I desoldered the Hue Lightstrip controller from the lightstrip it was originally connected to and used it to control a much larger and more powerful set of lightstrips.
– Consumes 60W when fed from just the middle at 12V.
– Consumes 100W when fed from the middle and both ends at 13.2V.
– 25 feet of lightstrip used.
– Specs say the lightstrips I used are 12x the lumens per foot of the Hue Lightstrips.
– Note that the light output is high enough to provide low, but usable, lighting all along the window. The native Hue Lightstrips are not suitable for ambient lighting and can really only provide color accents.
– Update: Even along just one of these 5 meter strips, there is significant voltage drop at the far end. Light output at full white drops to about 50% on the far end and the white light shifts to yellow. It doesn’t look as bad as it sounds … no one noticed until I pointed it out to them. Anyway, I connected the common anode part of the strip (+) at both ends with a run of 18 gauge wire to even the lighting.
– Update 2: Because the lightstrips are rated up to 14.8V, I adjusted the output of the power supply to go up to about 13.2V, which ups the brightness. I could push it further, but that would start to exceed 80% of the rating for my 100W PSU, so I’m going to leave it at that. I would recommend getting a bigger supply and/or one that can go into the 14V range if you want to extract maximum lumens from the strips.
Parts:
Philips Hue Lightstrips
– http://store.apple.com/us/product/HD231VC/A/philips-friends-of-hue-lightstrips
High power RGB lightstrips
– NFLS-RGBX2 or WFLS-RGBX2 from superbrightleds.com
– http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/rgb-bars-and-strips/nfls-rgbx2-series-high-power-rgb-led-flexible-light-strips/1470/
100W 12V power supply
– 12VDC-PS / SP-100-12 from superbrightleds.com
– http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/power-supplies/12vdc-enclosed-power-supply/70/
RGB Amplifier
– RGB-A4 RGB Amplifier from superbrightleds.com
– http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/rgb-led-amplifiers/rgb-a4-rgb-amplifier/115/524/
Various mounting tape, 18 gauge power wire for the 12V DC, stripped power cables for 120V AC into the power supply, etc.