An old chestnut I should think, but not an area I have ventured into before, so I'm just starting to climb that learning curve..
So, I'm fitting out a home cinema in my basement... being a basement it has a very low, and solid concrete ceiling... that means no workable ceiling void space, as the ceiling is so low already that I will not make it worse by adding any kind of additional ceiling covering, other than a 3-5mm skim coat of plaster... that effectively means no light fittings of any kind affixed to any point on the ceiling, since there is nowhere to conceal wiring, and I will not tolerate surface mounted, visible wires! I know there are other options to mitigate this, such as track lighting, or strip lighting that goes all the way to the edge, where all wiring across the ceiling is concealed within the track or strip fitting, but I also can't really have anything with any significant amount of drop, as anything hanging down more than a few cm from the ceiling would be a hazard (ceiling height is exactly 2m from the floor). Plus even those things require securing to the ceiling, and drilling into the concrete is not something I relish...
So I'm left with wall lights, dado lights, cornice lights, furniture lights, & lamps etc.. and I'd very much like to have some concealed, colour controllable, RGB LED lighting... I already have various sundry RGB LED fittings from Maplins that I've picked up over the years as they've been on sale etc.. such as: A49LW, and A16RA... these are fine, as far as they go... but each has it's own controller, with one of those ubiquitous credit-card sized IR remotes... using a bunch of these is hardly elegant... each is controlled separately by a *very* similar IR unit.. I bet they all use the same codes and will interfere with each other if I use several of them in the same room... if not, then I end up with several identical looking (and ugly!) IR remotes on the coffee table...
I have CBUS in the room, CBUS can "do" RGB control.... and typically there are a bunch of control options that I have to navigate through, and that is where I'm seeking opinions from the group..
from the CBUS control perspective, it looks like I have a few choices... DALI, DMX, or analogue 0/1-10v - those are listed in expense order, from most expensive (DALI) through to cheapest (analogue).
As I am, in typical UKHA fashion, somewhat cost-conscious, the least expensive route is automatically attractive, so looking at analogue control first...
I'd need a CBUS analogue output unit, an L5504AMP which I can get for approx. £200GBP. I note this is a 4-channel controller, so I'm therefore thinking I should be able to run RGBW fittings to get a decent white as well...
Next I'd need a 0/1-10V LED driver... this is where it starts to get bewildering... there are loads of them online... but thus far most of the ones I've found are just 3-channel, not 4-channel as I'd need for RGB+W. Does anyone have any knowledge of or experience with any 4-channel RGBW 0/1-10v analogue LED drivers?
Lastly I need LED fittings themselves... as I mentioned above, I have a few cheapo Maplins ones lying around, which it seems a waste not to try to use.. they are all IIRC only RGB, no +W, but if I supplement them with some other fittings with the +W I think that would be OK... (it will be accent/mood lighting, rather than the primary main light source for the room, which will be supplied by some wall sconces).
So, I'm thinking that I *should* be able to ditch the supplied LED driver with those Maplins items, and wire the strips up to the aforementioned 0-10v controller? - anyone have anything to say about that idea?
I am aware of course that using a single L5504AMP will only give me a single control group for all the RGBW fittings connected to it - no individually addressable fittings... given the size of the room and the number of fittings I'm anticipating, I do not regard this as a serious limitation at this time... especially given the price hike to jump up to the next option - DMX which would give more channels & finer granularity of control...
I believe I have seen RGB LED controllers that feature both analogue and DMX connectivity, so using those would allow me to upgrade the CBUS interface option at a later date... but again, thus far I haven't seen any 4-channel ones... - anyone know if such a thing exists?
Any specific product suggestions & recommendations would be extremely welcome!
TIA
Paul G.
So, I'm fitting out a home cinema in my basement... being a basement it has a very low, and solid concrete ceiling... that means no workable ceiling void space, as the ceiling is so low already that I will not make it worse by adding any kind of additional ceiling covering, other than a 3-5mm skim coat of plaster... that effectively means no light fittings of any kind affixed to any point on the ceiling, since there is nowhere to conceal wiring, and I will not tolerate surface mounted, visible wires! I know there are other options to mitigate this, such as track lighting, or strip lighting that goes all the way to the edge, where all wiring across the ceiling is concealed within the track or strip fitting, but I also can't really have anything with any significant amount of drop, as anything hanging down more than a few cm from the ceiling would be a hazard (ceiling height is exactly 2m from the floor). Plus even those things require securing to the ceiling, and drilling into the concrete is not something I relish...
So I'm left with wall lights, dado lights, cornice lights, furniture lights, & lamps etc.. and I'd very much like to have some concealed, colour controllable, RGB LED lighting... I already have various sundry RGB LED fittings from Maplins that I've picked up over the years as they've been on sale etc.. such as: A49LW, and A16RA... these are fine, as far as they go... but each has it's own controller, with one of those ubiquitous credit-card sized IR remotes... using a bunch of these is hardly elegant... each is controlled separately by a *very* similar IR unit.. I bet they all use the same codes and will interfere with each other if I use several of them in the same room... if not, then I end up with several identical looking (and ugly!) IR remotes on the coffee table...
I have CBUS in the room, CBUS can "do" RGB control.... and typically there are a bunch of control options that I have to navigate through, and that is where I'm seeking opinions from the group..
from the CBUS control perspective, it looks like I have a few choices... DALI, DMX, or analogue 0/1-10v - those are listed in expense order, from most expensive (DALI) through to cheapest (analogue).
As I am, in typical UKHA fashion, somewhat cost-conscious, the least expensive route is automatically attractive, so looking at analogue control first...
I'd need a CBUS analogue output unit, an L5504AMP which I can get for approx. £200GBP. I note this is a 4-channel controller, so I'm therefore thinking I should be able to run RGBW fittings to get a decent white as well...
Next I'd need a 0/1-10V LED driver... this is where it starts to get bewildering... there are loads of them online... but thus far most of the ones I've found are just 3-channel, not 4-channel as I'd need for RGB+W. Does anyone have any knowledge of or experience with any 4-channel RGBW 0/1-10v analogue LED drivers?
Lastly I need LED fittings themselves... as I mentioned above, I have a few cheapo Maplins ones lying around, which it seems a waste not to try to use.. they are all IIRC only RGB, no +W, but if I supplement them with some other fittings with the +W I think that would be OK... (it will be accent/mood lighting, rather than the primary main light source for the room, which will be supplied by some wall sconces).
So, I'm thinking that I *should* be able to ditch the supplied LED driver with those Maplins items, and wire the strips up to the aforementioned 0-10v controller? - anyone have anything to say about that idea?
I am aware of course that using a single L5504AMP will only give me a single control group for all the RGBW fittings connected to it - no individually addressable fittings... given the size of the room and the number of fittings I'm anticipating, I do not regard this as a serious limitation at this time... especially given the price hike to jump up to the next option - DMX which would give more channels & finer granularity of control...
I believe I have seen RGB LED controllers that feature both analogue and DMX connectivity, so using those would allow me to upgrade the CBUS interface option at a later date... but again, thus far I haven't seen any 4-channel ones... - anyone know if such a thing exists?
Any specific product suggestions & recommendations would be extremely welcome!
TIA
Paul G.
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