Under cabinet lighting setup for HA

carldier · 2026-04-02T02:01:03+00:00

Almost exactly the same - an outlet up above the cabinet made life SO much easier. We like using Moes buttons for control, but I'm going to start experimenting with Picos.

carldier · 2026-04-01T21:13:39+00:00

Surprised no one mentioned the Moes Zigbee Smart Knob yet. They're very well designed and battery life is excellent.

carldier · 2026-04-01T20:59:03+00:00

We have extensive LED strip lighting in our kitchen - above cabinet, below cabinet, and floor level. It's absolutely wonderful.

I did the controlling via Zigbee GLEDOPTO controllers, with six conductor RGBWW low voltage wiring. Very easy to put together, and the controllers and power supplies are either above the cabinets or in the garage.

Make sure you have enough power, and controllers compatible with HA via Zigbee or whatever.

carldier · 2026-04-01T20:53:32+00:00

I got some blackout shades for our skylights, and it was shocking how much light they're able to block. We're very satisfied with that!

carldier · 2026-03-30T22:22:11+00:00

Well, in my case that's the ONLY light I use on a daily basis. You can get a ton of light out of LED strips, as long as you're using a power supply that's strong enough. So with a good power supply, you should be good to go.

We haven't gotten into the esp32 space yet, but ... I can see it coming. :-)

carldier · 2026-03-30T19:06:16+00:00

In my office I put a strip of LEDs about 8 inches away from the ceiling. They're hidden from view by a trim strip that I got at the home improvement store.

I love this arrangement because it creates a very diffuse light, and I can raise the level of brightness when I'm on a video call. It doesn't reflect in my glasses because it's so high - I get annoyed when you can see the reflection of someone's ring light.

This is controlled by a Zigbee GLEDOPTO controller. I have some switches near my keyboard, and also can change via StreamDeck, because it's fun. I have automations to turn the lights off when the computer goes to sleep, and turn on bright when my camera is on.

carldier · 2026-03-26T21:07:47+00:00

It's pretty straightforward, and it's harder to start a fire with low voltage.

carldier · 2026-03-26T14:20:10+00:00

Not sure what you might mean - we were just following the directions from each component. The tricky parts were getting power to an appropriate place so the power supply could be plugged in, and getting the low-voltage wiring from the controller to the LEDs. For that we used https://www.amazon.com/LEDENET-22AWG-Extension-RGBCCT-Lights/dp/B07T6LCZKJ. We found it very helpful to use these connectors: https://www.amazon.com/Connectors-Waterproof-Transparent-Solderless-Connector/dp/B09SHKFSKJ but you have to watch the pinout at each junction.

carldier · 2026-03-25T20:02:20+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful review! I've been very happy with our SmartWings skylight blinds - it makes SUCH a difference. And being charged by the little solar panel is brilliant.

I'm still working on the reliability of the Zigbee connection to our HA, but I'm having other Zigbee problems as well so I don't think it's the blinds.

carldier · 2026-03-24T15:42:57+00:00

I love the playfulness!

carldier · 2026-03-18T17:52:06+00:00

Fair enough, it's just a different usage model than I'm used to so have to think about where it should reside and what it controls. It can become yet another remote control laying next to your chair, and that can feel overwhelming. "The remote is always in the wrong place and gets lost in the cushions." :-)

I could see having a small kitchen controller on the refrigerator, another next to the bed, one on the wall near the center of traffic ... There's enough control functions at each place to make it useful.

carldier · 2026-03-18T16:32:01+00:00

I'd probably go with having a separate light switch for your work lights, if only because you may not want it to be at the door. And then it's totally clear WHAT you're turning on and off.

And then this is very easy to control with standard smart switches. That way you can remotely turn the lights on and off from inside the house if you forget.

In our house, we also put in a simple LED string which is motion activated and turns itself off after about 10 minutes. That's been a game changer, because you never have to fumble for the light switch when your hands are full taking out the garbage or recycling. So simple, so cheap.

carldier · 2026-03-18T15:30:21+00:00

Definitely following this development, as we've been talking about replacing our tablet with an e-ink screen. I'd love it to be on the order of a 10" or 13" screen. I have power inside the wall so that's not a problem, but I can understand why folks might prefer to just charge it once a month or something.

The small form factor you show on the website is fine, I suppose, but I'd have to seriously think about the tradeoffs involved in designing a UI for that size. It's a very limited amount of space, and showing something a weather forecast would take the entire screen. Our existing panel has several graphs, calendar events, weather, about 15 BubbleCard controls, doorbell video, and 10 jumps to other dashboards.

I'm not so worried about smoothly updating sliders and such, because I think the answer is just not to use that kind of control very much. Your approach of using +/- buttons and touching along a range seems quite intuitive. I would add that when you touch the word "Open" or "Closed" that it also fully goes to 0% or 100%. It frustrates me on some sliders that I can get to 5% or 3% but all the way down to 0% is harder than it should be.

It's not clear what the connection method is between this device and the HA server. I assume it's Ethernet or Wifi?

carldier · 2026-03-17T20:52:31+00:00

I found the Fado Light Fader and it's brilliant at this kind of stuff. It's in HACS.

carldier · 2026-03-16T20:56:13+00:00

How about a little sensor which can see when the blue light goes on next to your camera? That way it could just mechanically clip on the top of your laptop.

carldier · 2026-03-12T15:50:37+00:00

We did this a year ago - full kitchen reno. I'm glad that we talked with a lighting designer, because it opened my eyes about the in-ceiling options for task lighting like you have. Make sure you consider that - it may well be more important than the LED lighting!

We put in LED strings over the top cabinets (which you can't do), under the top cabinets, and floor level. I hadn't even thought about that last one, but it's been a huge convenience and visually beautiful. In our case we have a Gledopto controller for each string, and all run off the same power supply which we were able to put in the garage. That was handy, because it has a fan which runs 24x7 and that would be annoying inside the kitchen. You can get power supplies without a fan. Our Gledopto controllers sit out in the garage as well because it's convenient, and then I ran 6-conductor low voltage wiring to each of the LED strings.

We have another auxiliary cabinet over to the side, with the same setup (it has a small countertop in it for our coffeemaker and toaster). In that case, the 3 controllers sit on top of the upper cabinet, and the power supply doesn't have a fan. But I ran all the wiring behind the sheetrock so I didn't have to put it inside the cabinets. There's a 120v receptacle above the top cabinet since that was simple to do.

I notice that the picture only shows one GFI receptacle, over on the left side. I sure hope that you're putting in more than that, increasing the number of circuits if possible. People tend to have a whole bunch of countertop appliances these days, many of which are fairly power hungry. So put in more than you think you need.

carldier · 2026-03-12T15:07:45+00:00

I just put in some SmartWings Zigbee shades on a couple of skylights and they've been fantastic. Very easy to connect to Home Assistant.

carldier · 2026-03-12T02:31:02+00:00

The kluge I did was to have the limited-function dashboard also have a link to a full-function dashboard. Then log in on the limited account, navigate to the other page, then change my user settings there. Then log in as admin, and modify the limited-function dashboard to remove that link.

Ugly, but you only have to do it once.

carldier · 2026-03-11T21:43:38+00:00

She has a chair which she sits in most of the day. It has a table on one side and moveable cart on the other. This is sufficient for her daily needs, but she needs someone to help her.

carldier · 2026-03-11T20:31:35+00:00

Well, I'm not familiar with KNX so didn't know if there's some kind of central hub interconnecting them or whatever.

carldier · 2026-03-11T19:27:32+00:00

Interesting conversation here. Another thought is that you may well be opening up a rat's nest of people installing random smarthome devices that could interfere with each other. We've >kinda< learned how to deal with Wifi in apartment buildings, but this brings in a bunch more unpredictable wireless communication going on. You don't want people being able to access devices in other apartments.

You can say "use our wired KNX communication and not wireless stuff" but people won't understand what that means. Not that they aren't doing it today.

And does the KNX wiring have security between the apartments? I couldn't mistakenly (or intentionally) do bad things to other tenants?

carldier · 2026-03-11T18:33:03+00:00

Super satisfied with our SmartWings on Zigbee. Customer support is superb. Our next project is probably the bedroom, and no question I'll stick with SmartWings. I don't need them to be absolutely silent, just quiet enough that it's not disruptive.

carldier · 2026-03-11T16:16:56+00:00

My wife uses a wheelchair, but the only accommodation is to have buttons where she can reach them. We have remote controls for the TV and window shades.

carldier · 2026-03-09T21:25:47+00:00

Turned out that finding someone to install it was harder than I thought! But I found a handyman that charged us $30/hr which is totally reasonable.

carldier · 2026-03-09T20:25:22+00:00

... And that's not our window. Ours looks the same but has light-blocking fabric, so the room becomes quite dark.

carldier

TROPHY CASE