Re: Automatable lighting (LED?) for my loft?

[Gerry Duprey <gerry@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy Paul,

> http://www.siliconpixel.com/gallery/main.php/v/loft/loft1.jpg.html
>
> Just trying to understand what?s out there and what might work well
and look really cool ? possibly some LED uplighting around the edges?
Automatable of course! I do have a number of Gerry?s RGB LED boards that
I?ve still not used ? so that could be a good controller, but not sure of
fixings etc ? and these are point LED?s rather than built into strips?

I've had a lot of luck with taking fixtures I liked the look of, gutting
them
and installing LEDs instead.  If you are looking for a lot of light in a
small
package, the ProLight 3 watt RGBLED is a really good unit.  You have to
provide some heat sinking (a 1"x4" strip of aluminum will work,
bent into
whatever shape or a shorter section physically connected to a metal case)
and
you need to put a power driver (board each 1.2 AMPs with all colors on),
but
it puts out a fair amount of light (60+ lumens) and is not too expensive.

Note: I do have power-driver PCBs coming in soon (like today or Monday)
that
are about 1" square and can drive LEDs that need up to 1amp per color
(these
need about .375 amps per color).  Just FYI on that.

Uplighting is interesting, but with LEDs like these, you'll want either
shields over them or focusing lenses so folks aren't looking into them
(bright
enough to leave you seeing spots for hours).

I believe you could easily fit LEDs into typical ceiling eyeball lights. 
Some
of the 5 watt white LEDs are bright enough for room lighting and the 10watt
ones coming out are practically too bright.  You can just put them on an
xformer or stick something like an mRGBLED controller (via an amp) to allow
adjusting the dim level (just use one channel on the controller) remotely.

If low volt wiring is a problem, lately I've been playing with the 150
meter
range RF devices from SparkFun.  They are very inexpensive and they would
work
well with the RGBLED stuff (you could put a receiver at each RGBLED board
and
as long as the boards are assigned their own board ID, each will be
independently controllable even though all their receivers are on a common
frequency).  With that, you can bottle up a small power supply, RF
receiver,
mRGBLED board and driver and LED into a pretty small package that can be
wired
into the mains and not need any extra wiring to control.

I've also been playing with bullet lights for task lighting around my
desk/workspace.  They are a little tougher to refit (because they are
small),
but I like the small side, small intrusion into the room and ability to
easily
move them around.  I've also used a few MR16 LED replacements and plan on
modifying them for a particularly interesting fixture I have in my office.

Not sure if that's a lot of help -- I'm pretty much only good at lighting
for
american arts and crafts architecture -- but a few ideas at least.
--
Gerry Duprey
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
http://www.cdp1802.org