LED light strip switch experts, advice please.

Sup.

I’m building some alcove shelving and want to fit led strips behind all the individual shelves.

Some alcove shelves pictured recently…

I’m using those self-adhesive warm light strips you get. Here is a picture of some.

They fit into a routed channel behind each shelf lip. There are five strips per alcove cupboard and they are run from existing plugs inside the alcove.

I’ve got all the strips and transformers sorted, but the supplier wasn’t that helpful in terms of switching.

What I’d like to have is a small, discrete switch perhaps behind a shelf that can turn on each side all together.

Anyone know what I can use? Presumably just a simple inline surface-mounted switch between the plug and transformer.

My other thought would be to use remote controlled plug sockets. Not sure if they’d work what with the plugs being hidden behind the base cabinet doors.

Anyone found a neat solution for this sort of thing that they’d care to share?

👊

I did similar to that in a bathroom with a floating vanity unit – I wired them into the lighting circuit (this was easy to do as there is loft access to the wiring) so they come on with the room lighting. I don’t see why you would want to be able to individually switch either/both sides off independently of the lighting anyway – surely if you are in the room you’d want to have the full effect of your nice mood lighting?

A small discreet switch behind a shelf sounds like a terrible idea to me. Fiddly to use if you know where it is and impossible if you don’t. As johndoh says, I’d put it on the lighting circuit. Maybe with a round pin lighting plug on the transformer then swap the current light switch for a double that switches the socket.

Also, worth noting that those led strips are not as self adhesive as they claim and often come unstuck when they heat up. I always add a few mechanical fixings as well.

If you are technically minded this is a perfect project for a Raspberry Pi & a couple of relays. Very simple & cheap. Possibly not worth doing for just these shelves, but if you might do others (or want to tie it in to a house-wide automation system) then it’d be ideal.

I’d also be tempted to use RGB LEDs so you can optionally change the colour, because why not 😃

Also, worth noting that those led strips are not as self adhesive as they claim

If you bought cheap ones off eBay, etc then yes, the “3M” tape is counterfeit & they will not be very sticky at all 😂 I just stuck some other tape I had straight over the top.

I did similar to that in a bathroom with a floating vanity unit – I wired them into the lighting circuit (this was easy to do as there is loft access to the wiring)

My first thought was to do this, as there is a downlighter in each alcove currently which I will effectively be covering as the units will go right to the ceiling.

However, the switches for the room are the dimmer type, which I believe won’t play nicely with the leds, which wouldn’t want to be dimmed or may want to be on full, with the rest of the lights low or off.

I’m not experienced with electrics, I’m just a humble furniture maker so this is new ground for me 😉

Dimmable..

https://hartingtonheath.com/product/i-lumos-8-x-16mm-warm-white-led-flexible-waterproof-neon-strip-light/?attribute_length=5m&attribute_plug-type=UK%20Plug&gclid=Cj0KCQjw7YblBRDFARIsAKkK-dJ_JMRioEt_di4cckFDHlgvlCJE7m-JiGz8mfuKNUxo3_ZK2XQJ9KQaAvpZEALw_wcB

they also do 90degree corner modules which are good!

I have done a similar thing with LED’s. I’ve used a RGB+W strip & a Gledopto controller that hooks into the Philips Hue system, I can then set rules/etc for when it turns on and off. This will work well if they have/use Alexa/OK Google/Hue/Etc.

You may find the light from the strip produces a sharp light with hard shadows. To get rid of this I used LED strip channeling with a diffuser.

Easiest option would be an inline switch of a smart plug if you are not wanting to do anything like change colours/etc.

As above, I used a Geldopto controller and got it running with my existing Hive system. If you try that be aware that it won’t work with the earlier round Hive hubs.

30m range through walls and ceilings for the 4-way socket and few skills required 🙂
Edit: Screwfix do a range of Energenie products some of which might be of interest for this project

Thanks folks.

Not sure I want to get into the whole phone app control Alexa shizzle right now. The led strips are already here so really all I can do is have some kind of inline control or a remote plug control if it’ll work through cabinet doors.

How about an IR switch like this?

Mainly used in bathroom mirrors where you pass your hand over the sensor to switch the lights on.

Just use this to switch the primary (mains) side of your transformer, hide the box somewhere and mount the sensor somewhere convenient. Then amaze all your friends with your hands-free switched cabinet illumination.

I use a remote control plug to control mine – just the on off part

I use a gang socket so many other things come on at one press

worth noting if it comes with a remote to change patterns colour etc then the remote sensor need to be line of sight

Can you not just open the cupboard door and flick the socket switches?

How about an IR switch like this?

Ooh good call that thanks. I’ll have a look at them.

Can you not just open the cupboard door and flick the socket switches?

Well, yeah but they’re at the very back of the base cabinets so you’d have to get on your knees and poke amongst your videos.

What’s a video? 🙂

Got two ir switches for on and under cubbord lighting they have a slight blue light so can be seen in dark or maybe under your shelf u only need to wave a finger near them to turn em on off, they were a couple of quid each from eBay.

Just fit them in the existing plugs with a couple of the remote switches. Get the RF ones not the IR ones and you’ll be fine, they’re designed just for this purpose when you can’t get to the switch / see line of sight. I’ve got three that are nearly 20 years old and still do the job for hidden plug lamps etc.

(I’d probably go for an echo dot and some Alexa plugs for the extra few quid though….)

Well, yeah but they’re at the very back of the base cabinets so you’d have to get on your knees and poke amongst your videos.

Low tech solution would be a switched short lead extension block attached inside near the front of the cabinet.

Next question, while yous are here 🙂

I have 5 ‘tails’ from the led strips, that have all got to be connected to the same side of the transformer. One transformer running 5 strips(which is fine apparently providing the combined doesn’t exceed the maximum for the transformer)

Best way and off the shelf solution to this?

cheap solution would be to create two ‘busses’ with terminal strips (chocolate blocks) like this…
https://drive.google.com/uc?export=download&id=1-MKAB618WLGwSURacwqd5Lcoto5bUlUE

hope that works, no idea how to share photos anymore.

terminate each of your 5 positive wires into five of the terminals along one side, then on the other side run a series of shorter wires as jumpers between each terminal, connect the last one to your transformer.

do the same with a second row of terminals for the negatives.

Ha! Awesome little sketch mrjmt. Thanks a lot for that. I see what you’re saying.

I wonder if I could do a less ‘ghetto’ looking version with those wago style connectors? 5 wires in with the last one in and out?

Yes, neater and less fiddly to do with Wago connectors.

Another simple option for switching would be a Foot operated light switch. You could wire one of the inline ones so that it just broke the live on a single cable (ie out and return – same as a UK wall switch) and drop the cable out of a small hole in the base of the cupboards. Don’t have to bend down to switch them on then

Those wagos should be a neat solution and are easy to use. Another option is connect all the strips in a single chain. End of strip 1 connects to the start of strip 2 and so on. This is normally tidier but with your vertical arrangement it might not be that beneficial

yep, the wagos look ideal, looking at the datasheet they accept a good range of wire sizes too 👍
Shame they don’t do anything more than a 5-way but you should be able to squeeze two cores into one hole looking at the sizes they accept.

Bought! 👍

End of strip 1 connects to the start of strip 2 and so on

In series?

In series?

Sort of. Electrically speaking they are connected in parallel but visually they are daisy chained in series. Its how those strips are designed to be connected. Although if you do too long a chain you can start to get a voltage drop on the later ones.

I’m not finished just yet, but in principle it works spot on.

Wago-style connectors and remote control Energenie sockets from Screwfix, so thanks again good STW people for the help and advice 🙂👍

Untitled by blackteaonesugar[/url], on Flickr

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