I've kind of jumped in to the DiY LED game as I am in search of fill lighting for a nano tank and I can't find anything suitable already on the market. Since I've been intrigued by the DiY LED thing for a while now, and I'd like to customize the LED choices to compliment my main lighting, I figured why not. Plus, I found some cheap PCBs on AliE that fit what I was looking for, and some cheap Amazon LEDs that fit the bill. This is a niche "just for fun" project for me. I won't say that money is no object, but I'm not opposed to spending a bit to get just what I want.
The plan is to make 2 small strip lights, with six 3w LEDs in each strip. Since I won't need to dim or control them separately, I figured I'd just daisy chain the strips. To the driver and dimmer, it would appear as a single strip with twelve 3w LEDs. I've found several cheaper drivers that would work, some with manual external 0-10v dimmer control, but I'd like to find something a bit more advanced. Some sort of timer, ramping and dimming functionality would be ideal. I don't really care if it's wifi, bluetooth or manual push button programming as long as it works.
I know there has to be something out there that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but being new to all of this and still in the learning/research phase, I don't know all the places to look and/or what I'm actually looking for (terminology, etc). This seems a pretty simple straightforward build, especially considering some of the elaborate stuff I've seen in my searching here, so I figured I'd just ask for input and save myself some more gray hair.
The plan is to make 2 small strip lights, with six 3w LEDs in each strip. Since I won't need to dim or control them separately, I figured I'd just daisy chain the strips. To the driver and dimmer, it would appear as a single strip with twelve 3w LEDs. I've found several cheaper drivers that would work, some with manual external 0-10v dimmer control, but I'd like to find something a bit more advanced. Some sort of timer, ramping and dimming functionality would be ideal. I don't really care if it's wifi, bluetooth or manual push button programming as long as it works.
I know there has to be something out there that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but being new to all of this and still in the learning/research phase, I don't know all the places to look and/or what I'm actually looking for (terminology, etc). This seems a pretty simple straightforward build, especially considering some of the elaborate stuff I've seen in my searching here, so I figured I'd just ask for input and save myself some more gray hair.
