CBUS RGB LED Strip control

There was some discussion on this topic a few years ago but I wanted to check if there was a newer solution now.

I want to install some LED flexible strips around my apartment but I want CBUS to control them completely. So I want CBUS to be able to control the colours and the dimming. The lighting retailer showed me a control from HVIT Lighting I can use to control these things, however I wasn't able tell from the details how this would best be put together.

Basically I will have about 6 x 5m strips in various locations and I need to be able to dim and control the colours of each strip separately via CBUS. What is the best solution for this? I currently have a L5508D1A sitting idle so ideally I'd like to leverage this as part of the solution if possible.

 

Morning,

We do this using a C-Bus DMX..This gives you 12 channels of control so you have a couple of options.

Option 1, To control all the strips together you'll use 3 channels on the C-Bus DMX (red,green,blue) feeding a DMX-RGB driver (Theres loads of options out there just give it a quick search). and you'll need a suitable power supply for the current of the strip, remember you only install 5mtr runs (i.e. take them individually back to the DMX-RGB driver) , don't joint them together to make longer runs as the strip is not rated above 5mtrs.

Option 2, you could split the strips into 4 zones and use all the 12 channels on the C-bus DMX,(Zone 1 Red,Green,Blue,Zone 2 Red, Green,Blue etc etc) this will need 4 DMX-RGB drivers and suitable power supply.

All depends how much control you need really.

We have also used Dali - RGB but the components aren't that easy to get hold of (in the UK at least)

Hope that helps

 

The L5508D1A will be of no use at all for this purpose.

chrisd has made a good suggestion... Another alternative would be to use a C-BUS DALI controller and DALI drivers for the LED strips.

I haven't used RGB strips before but have done various DALI dimming setups with Tridonic and Osram drivers.

 

I finally completed my install, thanks to everyone for the advice. My completed install uses a L5508RVF connected to 4 LED drivers, each connected to a separate DMX512 controller (http://bit.ly/1Pz5xFb) which are wired to a 5500DMX.

I looked at the example code for controlling the colours but found it was unnecessary, all I needed to do was map 3 group addresses per LED strip to 3 DMX slots, then I can use sliders on my CTC5500 to control each of the RGB channels.