this post was submitted on 30 Oct 2023
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Home Automation
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Home automation is the residential extension of building automation.
It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.
Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.
Warning: Working with electricity can result in injury, property damage, or even death if it is not done properly. Please keep this in mind while assisting others. If you are not sure about what you are doing, hire a licensed professional.
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Besides the power from AC to DC to power these, if you're running any significant length you'll want to consider wiring every 5-10m. The distance depends on how dense the LED count is on the strip. Definitely bench test before installation to ensure they don't malfunction from voltage drop over long runs.
Something like WS2812B pixel strips need a hefty 5V 10A supply to run both the LED and the device that controls them, in my case a RaspPi. These are bricks like you'd see for a laptop or other low voltage electronics. I've purchased some of the all-metal encased power supplies but found some that don't actually meet the voltage spec when they get half way through their current rating.
You mention in-wall. How do you plan on mounting and servicing the power supplies if they're not exposed and plugged into in a wall outlet? Will you be putting the power and controller in a junction box or in a convenient closet like under a stairs? The power supplies aren't going to fit in anything less than maybe a 3-gang J-box and that may be tight. If you also are going to localize the controllers, whatever they are, you'll need room for that, too.
You might consider a dropped crown moulding if it fits your decor to house those along a ceiling.
I run my Raspberry Pi headless and use Remote Desktop to access them with Insteon modules controlling the power, but all of mine are on top of cabinets where they are easy to service and hide the wiring.
Usually for longer runs of LED strips I power them from the middle. Specifically I cut the strip in two and put the power and data for both in the middle making handling the wiring much easier. It does make controlling the individual LEDs a little trickier but it works. I am looking at about 10-12 feet of strips so cut in half is 5-6 feet each. Past experience shows that I should get good power saturation at that length without much voltage and brightness drop. As to where I’m going to put the controller and power supplies, I initially thought I could find something I could completely hide but now I think something like a 9” in wall media box will work and then just come out of the panel with the normal plug for power. The biggest problem I have is there are no outlets on the stairs, nor near the top or bottom of the stairs. The closest is on the other side of the upstairs hallway. Not a long distance but putting a wire / cord across a traffic lane doesn’t bode well. However I just discovered that on the other side of the wall near the top of the stairs is an outlet so I will put the box in the wall next to the outlet, come out the front of the box with the 120v power cord from the “laptop brick” and then go out the back of the box with low voltage and data wires to the strip(s). As to my controller, I’ve used raspberry pi a lot too but they are big,chunky, and draw a decent amount of power so 24/7/365 just to run one set of lights is overkill. But a little ESP32 controller https://heltec.org/project/wifi-kit-32-v3/ can do everything I need, sip power, and cost less than even a pi zero. I am considering a Pi Pico W but the ESP32 also has the needed WiFi AND is supported by the WLED https://kno.wled.ge/ project making is very easy to control the LEDs.
Yup, that'll work. Wasn't clear if you had a lot of experience with these strips before.
I'm just getting into ESP32 because, like you said, RaspPis are overkill. Like running a mini PC just to make some lights blink. I do some matrix stuff where the extra compute power and UI flexibility is helpful during development but it's overkill even for that.