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For those living in countries with solid walls. Check code of corse. But, you can make a facia wall using striping and the desired face material. Striping can be anything from strips of 1/4" (6mm) to 3/4" (19 mm) thick material aprox 1.5-2" wide (33mm-50mm). Co.siderations for thickness Space loss, faster length, additional insulation or sound proofing. Any runs needed. To bring a socket or switch forward flush. Start by turning the circuit off at any breaker (local laws may require licensed prof). Pull cover plate and unit from existing enclosure Use an aptopriate "mud out box" in facia material. Attach receptical to mud box.
So the trick with the magnet tool without opening up the hole is to bring the lead past the exit hole as low as you could go and hook back end and pull it out by the lead. the roller tool should also pull on the eye too to get it near the hole laterally if you end up bottoming out against a floor board and the eye wanders .
for anyone considering, please DYOR as fishing lines behind drywall can be unsafe. use cabling specifically rated for in wall usage (ex. CL2/CL3 etc) if you dont want to burn your house down
I was just about to add a comment about this very topic. Not only is using the properly rated cables safer, but it will ensure that your home can pass an inspection if it needs to.
Could you explain this more in depth please, in a manner that someone who doesn't really understand that, would be able comprehend, beacuse it sounds really important to know
@@b1ooberry sure, there are cables made for behind the wall applications. using standard extension cables, audio/video cables, and data cables like USB or network that you can find commercially are typically not rated for such use. there are such cables rated for in wall use which can safely sustain higher temps and reduces the risk of starting a fire
Nice one. Thx! Btw: The Wago Clips, i found out about them via one of your vids and ordered them...now i already have replaced or hanged some new lights with them already, they are damn good and so easy to work with. No more screwdrivers, no more wiggling around to get everything into deep dark holes (pun intended), just open, insert, look thru and in, and click, done and dusted and pretty strong. So thx for that as well. :) And now off to the LED Goodness we go!
Great video. Note: When fishing wires down a wall, sometimes, you run into fire blocks which will stop the wire from moving down the wall. Plenty of other videos out there showing how to get thru those but will require additional cutting of the drywall..
What a fantastic video. Unfortunately I'm pretty useless at DIY, but even I could follow your clear steps. Also I appreciate you showing the actual results at the end. This was really brilliant.
Nice! Thank you! Do you know if the LED's you used have individual white and individual color LED's? I want to put LED's below kitchen cabinets with true white AND color options. Thank you!!!
Good stuff Chris. I literally just used those Cable Concealer Tracks the other day for a remote controlled projector screen (the woes of renter life, can't put big holes in the wall). They work out great by themselves but even better if you can run them behind something else. In my case I just stuck the projector screen cable, controller box & their concealer tracks behind a hemp lamp cord that I wove a bunch of fake vines into. +2 stealth for my cables without any extra holes.
Yeah renters well anyone would be shocked how much weight a sewing needle or few, inserted at a sharp angle of ~45-70 degrees can actually carry. but they are just pin holes right, someone should test this, too hard to get a standard needle these days, i bet .
"Conceiving Cable" sounds like a new euphemism for a male body part! 😂 (I know you meant concealing. Also, don't listen to theecstatic9686. I don't know what makes people behave that way.)
small tip at 6:30: If you use Wagos to connect wires its a smart thing to stirp all the wires a different length... If you use the Wagos they will fall next to each other instead of on top of each other... You can now use a shrink tube to make it into a finished cable with almost no real clutter inside the connection point... :)
You ever think about using a existing plug, remove the nail on box…buy a new double or triple old work box …bring all your wires down the wall at the same point into the new double or triple old work box and make up your joints inside the box and literally everything is hidden? With the space from the double or triple box you would have plenty of room and would be able to power it from the existing plug wire you started with….buy a combination plate that’s a single outlet and double blank.
you should have made a bottom hole at outlet height and used a AV passthrough plate. Would look cleaner and can be replaced with a blank plate if not needed in the future. just my opinion
I have some metal posters behind my couch that I decided to backlight with RGBW LEDs, since the posters and the couch cover a larger area I was able to use cheap low voltage old work boxes to run the wires down the wall and under the couch to the power supply. The old work box is just an orange plastic flange that reinforces the edges of the drywall so you can run low voltage wires and not tear out or further damage the wall.
Am currently startting to look into an led project for my living room. I am thinkg of 2 stripes along the walls. One of those would be ca 8m long. Doni need to onfuse power somewhrre along thos lines?
love this videos and tutorials. saw in the permanent outdoor light video you were planning to do a splicing video on the govee outdoor lights. is that still in the works?
Those individual conductors are listed for use in a raceway only. Try 18 awg thermostat wire for low voltage leds when running the cables through the wall. Thermostat cable commonly comes in 2 conductor to 7 conductor varieties. Also, if you're going to use a wiremold type of raceway at the bottom you can use the raceway to cover the hole in the wall. They do make endcaps for wiremold raceways. I would not recommend trusting the doubleface tape long term. Put some screws in to hold it long term.
Some of those 3M Command adhesives are designed to hold up to 30 pounds of stuff. I've used them for fairly heavy framed pictures (about 12 pounds each) and they've been up for 7 years now.
@@OneWildTurkey let's be honest. They're in a position that's not likely to be hit or yanked on and are considered temporary installations. I've learned not to trust adhesive tapes for installation of electrical components because I've seen too many of them fail with time. You want to secure those components with screws and, if necessary by design, straps.
[TLDR: He's fine with the 3m ever 3-10+(?) feet just clean surface + remove the 3m stickies w pull tab as shown] The 3m sticky will readily rip paint plus paper behind it (of drwall) unless you remove it using thier (very obvious) 'Pull' tab. Trust me that 3m stuff will adhere to any cleaned surface (as per specs obv) but you're right as well because how much do you trust some paint and paper on compressed powder to hold up your 1/3rd amp (and lb :) Led strip. The 3m sticky is supposed to be installed vertically (i thought) but it still ripped paint n paper off my wall when an EX friend stuck some on middle of my custom painted wall for no reason ripped it off I even said right away "wtf you best not touch thatnow bud, cuz you GOTTA REMOVE it just like it says!" No brains are my pet peeve no sorry it's just no respect. Anyway of course he didn't but waiy till i left the room and, well pointless... Man lives thru war then can't manage to not leave a square inch of grey on my wall. Turned out to be a thief "I shoulda seen the writing on the wall" errr peeling as it were :)
if you're trying to pull it through the same size hole - lead the magnet further down past your hole and hook the wire to pull through the lead in reverse.
In Australia most residential walls will have "nogins" in them - cross pieces behind the sheet rock at different heights. This is a problem if you want to magnte-fish your wire as you need to ensure you aren't hitting one. If you have roof entry - use a long bar to knock the noggin down on one side of it by drilling through top plate, then use your long bar to run down the wall sheet and stud and bang the noggin until it falls down. I've had to remove tiles to have verticl space to do this. It's the last option I have sometimes before having to make a hole at the nogin and drill/feed the cable.
@@diedrichg THanks I didn't know that. Might need to look up why the name and why they exist :P. I thought it was just structural to stop the studs bowing or twisting and deforming the wall.
If you have carpet and a baseboard along the wall oftentimes there is enough room to tuck thinner cables like the flat-style Ethernet cables underneath. No need to install anything, besides perhaps a couple staples or cable guide pins if there is a portion they have to jut out (like along built in cabinetry).
Here is another tip, when pulling your 3 wires through, add another wire/string/something to act as a pull like you did originally, just in case you need to pull something else though, save you having to undo the 3 active wires to get them to be the pull through.
Question....Since these are wired parallel, when you go into settings, Do you just enter the length/LED's of 1 strip ?? I'm doing some floating shelf lighting and trying to decide on "Parallel" with movement like in this video or "Normal" just with some wire between each 24" cut strip so that the movement travels up the 6 tier shelf.
This is fantastic, BUT, the Magnepull/fishing will only work if you are sure there are no fire blocks in the way. I guess it never hurts to fully scan the wall for studs in both dimensions.
Ty for the Vid, nice Ideas... How much W can the board support in output?... Isn't it better to connect the LEDs directly to a power source with those boards?
Without watching any of your previous videos on WLED, strips, etc. I’ll play dumb for a minute - I see at the end of the video you are left with the connected wires and the control boards. Could you do something like run the 3 LED wires to an existing single-gang outlet box , remove that box, enlarge the drywall to a 2- or 3- gang size, replace the box, install the outlet back, and hardwire the controllers to the existing hot/neutral/ground wiring with the outlet? Does that setup exist and the controllers in-wall rated to live in an electrical outlet box? I hope that makes sense, thanks!
Just want to say I enjoy your videos. By chance on the esp32 wifi board with wled is there a way to change default color so if there's loss of power they don't default to orange?
Hi Jake, Yes you can! Under lighting preferences you can apply a preset at Boot. Simple create an effect, save it as a preset and enter that preset # under preferences.
I like the concept and the quality of your wire terminations. Electronically your install is solid and works, but all low voltage in-wall cabling must UL listed for its usage, in this case a jacketed 18-4 stranded cable with a CL3 listing would work and the splice should be contained within the fixture or a UL listed enclosure. So no open splices and jacketed cable and you would be code compliant.
Chris thanks for these vids! I've used your advice and have purchased an LED strip setup... two questions if you have a moment... 1) How far apart do you space the sticky strips? 2) How do you effectively line up channels so that they don't bleed through at the junctions? Thanks!
Next time instead of making the hole wider simply drill it at an angle so that the lead can easily be pulled through it. Alternatively you could bring the lead past the hole then hook onto it, and fish it out; but the angle's easier.
Hi Chris, new subscriber here! I have been browsing thru your videos and I’m about to start out wledding myself but I have been trying to find wether it’s possible to create a wave effect or not and if possible, how is it done? What I mean BBS wave effect is if we take this video as an example, you have three led strips doing the same animation. I want that but I want every strip to starts for example half a second after the strip above and so on. Can I program this if I have three different wled controllers? Thanks and have a nice day!
You can certainly do that and the type of controller doesn't matter. It's more how you wire them up. Here is a video you can watch. th-cam.com/video/Zzi5UIGnY2A/w-d-xo.html or th-cam.com/video/xkCt85jvI2s/w-d-xo.html
@@ChrisMaherDIY Thank you for the reply! However, I think that maybe I didn’t describe the effect I wanted good enough. Don’t mind the word wave. Think this way: You have three or more led strips that sits like horizontal lines and you want the same animation going on at the same time for all the leds but for every ledstrip you want a delay of half a second or so. I’m thinking that I need three controllers but is it possible in wled to put in delay? Maybe echo effect better describe what I want? 😄 Sorry and thanks. I’ve searched but haven’t found anything yet. Have a nice day!
Hey Chris 😊 Is it possible to run „normal“ 24V led strips with a Govee controller ? Because i have one left over and want to save some money😅 Thanks alot for the good work you put in your videos ❤ i love them all
I've been wondering if you can use flat speaker wire tape (like ghost wire) for leds? I'd love a video with you trying it out. (Since you have more experience with wired and soldering and such)
Cable track can be painted too. Scuff with a scotch pad and then paint with your house paint OR better a matched spray paint if your hardware/paint supplier can do it.
I'm been pulling cable for 12 years. easy way to fish a wire is to tape the wire on an end of a stick and shove it down the wall. hook the wire and pull it out of the wall. Cut the wire from the stick and pull the stick out of wall. No fancy tool needed.
For option 3, did you run into any fire blocking installed between the studs when you were using the MagnePull to fish the wire down the wall? If you did, how did you overcome that?
fire blocking prevents that method. you either have to tear out drywall and drill a hole through it or use a long electricians drill bit to get through it without tearing out drywall. can be tricky to do but there are videos explaining it.
Man, those diffusers really de-pixelate those LEDs. Great find! Perhaps I can contribute a bit here. Green wire for anything besides ground kinda tweaks me. I wouldn't hesitate to use a green wire as ground for a scope or something. Green as a data line would be a trap for me. lol. I know you are color coding the ends of your white wire, but getting a few spools so you can color code can really pay off in the future. If you run cable through a wall or need to repair in the middle, you will always know which cable is which. Make it easy for the guy that comes after you, it may be you. It looks like you are sliding the bottom of a circuit board across carpet. I suspect the chip has some static protection diodes on there, but I wouldn't count on it. Is there a reason you chose the forstner bit? Great results in the back of the channel, but I don't really know anything about that bit. Many thanks!!!
Just to clarify, running, 5v wires through a wall without Romex is perfectly fine. There simply isn't enough voltage present to start any issues. That said, while it might be "against code," it's also not unsafe.
I just make a fake wall using 1/8" thin sanded plywood and texturizing/painting it like my regular wall and hide everything behind that, then mount that on the wall.
My fellow Europeans, since you live in houses where you can't smash the wall with your fists, you can skip the third step completely. But for America, this tutorial is actually a good one.
I think at this rate, if you have enough funds, you should make your own little boards with their owm app and smart assistant integration. That would be awesome
Why wouldn't you install an old work double gang electrical box for your controller and put a standard face plate over it?? Seems like a really clean and accessible solution to me.
Why would you recommend a diffuser channel at $160 when I can get the same quality for half price? I know you said it does the best diffusing of all the channels you've tested, but I'm having a hard time justifying double the price. I'm a first time buyer for this sort of thing - want to add permanent outdoor Christmas lighting to my house - so I'm asking out of ignorance: I don't know if I want a "best in class" diffuser for double the price. Am I being too cheap?
Great question! If you are using an led strips that have 60 LEDs per meter then these are about the only ones I've found that perfectly diffuse strips at that density. If you don't care about the light being perfectly diffused meaning you will see the individual dots of light, then for sure go with something cheaper. But nothing will ever beat testing things out yourself so whatever you order just make sure there are free returns in case you don't like it. If you are using an led strip that has 30 LEDs per meter, nothing will perfectly diffuse that density of strip.
Now move the wire horizontally 5 feet to the left and 5 ft above the nearest outlet using the same method. It's never been complicated to fish a wire within a stud bay that contains an outlet....
Thanks for watching! It does look like that but its actually just a scratch. The hole itself is completely covered. I should have just touched up that spot with paint.
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you got any links for muzada diffusers outside of US?
also that white mesh?
Cries in german solid walls
Cries even louder, punches the wall in despair and breaks his fist 😭
cries in Indian solid walls
Cries in Bulgarian solid walls
For those living in countries with solid walls.
Check code of corse. But, you can make a facia wall using striping and the desired face material.
Striping can be anything from strips of 1/4" (6mm) to 3/4" (19 mm) thick material aprox 1.5-2" wide (33mm-50mm).
Co.siderations for thickness
Space loss, faster length, additional insulation or sound proofing. Any runs needed.
To bring a socket or switch forward flush. Start by turning the circuit off at any breaker (local laws may require licensed prof). Pull cover plate and unit from existing enclosure
Use an aptopriate "mud out box" in facia material.
Attach receptical to mud box.
@chiefgully9353 Sorry, what's a mud out box, and what's a facia material?
So the trick with the magnet tool without opening up the hole is to bring the lead past the exit hole as low as you could go and hook back end and pull it out by the lead. the roller tool should also pull on the eye too to get it near the hole laterally if you end up bottoming out against a floor board and the eye wanders .
for anyone considering, please DYOR as fishing lines behind drywall can be unsafe. use cabling specifically rated for in wall usage (ex. CL2/CL3 etc) if you dont want to burn your house down
I was just about to say!
I was just about to add a comment about this very topic.
Not only is using the properly rated cables safer, but it will ensure that your home can pass an inspection if it needs to.
Could you explain this more in depth please, in a manner that someone who doesn't really understand that, would be able comprehend, beacuse it sounds really important to know
@@b1ooberry sure, there are cables made for behind the wall applications. using standard extension cables, audio/video cables, and data cables like USB or network that you can find commercially are typically not rated for such use. there are such cables rated for in wall use which can safely sustain higher temps and reduces the risk of starting a fire
@@jasenhenrythank you for the information! That's really cool to know for my future projects, so I appreciate you taking the time to tell me!
Less glamorous, but its what separates the amateurs from the pros! Great video would be interesting to see more!
Nice one. Thx!
Btw:
The Wago Clips, i found out about them via one of your vids and ordered them...now i already have replaced or hanged some new lights with them already, they are damn good and so easy to work with.
No more screwdrivers, no more wiggling around to get everything into deep dark holes (pun intended), just open, insert, look thru and in, and click, done and dusted and pretty strong.
So thx for that as well. :)
And now off to the LED Goodness we go!
Great video. Note: When fishing wires down a wall, sometimes, you run into fire blocks which will stop the wire from moving down the wall. Plenty of other videos out there showing how to get thru those but will require additional cutting of the drywall..
I've seen fire blocks in walls in stairwells and between floors. Do those get installed in a normal room wall sometimes? Genuine question!
@@xenidus yes sir! I came across two in our bedroom walls. Since then, I use an endoscope to give it a look before diving in.
What a fantastic video. Unfortunately I'm pretty useless at DIY, but even I could follow your clear steps. Also I appreciate you showing the actual results at the end. This was really brilliant.
Nice! Thank you!
Do you know if the LED's you used have individual white and individual color LED's? I want to put LED's below kitchen
cabinets with true white AND color options. Thank you!!!
Your videos are amazingly thorough and easy to understand. The links you provide to the products and tutorials you do are great.
30 seconds in and I’m already hitting the like button because I’m also a fan of diffusing LED lights.
Good stuff Chris. I literally just used those Cable Concealer Tracks the other day for a remote controlled projector screen (the woes of renter life, can't put big holes in the wall). They work out great by themselves but even better if you can run them behind something else. In my case I just stuck the projector screen cable, controller box & their concealer tracks behind a hemp lamp cord that I wove a bunch of fake vines into. +2 stealth for my cables without any extra holes.
Yeah renters well anyone would be shocked how much weight a sewing needle or few, inserted at a sharp angle of ~45-70 degrees can actually carry. but they are just pin holes right, someone should test this, too hard to get a standard needle these days, i bet .
guy just keeps providing .
thanks chris guy
These videos are satisfying to watch
Great video and content.
As a WAGO employee... I appreciate your use of our 221 connectors. 🙂
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Love your products!!
Thanks Chris. Your tutorials are always very helpful. Concealing cables are always a challenge especially when you have concrete walls.
That's why he showed the track method ignoramus...
WOW Really @@theecstatic9686 . Resorting to name calling? Im well aware that Chris discussed the other options in the video.
"Conceiving Cable" sounds like a new euphemism for a male body part! 😂 (I know you meant concealing. Also, don't listen to theecstatic9686. I don't know what makes people behave that way.)
@@DavZell 🤣🤣🤣🤣 damn autocorrect. I'm conceiving ideas to hide my cables on concrete walls.
For very small wires like this, you can always create a channel and tape/mud back over. It's not necessary to physically get behind the wall.
small tip at 6:30:
If you use Wagos to connect wires its a smart thing to stirp all the wires a different length...
If you use the Wagos they will fall next to each other instead of on top of each other...
You can now use a shrink tube to make it into a finished cable with almost no real clutter inside the connection point...
:)
Your videos are so good. I really appreciate how carefully you explain everything.
You ever think about using a existing plug, remove the nail on box…buy a new double or triple old work box …bring all your wires down the wall at the same point into the new double or triple old work box and make up your joints inside the box and literally everything is hidden? With the space from the double or triple box you would have plenty of room and would be able to power it from the existing plug wire you started with….buy a combination plate that’s a single outlet and double blank.
Drilling a hole in the bottom drywall plug was genius. Great video.
you should have made a bottom hole at outlet height and used a AV passthrough plate. Would look cleaner and can be replaced with a blank plate if not needed in the future. just my opinion
I have some metal posters behind my couch that I decided to backlight with RGBW LEDs, since the posters and the couch cover a larger area I was able to use cheap low voltage old work boxes to run the wires down the wall and under the couch to the power supply. The old work box is just an orange plastic flange that reinforces the edges of the drywall so you can run low voltage wires and not tear out or further damage the wall.
Am currently startting to look into an led project for my living room. I am thinkg of 2 stripes along the walls. One of those would be ca 8m long. Doni need to onfuse power somewhrre along thos lines?
love this videos and tutorials. saw in the permanent outdoor light video you were planning to do a splicing video on the govee outdoor lights. is that still in the works?
Can i use the comon led wi fi controller sold to control the 5 mtr RGB strips with a DC5V WS2812D RGB LED WS2812 chipset inside ??
Great work Chris! Appreciate the product mention!
Those individual conductors are listed for use in a raceway only. Try 18 awg thermostat wire for low voltage leds when running the cables through the wall. Thermostat cable commonly comes in 2 conductor to 7 conductor varieties.
Also, if you're going to use a wiremold type of raceway at the bottom you can use the raceway to cover the hole in the wall. They do make endcaps for wiremold raceways. I would not recommend trusting the doubleface tape long term. Put some screws in to hold it long term.
Some of those 3M Command adhesives are designed to hold up to 30 pounds of stuff. I've used them for fairly heavy framed pictures (about 12 pounds each) and they've been up for 7 years now.
@@OneWildTurkey let's be honest. They're in a position that's not likely to be hit or yanked on and are considered temporary installations. I've learned not to trust adhesive tapes for installation of electrical components because I've seen too many of them fail with time. You want to secure those components with screws and, if necessary by design, straps.
@@ianbelletti6241 I don't have kids, so wasn't thinking about them getting yanked on... VERY good point!
[TLDR: He's fine with the 3m ever 3-10+(?) feet just clean surface + remove the 3m stickies w pull tab as shown] The 3m sticky will readily rip paint plus paper behind it (of drwall) unless you remove it using thier (very obvious) 'Pull' tab. Trust me that 3m stuff will adhere to any cleaned surface (as per specs obv) but you're right as well because how much do you trust some paint and paper on compressed powder to hold up your 1/3rd amp (and lb :) Led strip. The 3m sticky is supposed to be installed vertically (i thought) but it still ripped paint n paper off my wall when an EX friend stuck some on middle of my custom painted wall for no reason ripped it off I even said right away "wtf you best not touch thatnow bud, cuz you GOTTA REMOVE it just like it says!" No brains are my pet peeve no sorry it's just no respect. Anyway of course he didn't but waiy till i left the room and, well pointless... Man lives thru war then can't manage to not leave a square inch of grey on my wall. Turned out to be a thief "I shoulda seen the writing on the wall" errr peeling as it were :)
An important step.
Thank you Chris.
if you're trying to pull it through the same size hole - lead the magnet further down past your hole and hook the wire to pull through the lead in reverse.
Im your Indian Subscriber Chris Keep it up 😀😀
124K subs! you're killing it dude!
What do you use to connect to the controller … for control😮
In Australia most residential walls will have "nogins" in them - cross pieces behind the sheet rock at different heights. This is a problem if you want to magnte-fish your wire as you need to ensure you aren't hitting one.
If you have roof entry - use a long bar to knock the noggin down on one side of it by drilling through top plate, then use your long bar to run down the wall sheet and stud and bang the noggin until it falls down. I've had to remove tiles to have verticl space to do this. It's the last option I have sometimes before having to make a hole at the nogin and drill/feed the cable.
We have them in the USA as well. We call them fire breaks.
@@diedrichg THanks I didn't know that. Might need to look up why the name and why they exist :P. I thought it was just structural to stop the studs bowing or twisting and deforming the wall.
If you have carpet and a baseboard along the wall oftentimes there is enough room to tuck thinner cables like the flat-style Ethernet cables underneath. No need to install anything, besides perhaps a couple staples or cable guide pins if there is a portion they have to jut out (like along built in cabinetry).
Here is another tip, when pulling your 3 wires through, add another wire/string/something to act as a pull like you did originally, just in case you need to pull something else though, save you having to undo the 3 active wires to get them to be the pull through.
Question....Since these are wired parallel, when you go into settings, Do you just enter the length/LED's of 1 strip ?? I'm doing some floating shelf lighting and trying to decide on "Parallel" with movement like in this video or "Normal" just with some wire between each 24" cut strip so that the movement travels up the 6 tier shelf.
Simply simplified suggestions thank 😊.
Do you have a video on comparing different LED densities? Thank you!
0:02 what's the squished hexagon plate behind the monitor on the wall called or how would one find something like that?
Dragon scales
This is fantastic, BUT, the Magnepull/fishing will only work if you are sure there are no fire blocks in the way. I guess it never hurts to fully scan the wall for studs in both dimensions.
Borescope for looking inside the walls.
@@brodriguez11000 I love borescopes but it does mean causing slight damage to your wall, just for the diagnosis.
Cannot find any of the Domestic Automation modules available in Amazon. All types are currently unavailable.
I'll have to remember this for my new place. 3m and cable tracks will probably be the go just because I prefer to be a bit more on the safe side
nice video, sadly cant do the 3rd option on a german wall. our walls are all masive bricks xD
Thanks Chris, you always share useful LED tips with everyone!🥰
Ty for the Vid, nice Ideas... How much W can the board support in output?... Isn't it better to connect the LEDs directly to a power source with those boards?
Without watching any of your previous videos on WLED, strips, etc. I’ll play dumb for a minute - I see at the end of the video you are left with the connected wires and the control boards. Could you do something like run the 3 LED wires to an existing single-gang outlet box , remove that box, enlarge the drywall to a 2- or 3- gang size, replace the box, install the outlet back, and hardwire the controllers to the existing hot/neutral/ground wiring with the outlet? Does that setup exist and the controllers in-wall rated to live in an electrical outlet box? I hope that makes sense, thanks!
Great tutorial! 👍
Awesome video, I want to ask you if there is a natura white LED strip option to be controlled as you do with the RBG LED strips.
Just want to say I enjoy your videos. By chance on the esp32 wifi board with wled is there a way to change default color so if there's loss of power they don't default to orange?
Hi Jake, Yes you can! Under lighting preferences you can apply a preset at Boot. Simple create an effect, save it as a preset and enter that preset # under preferences.
@@domesticautomationllc thank you! I'll try that out.
I like the concept and the quality of your wire terminations. Electronically your install is solid and works, but all low voltage in-wall cabling must UL listed for its usage, in this case a jacketed 18-4 stranded cable with a CL3 listing would work and the splice should be contained within the fixture or a UL listed enclosure.
So no open splices and jacketed cable and you would be code compliant.
Will I be able to tie 4 - 16ft strips together? want to wrap a room
Beautiful work ❤
Chris thanks for these vids! I've used your advice and have purchased an LED strip setup... two questions if you have a moment... 1) How far apart do you space the sticky strips? 2) How do you effectively line up channels so that they don't bleed through at the junctions? Thanks!
2) Have the diffusers span gaps in the channel.
Ahh! Smart! Thanks... :) @@jasonbaker2341
yes i would be concerned for losing lumens with such a 'hotspot' blend cover..
Just wondering where you will place/hide your controller and the pigtails that are along the baseboard?
Next time instead of making the hole wider simply drill it at an angle so that the lead can easily be pulled through it.
Alternatively you could bring the lead past the hole then hook onto it, and fish it out; but the angle's easier.
Then what about the cap / cover?
Hi Chris, new subscriber here! I have been browsing thru your videos and I’m about to start out wledding myself but I have been trying to find wether it’s possible to create a wave effect or not and if possible, how is it done?
What I mean BBS wave effect is if we take this video as an example, you have three led strips doing the same animation. I want that but I want every strip to starts for example half a second after the strip above and so on. Can I program this if I have three different wled controllers?
Thanks and have a nice day!
You can certainly do that and the type of controller doesn't matter. It's more how you wire them up. Here is a video you can watch. th-cam.com/video/Zzi5UIGnY2A/w-d-xo.html or th-cam.com/video/xkCt85jvI2s/w-d-xo.html
@@ChrisMaherDIY Thank you for the reply! However, I think that maybe I didn’t describe the effect I wanted good enough. Don’t mind the word wave. Think this way:
You have three or more led strips that sits like horizontal lines and you want the same animation going on at the same time for all the leds but for every ledstrip you want a delay of half a second or so. I’m thinking that I need three controllers but is it possible in wled to put in delay?
Maybe echo effect better describe what I want? 😄
Sorry and thanks. I’ve searched but haven’t found anything yet.
Have a nice day!
Hey Chris 😊
Is it possible to run „normal“ 24V led strips with a Govee controller ?
Because i have one left over and want to save some money😅
Thanks alot for the good work you put in your videos ❤ i love them all
Chris Maher for president.
What kind of wire stripper do you use?
Keep doing what you're doing duder...
very professional indeed
Always good information
Far Out And Solid! AND Totally Tubular!!! Plus Righteous On High!!
I've been wondering if you can use flat speaker wire tape (like ghost wire) for leds? I'd love a video with you trying it out. (Since you have more experience with wired and soldering and such)
Cable track can be painted too. Scuff with a scotch pad and then paint with your house paint OR better a matched spray paint if your hardware/paint supplier can do it.
I'm been pulling cable for 12 years. easy way to fish a wire is to tape the wire on an end of a stick and shove it down the wall. hook the wire and pull it out of the wall. Cut the wire from the stick and pull the stick out of wall. No fancy tool needed.
For option 3, did you run into any fire blocking installed between the studs when you were using the MagnePull to fish the wire down the wall? If you did, how did you overcome that?
fire blocking prevents that method. you either have to tear out drywall and drill a hole through it or use a long electricians drill bit to get through it without tearing out drywall. can be tricky to do but there are videos explaining it.
Looks great 👍
Very slick, thanks Chris.
Man, those diffusers really de-pixelate those LEDs. Great find!
Perhaps I can contribute a bit here.
Green wire for anything besides ground kinda tweaks me. I wouldn't hesitate to use a green wire as ground for a scope or something. Green as a data line would be a trap for me. lol.
I know you are color coding the ends of your white wire, but getting a few spools so you can color code can really pay off in the future. If you run cable through a wall or need to repair in the middle, you will always know which cable is which. Make it easy for the guy that comes after you, it may be you.
It looks like you are sliding the bottom of a circuit board across carpet. I suspect the chip has some static protection diodes on there, but I wouldn't count on it.
Is there a reason you chose the forstner bit? Great results in the back of the channel, but I don't really know anything about that bit.
Many thanks!!!
Just to clarify, running, 5v wires through a wall without Romex is perfectly fine. There simply isn't enough voltage present to start any issues. That said, while it might be "against code," it's also not unsafe.
What to do for a wall of block and cement
Why didn’t you use the chain link that comes in the kit?
What’s the song at the end?
Claims no drywall repair needed; drills one inch hole in the wall.😂
Technically he never repaired the hole...
I would love to hear about power consumption of your setups especially in standby/off mode.
Maybe an idea for another video 👍
you can go further and remove the floor trim and make the bottom hole there so you can hide that bottom wire.
Thanks for the tutorial. Man. PcB's and carpet don't mix... 😮
Can you do this to govees led lights ? Maybe the M1 ?
I just make a fake wall using 1/8" thin sanded plywood and texturizing/painting it like my regular wall and hide everything behind that, then mount that on the wall.
You missed a solution: Flat wires.
For very-low amperage (like 10x 5V LEDs) you can even use regular copper tape
great video man
To hide it even more you could pull the trim board and cut the hole behind it, run the wire then put the board back. No holes seen.
If I do have any plasterboard walls in my house they've all got noggins across then half way down, so fishing isn't possible.
Is there a video of how to connect a microphone to this new controller?
We haven't developed the microphone yet.
what the hell is the EU Amazon market waiting to provide good diffuser channels... Each time it's US based...
Cool video as always Chris!
Same in Canada.....
Most of my walls are 6" concrete block. The wall behind my TV is solid concrete chimney breast do I had to be creative to tidy the wires.
They come up with all sorts of cool stuff don't they?
My fellow Europeans, since you live in houses where you can't smash the wall with your fists, you can skip the third step completely.
But for America, this tutorial is actually a good one.
I think at this rate, if you have enough funds, you should make your own little boards with their owm app and smart assistant integration. That would be awesome
Why wouldn't you install an old work double gang electrical box for your controller and put a standard face plate over it?? Seems like a really clean and accessible solution to me.
how to hide wires 'on the wall' :) tho didnt really hsow the finished shotofhowit looked :(
Why would you recommend a diffuser channel at $160 when I can get the same quality for half price? I know you said it does the best diffusing of all the channels you've tested, but I'm having a hard time justifying double the price.
I'm a first time buyer for this sort of thing - want to add permanent outdoor Christmas lighting to my house - so I'm asking out of ignorance: I don't know if I want a "best in class" diffuser for double the price. Am I being too cheap?
Great question! If you are using an led strips that have 60 LEDs per meter then these are about the only ones I've found that perfectly diffuse strips at that density. If you don't care about the light being perfectly diffused meaning you will see the individual dots of light, then for sure go with something cheaper. But nothing will ever beat testing things out yourself so whatever you order just make sure there are free returns in case you don't like it. If you are using an led strip that has 30 LEDs per meter, nothing will perfectly diffuse that density of strip.
another excellent video
Now move the wire horizontally 5 feet to the left and 5 ft above the nearest outlet using the same method. It's never been complicated to fish a wire within a stud bay that contains an outlet....
But how do ya hide the box!!!?
Looks like epileptics dream :) And btw you are lucky not hitting any fire stop blocks.
Went a little too big on the hole by the molding. The cap still shows a little bit of it.
Thanks for watching! It does look like that but its actually just a scratch. The hole itself is completely covered. I should have just touched up that spot with paint.
What if wall has fireblock?
I still don't get why people put the male connectors on the source and the female connectors on the load.