Hey all Just getting started on some smart home stuff - I'm looking to get some strip lighting and there is a lot of stuff out there and honestly I'm not sure what I should get. Ideally it would be RGB but I'm OK with white/warm light.

The ZBT-2 can do both ZigBee and Thread, and I haven't got any pre-existing devices so I can go either of those.

I thought about getting some IKEA lighting because I believe they use Thread now?

What's the prevailing wisdom out there?

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[–] 5 points 7 months ago (4 children)

I build my own using ESP32's, WS2812B RGB Strips and WLED. Drop the controller into a small hobby box and add a power supply and it's of to the races.

https://kno.wled.ge/ https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/wled/

My front porch has a little over 1500 LED's wrapped around it. I built my own RGB LED backlit address numbers. And I'm working on a project that lights up my stairs. I've made a few other things and have ideas for a bunch more.

There is no support for zigbee, matter, or thread. But what can be done with it is well beyond anything else I've seen.

https://wled.discourse.group/t/wled-equipped-address-numbers/15217 is my address numbers in a short video.

https://wled.discourse.group/t/fully-fledged-staircase-implementation/2182 is the stair implementation I'm going to use for my own.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 7 months ago (3 children)

    Very cool, just had a look at a WS2812B and an ESP32 - seems like it'd be reasonably priced. I think I'll go down this route.

    I'm away from my computer at the moment, but I'll read into this a bit more and see how achievable it is.

    Thanks for this

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago (2 children)

    No problem. Just remember it gets addictive. I stick led strips and strings in a ton of stuff. My other half bought a wire work Christmas deer that had old incandescent lights in it and I threw some RGB string lights with WLED. She bought a metal star with little cutouts in it and I mounted it to a board and stuck some RGB's in it as well. Took a piece of scrap OSB and printed Merry Christmas off in big letters then drilled holes at regular intervals to put a bunch of the individual pixels from a string of RGB's into as well.

    My intention is to eventually put strips in nearly every room in the house and install them outside as well. That way when I want a different color than white I can just change it with the LED's.

    I'm planning to create a huge Christmas display that can play short videos and graphics on to setup where our city does a display each year. And at some point I'm going to pitch them letting me upgrade the Christmas decorations with WLED and RGB strings. Then with a couple AP's strategically placed in can setup a synchronized light show.

    Like I said WLED is amazing.

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