What LED strip to use? 30-40m long

Questions & Help
1

Hi,

I have a Homey Pro 2023 and I just finished my ceiling renovation project in the living room. I now need about 30 to 40 meters led strips connected to a controller that works with Homey.

Any suggestions what to use? I would like to use RGB+CCT / RGBWW led strips.

  • What controller do you suggest?
  • What led strips do you suggest in combination with the specified controller?

Kind regards,
SKO

2

If you want to cover this distance you need a higher voltage over the ledstrip anyway compared to the normal 12 volt strips. i would therefore also use a connection box and matching ledstrip more than 24 volts can handle in order to get the lowest possible voltage dip at the end of the ledstrip.

I myself have good experiences with Gledopto, see below is a RGB+CCT = RGBWW controller

Schermafbeelding 2024-03-11 om 11.54.21
Schermafbeelding 2024-03-11 om 11.54.212732×1660 357 KB

3

Dank Robin,

Can you suggest a led strip that should work stable with this controller for such distance? Is says 5A per channel and total of 10A so it means it has 2 channels, right? That means I would need 2x 20m to cover 40m. I cannot find any info on the site about a connection schema or something similar.

Thanks,
SKO

4

no I have no experience with such lengths, but there are plenty of websites where this will be found on. i don’t think the led strip would be problem, rather the power supply or connection box

mhh I think not, I think they mean that R = 1 channel G= 1 channel B= 1 channel, so each RGBCCT letter is its own channel and these can handle 5A independently and all together not more than 10A.

note the higher the voltage the lower the amperage, so you can put a higher voltage on the led strip so that the current is not near the 5 or 10A.

led strips varies quite a bit kwa led per meter for example so also in the watts per meter, if you look up the values of a 40 meter ledstrip, you can enter them below and see what power supply you need.

(number of meters * wattage per meter) * 1.15 / voltage = maximum load.

example: (30 meters * 15 watts per meter) * 1.10 / 36v = 13.75 amps

so it’s actually like almost impossible not to have it in 2 or maybe 3 different strips

5

I doubt you will find any RCBWW suitable for such lengths.

There are two options for long stripes:

  • Usually you can connect the power at both ends to counteract the voltage loss. For very long stripes you may need to connect power maybe one or multiple times somewhere in between. Just make sure the stripe you chose is suitable for this (and you know your way around a soldering iron).
  • Use IC LED stripes. IC LED strips are characterised by special transistor circuits that counteract any voltage losses and thus allow operation of up to 30m at a time with only one power connection. As far as I know, they are not available as RGB stripes.

And as @Robin_De_Lange already wrote: forget about 12V, you need higher voltages.

As controller I always used the Qubino RGBW dimmer, but I never used it for such long stripes.

6

I use these and i am very happy with them, i use 24v strips so that the voltage drop is less off a problem. And as mentioned earlier feed the strips from the middle or multiple points.

https://www.shelly.com/en-nl/products/product-overview/shelly-rgbw2

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