Help for a newbie please ;)

[mattysiam]

Hi All...

I'm really a complete addict when it comes to lights, always have been. I even installed fiber optic star ceiling in my SUV, with 380 RGB twinkling stars.

Anyway to the point...

I have a 5m double row RGBWW LED strip, which I want to install under my SUV. Here's the spec...

DC12V 120LED/m white WarmWhite RGB Waterproof IP67 nonwaterproof 5M 16.4ft 5050 Double Row SMD 600 leds Flexible Strip black pcb.

They run at around 60W. I have no control box for these lights. I really want to make use of the RGBWW colors and ranges, so ideally I'd like a good control box, and possibly control the colors and modes through a smartphone app. Even better if there is such a thing, a device I can mount on the dash somewhere with a touch screen.

Any help, ideas, or suggestions greatly appreciated, thanks.

One other issue, I recently bought a 5m RGB double row strip, cut it into four strips and installed them in some wheel rings i fabricated from aluminium. They look great and the install went smoothly. They had 4 wires, a live, and a red, blue, and green.

The RGBWW strips I've still to install, only have two wires connected to each end, a red wire to the positive, and a red / black wire to the B. No wires connected to the R or G. Can I assume I need to solder on the missing wires to the R & G connections on the LED strips, to make them have four wires as normal?

Thanks again!!

Here's a pic of the strip attached.

[mfalkvidd]

Hi @mattysiam, welcome to the MySensros community!

First the easy question: Yes, if you want to control all channels, you will need wires for them.

For the control box: This "standalone" use case isn't ideal for MySensors, because most MySensors projects rely on a central controller like OpenHab, Domoticz, etc.

However, node-to-node communication is possible, and a node can be quite capable. Some examples to draw inspiration from:

• Scene controller example: https://www.mysensors.org/build/scene_controller
• My arcade game: https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/5548/mysensors-powered-arcade-game-screen-with-wireless-gamepad-controller
• Esp8266 Nextion Scene controller: https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/2766/an-esp8266-nextion-scene-controller
• ESP8266 as WiFi gateway & controller & node: https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/1973/esp8266-as-wifi-gateway-controller-node
• My physical mood light color and brightness selector based on LCD touchscreen: https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/3438/physical-mood-light-color-and-brightness-selector-based-on-lcd-touchscreen-with-demo-video

If you don't want to go the MySensors route, Blynk might be a solution: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF0UaC2QhHA

[gohan]

BT commands via smartphone app are also possible with arduino, there should be plenty of examples. It all depends how much DIY you want to go.