DIY LED Lighting System

[naveen]

I'm looking to build a set of 3 spot light to put behind my TV for 'mood lighting' - it would be pretty easy to do with a relay and commercial LED bulbs/fixtures - but I'm wondering if there's an easier way to do it with a single transformer and a dimmer controlled through the arduino. Anyone know where I can start finding bulbs? Is it possible to dim bulbs if there is an external power supply?

[gregl]

http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/155/dimmer-sensor/2

Do you need "bulbs" - what about LED strip?

[naveen]

@gregl

I was looking at the strips, I think they will look kind of funky - does anyone have any first hand experience using them indoors? I figured the bulbs would be easier to position and maybe look a bit nicer since they are directly, as opposed to what I understand of the strips

[ferpando]

@naveen
You have tons of dimmable bulbs in china, like this one:

Led1

or this one:

Led2

Not all are good quality, but you can order a couple and do some testing.

Also I'm building a dimmer node. Right now it only has one channel, but I'd like to increase the number of dimmer channels in the future.

[naveen]

@ferpando

For these you would feed AC right? I was thinking it would be easier to have one transformer and feed DC to the bulbs...but I guess this works too.

Please share the dimmer node info when finished! That sounds great.

[ferpando]

@naveen
for the bare bulbs I think so, but the first one has a small driver, so I guess it could be DC.
I'm sure there are DC led lamps arround. Take a look

[korttoma]

I would also refer to the same thing @gregl mentioned since it can be used with any 12VDC LED lights/bulbs/strips/whatever. I even use it with a 12VDC PC fan without problems.

[bjornhallberg]

I will just add that I haven't been terribly impressed with the LED bulbs and strips I've bought on Ebay. I have strips glued to the back of the TV and they work, but only because the light reflects off other surfaces before you see it. Otherwise it looks terribly blueish. Had I picked a warm-white strip it would probably have been more yellow than white. I've had RGB strips as well but they were downright impossible to get to display any acceptable white. Bonus points for the adhesive on the back of the strips never sticking, but smelling atrocious nevertheless.

Just so no one buys things on Ebay / Ali and gets disappointed I'd like to point to three major problems with the bulbs (and to some degree, strips). Watts, Kelvin and RA / CRI / whatever. First, larger bulbs almost always don't live up to their watt rating. Second, finding the right K(elvin) is like finding a needle in a haystack. And thirdly, color rendering is usually extremely crappy, things will look extremely off when illuminated compared to a "daylight" standard. Perhaps things have improved since last I looked ... I don't know ...

[candylion]

vote for led

[kalle]

We have create a RGB MySensors Node which can control a RGB strip by voice

VoxCommando RGB Controller – 11:59
— Kalle Brandts

http://voxcommando.com/forum/index.php?topic=1921.msg17517#msg17517

[BulldogLowell]

@kalle

[kalle]

If anyone is interested in the arduino sketch / python code or PCB Board file (only as fritzing file) let me know.
VoxCommando is available as free trial which works just like the paid version. The trial never expires, but you are limited to 40 commands before you must close and then restart the program. http://voxcommando.com/home/downloads/

The python code works as interface between Voxcommando and MySensors serial gateway.

Kalle

[naveen]

I would love to see the code behind this! Very cool

[kalle]

No problem, here is the arduino sketch:

RGBdimmer_1_6.ino

[Cowboy1980]

Id love to see your fritzing pcb also

[Dave]

Here it is
RGBcontrollerNewV5_2.fzz