How to control light of home facade?

Dear community,

Depending on your experience, what is the hardware can be used for rgb light of home facade which is compatible of openHAB ?

What kind of light source do you have in mind?
LED strips or bulbs?

I want suggestions. But I believe lamps (outdoor ones) more close for the purpose

I’m using Ikea Trådfri E27 bulbs, not the RGB ones (600lm), but the ones with yellow->white color spectrum (980lm). Seems to tackle both heat and cold well.
Trådfri is Zigbee and can interface to OH2 using the Ikea HUB, ConBee/deconz, or HUE.

My system starts out with low intensity yellow at dusk, and 100min later ends up at 100% intensity all white.
Using the OH2 Astro binding to keep track of sunset.

If you want LED strips with same colors on all all LEDs you can use the Fibaro RGBW controller.
If you want individually addressable LEDs for animations, you can use an Arduino and interface that to OH2.

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@a.tibi - I use addressable LED Strips (WS2812) in each window/door sill, with NodeMCU controllers. The controllers all listen to the same MQTT topic so all effect/brightness/speed changes are synchronized, but I can also control each strip individually. Check out my write-up/videos if you want to see how it looks/works.

I use these mostly for holiday lighting, but I’ve thought about setting them up as standard accent lighting (definitely liking @OMR 's Astro-driven setup!)

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Thanks for your solutions.

Are these solutions fit for outdoor usage, in term of IP protection and wireless range ?
Is there wired alternatives you used ?

My E27 bulbs are inside IP65 lamp enclosures.
LED strips you can get in a variety of Ingress protections up to IP68.

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For mine, I have the IP67 (silicone-sealed) LED strips, encased in aluminum channels. The NodeMCU is in a 3d printed enclosure with only the 3-pin JST connector sticking out. But, only the door frame strips are actually outside, and they’re attached to the upper door frame (so mostly protected from direct rain/sun/elements). In the past, I’ve had WS2801 strings wrapped around my bushes through the holidays, and had real problems keeping them from getting shorted out due to condensation, so I wouldn’t really place anything DIY in direct exposure…

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Greetings, maybe it is more practical to use flood lights, I saw some of them in market with different protocols and technologies.

I need your advises about which devices and technologies you prefer for outdoor facade RGB light: Dmx, dali, wireless like z-wave or other ?

Also if you can recommend specific products ?

The difficult part is to get a (strong enough) RGB lamp. You might get to buy this as a readymade product but I didn’t find any except quite pricey DALI spots at specialized dealers.
So I got a cheap waterproof white halogen lamp and searched for a RGB LED board with enough light power and a matching roundish form factor (ebay, aliexpress).
Finally I attached the 3 channels to a ZWave Fibaro FGRGBW actuator (it provides 4 independently controllable channels for ~50 €).
You could also get a RGB strip if you’re ok with that form, there’s silicone sealed (thus waterproof) ones. Using that as well in my bathroom.

Another option might be to get one of those cheapish Chinese WiFi LED lights (such as Milight, there’s a binding for those controllers).

OH can do DALI, ZWave, Milight, Tadfri, WiFi. But as said, the point is about getting a reasonably bright RGB lamp.

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I use the amazing DMX binding in OpenHab2 and a really great WiFi to SPi dongle from http://smartshow.lighting

Or any other Art-NET to SPi adapters.

Then just put simple SPi LED tape, or single chip SPi through hole LEDs wherever I fancy.

Like all these that reside on various Art-NET universes :-

3 X 46 pixels

2 outside and 1 inside, on the same Art-NET universe.

86 pixels around this mirror.
There is actually 172 pixels, but the Art-NET adapter is grouping pairs of pixels, so it presents as 86 pixels.


The mirror chases are controlled by this rule…
    rule "Lounge Atmos ON - Btn 3 - All chases"
    when
    
    	Channel 'velbus:vmbgpod:c5053467:2C:input#CH3' triggered PRESSED
    then
    
	    
    	 
   if(DMXChaserLoungeMirror01.state == OFF){	 

if(DMXChaserLoungeMirror02_Switch.state == OFF){	 

if(DMXChaserLoungeMirror03_Switch.state == OFF){
    	 
DMXChaserLoungeMirror01.sendCommand(ON)
    	 say("Pressed to switch on Chase 1", "voicerss:enGB", "webaudio")
    	 }	}	}
	    
    	if (DMXChaserLoungeMirror01.state == ON){
	     
DMXChaserLoungeMirror01.sendCommand(OFF)
             Thread::sleep(500)
	  

DMXLoungeMirrorColor.sendCommand(OFF)
             
LoungeWallLights.sendCommand(OFF)
    	 say("Pressed to Switch Off because chase 1 was ON", "voicerss:enGB", "webaudio")
    	 }

 if (DMXChaserLoungeMirror02_Switch.state == ON){


 DMXChaserLoungeMirror01.sendCommand(OFF)
Thread::sleep(500)


 DMXLoungeMirrorColor.sendCommand(OFF)


 LoungeWallLights.sendCommand(OFF)

say("Pressed to Switch Off because chase 2 was on", "voicerss:enGB", "webaudio")
    	 }
    	 
	     
	      
    	     	if (DMXChaserLoungeMirror03_Switch.state == ON){
	 
DMXChaserLoungeMirror01.sendCommand(OFF)
             Thread::sleep(500)
	  

DMXLoungeMirrorColor.sendCommand(OFF)
             
LoungeWallLights.sendCommand(OFF)
    	 say("Pressed to Switch Off because chase 3 was on", "voicerss:enGB", "webaudio")
    	 }
    	 
    	Thread::sleep(250)	 
    end

19 pixels built into this proof of concept for a client that wanted this around their front door.

22 pixels in this wall light assembly, OpenHab2 now controls it with a button event from Velbus starting and stopping a choice of DMX chases in OpenHab2.

Or this similar solution using a different UI, might be possible with OpenHab2 if DMX chases can be grouped. (The client is moving to OpenHab2, so I’ll have to find a way)

This is 3 whole universes around the room.
170 pixels per universe.

I have a client that has bought a pair of outdoor DMX / LED washlights, which will hang on a Art-NET to DMX adapter, which I’ll give him a colour picker and choice of chases with OpenHab2 :smile:

My biggest tip would be to add a second LAN adapter to your controller / OpenHab2 machine, with a static address, matched to the same subnet of the Art-NET adapters, on a totally isolated network. (Not just a virtual LAN)

Also, consider sACN(E1.31) DMX over LAN protocol as it uses less bandwidth than Art-NET.

The SmartShow adapters support both Art-NET & sACN(E1.31)

That said, all my DMX lighting exists on the same physical LAN currently and I haven’t noticed a dramatic reduction in usable bandwidth, BUT we don’t tend to stream much so we wouldn’t notice anyway :wink:

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Thank you for your reply,

Actually I did not handle any DMX devices before, I saw its name when I was searching.
So, I want to ask: why you use DMX for LED strip, not z-wave or wifi controller ?
And what is SPI led tape, what is the difference between it and normal led strip ?

Also, what is your recommendation for RGB flood light ?

Hi

I think I should explain that I have a background in theatre, which might go some way to justify my choices.

That and my preference for “fully wired” solutions, rather than wireless.

So why do I select DMX / Art-NET / sACN ?

That is easy to answer :slight_smile:

Each DMX universe offers control of 512 seperate channels, which equates to 170 x RGB pixels / fixtures.

So by running a single screened data pair, you can control a lot of lights.

Then if you want to use a LAN network instead of running seperate cabling, DMX universes can be sent in Art-NET or sEcn packets.

So if you look at the video of the cabin, you’ll see that there are 92 seperate RGB sections (on the outside), each of which is completely independent.

I’ve never used Z-WAVE so I really can’t give you a comparison.

Now regarding your question about a recommendation for a RGB light…

That’s not such an easy question to answer, without much more information about what you want to light.

How big of an area do you want to project the light onto?

What kind of effect are you looking for? (Fixed colour, gentle cross fade, wild disco?)

How many different colours do you want at the same time?

And the really important question… How big is your budget?
You can spend <€100 on a lamp, or >€3000 on something like these City Colours, which are amazing bits of kit, if you happen to own a stately home :wink:

Then to address your question about RGB Vs SPi controlled RGB tape, there is so much information on the internet now that I’d only be paraphrasing what others are saying.

This YouTube search will get you started…

https://m.youtube.com/results?q=what%20is%20spi%20led&sm=1

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Fair questions given you are aiming at a professional answer, but given that he wants to light his facade, I’d assume that’s maybe 30-50 sqm and he’ll need a reasonably intensive lighting, well some 2000+ lumens I’d guess, but just one color at a time, and most important (as always if someone’s asking here) for the cheapest price possible (read: <100$).

Color effects can be programmed inside OH unless you require fast color changes, but I don’t think anyone would like to have a wild disco on his facade :slight_smile:
Even cheap actuators/controller nowaday come with a couple of builtin effects - the Fibaro and Milights have fading and a couple of programs.

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I used fibaro rgbw controller for indoor led strip. However, I believer it is better to rely on wired technology for outdoor (what do you think?). And dmx has benefits as devices can be daisy-chain connected, so it is scalable.

And about lumens, is the numbers in this link are fine https://energytoday.biz/blog/how-many-lumens-do-i-need-for-outdoor-lighting

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No, why? Wired vs. wireless is a thing you have to decide every time per-endpoint when you have multiple choices, to compare prices, existing tech experience, features, reliability etc etc.
For my outdoor lighting, using ZWave saved me from drilling/providing yet another cable through the walls and to provide waterproof cabling.
Having ZWave in place, there was no need for yet another gateway into DMX or DALI.
Yes DMX is more scalable. But you might need that, or you might not.
Get aware of the level and extent (# of channels) of functionality you want first, then decide on the tech to use.

Greetings, could you please give me photo of the final result of this compilation ?

Well, a photo doesn’t really show anything.
It’s like a combo of this LED board put into this enclosure.
(but don’t use these links, just did a quick search for demonstration purposes, it’s not exactly what I used).
Mind you, it’s not fully legal to build your own lamp, at least in Germany. And if I was to find a proper readymade one, I’d definitely have selected that one instead. I just didn’t find any by the time I was looking for them.

I’d easily double those, mind you also want to see some fancy colors way before it gets totally dark. You can’t have too many lumens - if it’s too bright, you can still dim them.

Excellent advice :slight_smile: