I would be very much interested in the controller and sourcing LEDs to be handled by it. Individually addressable LED control has been a CONSTANT desire of mine BUT… I usually do not want it as strips because that is less useful to me. I am REALLY looking for it to be able to control the typical pixels or just about anything in the WS2812, SK6812, or TM1812 types (the TM1812 sounds closest to what you initially mention with RGB+CCT). Even if I have to install the controller, set what type of LEDs, and how many, that is FINE for me… Being able to use my own LEDs would make my holiday decorating outside so much easier and integrated with my Hubitat…
Individually Addressable RGB+CCT are not as easily found yet but here are a couple links.
As for examples of the pricing I have found for RGB+CCT:
$80 for 5m 24v (IP67 adds $4, 12v adds ~$9):
They also have an RGB version for “only” $50 for 5m…
Here is a different place:
$60 for 5m 12v (+$2.50 for IP67)
They also indicate “for orders over $1000 contact for better pricing”.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention that I voted NO on the pricing. While I know it is pretty reasonable… It would be tough for me to justify that much for such a short length and for the less useful purposes of an LED strip for RGB+CCT in my house. It would be a tougher call if it was for X number of “Pixel” leds I could use outdoors or on our Christmas tree…
@Eric_Inovelli If the controller you are using supports standard and common protocols such as the ws28xx protocols, there are plenty of lower priced options for the strips. I have a couple of vendors in Shenzhen that I work with for all my RGB needs for a Christmas light show I put on with about 30k pixels. They have great pricing on IP68 RGB ws28xx strips.
If the controller does support ws28xx, selling it standalone, would be a great option. I’d buy a few.
@Eric_Inovelli Looking at this as a simple 6’ LED strip product, the price seems high, but its not a simple LED product; what your selling is a controller and including 6’ of pixels … very different. I do lot with pixels, and I’d pay $30-60 for a z-wave integrated controller that I didn’t have to build myself; but if I’m limited to that single included 6’ of pixels, it becomes much less interesting … so you should add “Depends” to your survey.
What are the tentative limits of the device? … I’ve rarely ever stopped at 6 feet, and at that, I always use a minimum of 60led/meter strips. Since driving pixels is limited by memory, cpu speed, and power, and not by strip length; the included length is kind of like the prize inside the box more than the selling point in my mind. I’m more interested in what the module can do than what comes with it.
Colored lights are easy, interesting colored lights are hard … and since an interesting application always dictates the lights, Someone like myself would be far more interested in the controller and the lights as ala carte products, especially if I can BYOL (I’m sitting next to roughly 30 meters of pixels on spools right now for an ‘art’ project. lol).
You state that we could create our own animations … how? Would this use an IDE like the Arduino IDE?, would our creation capability be limited by settings provided in the drivers within the hub? would we need to write our own drivers in the hub? or would you have your own tool?
Does the device have built-in power?, 5v, 12v? and how much?
I’d certainly be a perspective buyer for this type of device if it checked the right boxes … but if its only flexible enough to do fancy undercabinet lighting in the kitchen - it’d be like putting a V10 in Smart car; fun to see, but not really worth the investment.
Totally agree!
What can the controller do?
What can we attach to it?
Etc…
The controller is the most important part to me. If I can BYOL, and the controller allows a broad range for that, I am far more interested.
Can I come up with uses for a “relatively” short strip of lights I can individually control? Sure, but WAF will be low.
Uses for a long strip (5m typically)? OK, more options there.
Waterproof long strip? Even more.
Pixels… MANY options (for me) and higher WAF.
didn’t see it on the list but would love to see chasing lights on the new strip and the ability to cut to size. Sorry if that’s already mentioned on the thread.
The price for the features sounds pretty reasonable. Since I can’t think of a use case currently, I voted no because it’s outside of the ‘well maybe I’ll find a use’ range
I’d pay $60 for the controller alone, but then would need a reference or cheap option for the strips to get custom length up to ~40’ max per controller.
yessir, understood in that case they would be more comparable to the lifx strips and ppl still buy those, so even those price seems high i think ppl would still buy if extensions are cheaper
Honestly… My interior use cases are probably limited. House just isn’t that tricked out… And at my current pace not getting there anytime soon. Exterior might be the selling point for me… I think the two features that would put me over would be 1) weather rated for the strips to use exterior and 2) ability to purchase “no led” wire extensions. Second is to alleviate asking if the controller would be weather proof :-). In general though, I think ability to purchase a wired extension to give more flexibility in controller placement could be a selling point for interior use cases too.
Apologies if answers to that was already covered and I just missed it. Tried to look at replies and change the original product page but didn’t see it.
I think this is a nice idea, but you’re going about it wrong. What you have here is a ‘does everything at great expense’ product, but you have a few separate needs that should get separate products.
Mainly- for room lighting, being able to individually address each LED is a ‘nice to have’ but without the ability to do very specific programming (IE, LEDs 1-30 are one lighting channel, LEDs 31-60 are another lighting channel, 61-90 are a 3rd lighting channel; thus I can turn on 31-60 as one and get lights above the bed without lighting the sides of the bed) this has limited appeal to me. Something like this would be useful as a semi-permanent holiday decoration, perhaps with a 45° mount away from the house it could do some outdoor lighting as well, but that’s a buy one or two of them thing.
What I WOULD like is a Z-Wave RGBCCT programmable LED driver/controller that can use generic standard strips. Your guys strength is switches and the like, so focus your efforts there, not on the LED strip itself.
That does not rule out you guys selling a higher quality LED strip, rather, it just means the user isn’t locked in and can get whatever LEDs fit their application best (be them your premium RGBCCT or something else). Of course the firmware would have to be able to handle RGB, RGBW/RGBWW, RGBCCT, white only, warm/cool white, etc so you tell it what kind of strip is attached. For this I’d pay $50 if it came with 6-12 feet of RGBW or RGBCCT LED strip and consider it a good deal.
I’d also love a LED controller that can drive standard WS28xx type LEDs- same deal, have a Z-Wave radio, a beefy 12v converter, and the control logic in the box; just have a ws28xx signal output rather than RGBCCT power lines. That is worth $60-$70 if it comes with some strip- just please focus on standardized stripping that we won’t have to buy in segments but rather can buy on a spool and make what we need.
@Eric_Inovelli very exciting and thanks for the replies! I would agree with some others on this thread that for those who are not as interested in pixel addressability and instead simply want a better 5 color LED controller there’s room for a lower priced product. The RGBGenie drivers are quite good but with a low PWM frequency and only 4 circuits they cannot achieve RGB + CCT type functionality without “approximating” the CCT.
What would be great is a 5 circuit controller with a driver where it would be possible to set which color or CCT corresponded to each circuit and then Hubitat/ST/etc could be programmed appropriately. This would make circadian rhythm color temperature adjustment, “movie mode,” that perfect dinner party warm color temp, etc. without the cost/complexity of the pixel control features. So perhaps that’s a compromise lower cost variant.
@Eric_Inovelli I second @SirDeadlystrike in his comment about the BR30s that you’re hiding… then I’ll callout a few more things I noticed when pixel-peeping the CES photos…
Tunable White filament bulbs with CCTs that get down into the cozy warm range where only incandescents can go? If the CRI is high I’ll buy a house full of them…
Put some sort of night light LED on these and I’ll buy a house full of those too…
I do not mean to hijack this thread but while we’re talking CES video I couldn’t resist!
Would be fantastic if Inovelli could do a collab with Aircookie and use his WLED software.Then just sell a Z wave controller with a power supply and led strips like SK6812’s. Thanks for the innovation, Inovelli!
