Last weekend when going to a concert/event at the church in Truro I saw a “prop” for lack of better description built by a friend which got me thinking. It was wooden cross with LED lights inside and a DMX controller to hook it into their lighting system. Specifically they were not just any old LED lights, but a tape strip with RGB LED’s all the way along.

While this is not a new idea to me; it was the first time I realised they were simple enough that I could do something with them. Years ago I saw people messing around with these things in their homes creating all sorts of lighting effects. While very cool (in my eyes at least) it seemed a little out of reach. They were all building custom controllers using more knowledge than I have.

It seems however that times have changed… A little bit of work in Google, a nod from my wife and I bought the following:

1. 3 X 5M RGB LED tapes with 300LED’s (60/M)
2. 1 X 6A controller complete with Infrared control
3. 1 X 6A@12V transformer

The cunning plan is to put some edging round the ceiling of the lounge and stick these to the underside so they point down the walls on 3 sides of the room. Thanks to our walls being white this should let us change the colours of the walls as well as light the room up a little better.

Failing that they should at least look good at Christmas…