to each LED strip.
1 Chromoflex is for controlling 3 Ledstrips on 3 different windows. The other Chromoflex is for controlling the staircase and the outside LED strip.
The strip in the bathroom is on 7 volts steady powersupply and switches on together with the main light of the bathroom.
The LEDS on full voltage generate a lot of light so normally the are on very low voltage, 11 meter in my livingroom (see pictures) are consuming only 2.5 watt :)
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by roscoe »

Looks really nice, I agree with the comments on a nice 'warm white' light.

Sorry if I missed the information, maybe its on your main site, but what is the LED strip that you use and (gulp) what is the cost per metre ?
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by SeRo »

The reason your using the Chromoflex is because then you can dim them on the computer?
Because normally you use a Chromoflex for RGB led or im a wrong?

Your setup look very very nice!
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Jeroen Bartels »

**Jeroen**
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Esteban »

@Esteban: I have two chromoflex controllers which can linked together (BUS). Question, do you know how to approach them via the BUS
I missed your question. From the top of my head: There are a couple of ways to address each chromoflex:
- Their own address.
- The CF's group address. One of the eight groups which you can set via dipswitch in CF. (0 0 1, 0 0 2, 0 0 3 ... 0 0 8 )
- Broadcasting to all. (0 0 0)

Basically in the string you send over the BUS the first 3 bytes are the address bytes than are used for choosing what CF to address.
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Codeblack »

Looks really good!

LED strips are on my wish & todo lists as well :-P. My father in law is in the advertisment signs business, they mostly use LED and he got me some strips to play with. But it's hard to tell what the end result will look like from only a few LED's. So thanks for the images, great work!

I was planning on using RGB, but now I'm not so sure. Maybe I could make a combination of RGB & white.
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Bwired »

@Estaban: Thanks! I will adjust my driver so I can control two Chromoflex controller over 1 RS232 connection.
@Roscoe: Like Jaybee told I got my LED stuff form http://www.mood-ledlight.nl, Marco (Mversluis) moderator of the LED forum http://www.domoticaforum.eu/viewforum.php?f=33 give always good advice.
@Sero: The Chromflex controller or for controlling with RS232 but can be equipped also with IR and I believe there is a wireless version as well. Normally its for RGB, but if you only using white LEDs trips the you can connect three of them on one controller (R, G, B) and control them separate.
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Re: Bwired LED Project

Post by Esteban »

@Bwired: no probs, it should be pretty easy to get working since you managed to get the rest running. :wink:

Yes there is a wireless chromoflex (the white one) but it is in an entirely different price range:
http://shop.conrad.nl/componenten/opto- ... pparatuur/
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