RGB vs. RGBWW

Plugins & Plugin Development Unmaintained
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1

Has anyone replaced their RGB with RGBWW (Warm White)?
I’m contemplating this as we love the 2700k color, but I dont have any experience to justify replacing everything. if anyone has please chime in and let me know if you think it’s worth the upgrade…

Thanks

2

I’m just installing 4x 5 metres of RGBW LED strip lighting in a new extension. I did a side by side comparison with just RGB and really loved the warmer white (and combinations thereof) that you can get.

Whether it’s worth changing something you have already is hard for me to say. It’s only money.

3

Ok you sold me. What combinations do you get? I just upgraded everything to rgbw and it’s the exact same as before except it defaults to the white strip when turned to white mode instead of turning the rgb colors all on… that is the only time the white leds illuminate. I thought the white less would turn on along with the rgb to assist with pastels in the color wheel. I’m using the handheld controller and the milight app. Am I missing something?

4

Yes, I get whatever combination I want. This is entirely a function of the controller you are using, rather than the strip itself. I have used two different controllers, my current favourite is the Fibaro RGBW. From Vera I can set any combination of RGBW I want manually, or through a scene.

I don’t know anything about milight devices.

5
I just upgraded everything to rgbw and it's the exact same as before except it defaults to the white strip when turned to white mode instead of turning the rgb colors all on... that is the only time the white leds illuminate. I thought the white less would turn on along with the rgb to assist with pastels in the color wheel. I'm using the handheld controller and the milight app. Am I missing something?

That is the way MiLight RGBW lamps and LED controllers work. The white LEDs are used only in White mode. They do not mix white with the RGB colours.

6

Is it possible to send a command to force a white level at the same time as a Color? Seems like there would be something deep in the api that allows this. …

7

'fraid not. In MiLight lamps and LED controllers, white and color are distinct, mutually-exclusive modes.

8

I did a little more searching, I believe it’s called Saturation… Don’t get me wrong, I have a whole room with 4 rgbw strip controllers and 30meters of dedicated WW and another 30 meteres of RGB and it is a nice experience so i’m happy with it, but it seems like i’m missing something, and I believe it’s the saturation of white into the colors for pastels etc… so the limitlessled/milight is limited to 256 colors not 16m right?

I’m still within the return period for the controllers, is there another controller I should look into to accommodate the 16m color palette i’m looking for?

Thank you,

9
so the limitlessled/milight is limited to 256 colors not 16m right?

That is correct. It is only ever a mixture of two of the primary colors so there is no white content to give you pastel shades.

is there another controller I should look into to accommodate the 16m color palette i'm looking for?

I believe the Fibaro RGBW controller can control each color independently. Also check-out the Arduino-based solution on My Sensors.

10

This is too bad. I really like the color wheel hard remote and your app, very high WAF… I’m almost considering adding another dimmer controller and just running the WW strip separately so I have a COLOR wheel, and a Saturation controller… however i’m trying to keep things simple. at that point I may be better off with Fibaro and just pulling up the app…

Either way, this has been a great experience and I may ride it out a while longer… i’ll order a Fibarbo to test it out and we’ll see.

Thanks!

11

OK, got the fibaro RGBW, then quickly realized there is no hardware remote, and IF i wanted to use the app with the color wheel, I need the Fibaro Home Center controller :-
This MiLight setup really is awesome, I hope there is a firmware or some other type of update to allow white simultaneously (saturation).

12

Yes, I’m at that stage too. Actually looking at a mod to an in-wall controller with a colour wheel from a different manufacturer, but this might be an uphill struggle. For the most part, though, I can live with an on/off wall switch (Z-Wave, with associations to the Fibaro modules) and revert to pre-programmed scenes for specific color changes, possibly driven from a handheld controller (like a MiniMote.)

13

I created a new thread that is awaiting approval. There is a new strip controller - FUT028 which allows both RGB and white control at the same time. I purchased it from from Amazon but I have also seen it on ebay. Using the current plugin, the dimmer controlls the RGB brightness however never turns them off. The on and off buttons control the white brightness from off to full brightness with 8 steps.