Ikea Dioder LED strips

TheVoice · 4 Mar 2013 at 18:40

Anyone had any experience with these? They seem rather inexpensive, and I think they'd look quite good on my AV cabinet. I've looked at some others that use remotes etc, but to be honest it'd be just another remote to deal with.

I've been looking at two sets, this one which has a control switch and offers various colours:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00202324/

And this cheaper one which is just white:
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00119419/

The thing swaying me towards the white kit is that my eyes (due to the lenses in my glasses) are a bit sensitive to LEDs when more than one colour is being used at a time e.g. when the light on my Sky box is orange, I can sometimes see the individual red and green light from the two LEDs. So, if the coloured set uses RGB LEDs to produce white light (as opposed to white LEDs), I'm more likely to notice the individual colours, whereas obviously the white strips will just use white LEDs.

Anyone had any experience with these kits?

Tubes · 4 Mar 2013 at 19:02

Haven been using the top linked set for about 3 years with no problems. Bought them installed them and left them running 24/7.

I leave them on the colour cycle mode which takes around 30 secs to complete.

The colour is nice and even from them and is not to bright, for me at least.

A couple of pics...

Bigpig · 4 Mar 2013 at 20:04

I use them in my bookcases for my 1/6 collection. Do not get the cheap plain white ones. They have changed to a horrible yellowly white. Not a nice colour

lucid · 4 Mar 2013 at 21:21

TheVoice said:
The thing swaying me towards the white kit is that my eyes (due to the lenses in my glasses) are a bit sensitive to LEDs when more than one colour is being used at a time e.g. when the light on my Sky box is orange, I can sometimes see the individual red and green light from the two LEDs.

It's nothing to do with your lenses. I can see the same on my Sky box. It's because of viewing the LED directly rather than looking at the light bounced off some reflective surface.

If you are concealing the lights then you won't have much of a problem. You can always fit some translucent frosted film to act as a diffuser.

chameleon · 4 Mar 2013 at 23:31

Maplins are doing a set complete with a remote control, you get three strips and a control box/receiver. Nice selection of colours and you can tweak the brightness too.

TheVoice · 4 Mar 2013 at 23:45

lucid said:
It's nothing to do with your lenses. I can see the same on my Sky box. It's because of viewing the LED directly rather than looking at the light bounced off some reflective surface.

If you are concealing the lights then you won't have much of a problem. You can always fit some translucent frosted film to act as a diffuser.

It is partly my lenses, it didn't used to happen with my previous ones but it's because my new lenses are larger than the ones in my old glasses. It was rather off-putting at first as things towards the edges of the lenses look a bit out of focus but my eyes have adjusted. It's just annoying that multi-coloured lights tend to have a weird effect; I bought a Philips colour-changing mood light to put behind my TV but I rarely use it because the combination of different-coloured LEDs strains my eyes.

This is why I'm keen to avoid multi-colour LED strips if possible, because the RGB combination to make white (as opposed to white LEDs) will just strain my eyes, especially if they're in my peripheral vision whilst I'm watching TV.

Too Tall · 5 Mar 2013 at 01:23

chameleon said:
Maplins are doing a set complete with a remote control, you get three strips and a control box/receiver. Nice selection of colours and you can tweak the brightness too.

Do you have a link to these mate?

DirtyJester · 5 Mar 2013 at 09:38

nrenz123 said:
Do you have a link to these mate?

Best to google it mate as they might be classed a competitor...

d_brennen · 5 Mar 2013 at 09:45

lucid said:
If you are concealing the lights then you won't have much of a problem. You can always fit some translucent frosted film to act as a diffuser.

Crepe paper too

I made my own RGB lighting for under my desk as a bit of a project, the Ikea ones are ok, but very limited in size/coverage.

PardonTheWait · 5 Mar 2013 at 11:27

I got some LED rope light from eBay for this, works really well. I've actually got it wired to a light switch by the sofa. It was only cheap.

RedMogg · 5 Mar 2013 at 18:55

I have the ikea dioder in your top link, brilliant on small telly, but look at the ebay options for greater coverage as I found you need more behind a 40"+ tv to get a decent effect. Brilliant when it's done properly!

TheVoice · 6 Mar 2013 at 01:07

RedMogg said:
I have the ikea dioder in your top link, brilliant on small telly, but look at the ebay options for greater coverage as I found you need more behind a 40"+ tv to get a decent effect. Brilliant when it's done properly!

What's the white on it like? Do you know if it uses a combination of the coloured LEDs to give a 'white' light?

MagicBoy · 6 Mar 2013 at 01:28

RedMogg said:
I have the ikea dioder in your top link, brilliant on small telly, but look at the ebay options for greater coverage as I found you need more behind a 40"+ tv to get a decent effect. Brilliant when it's done properly!

Agreed. Worked nicely on my 32" LCD, not bothered with the newer 42" Plasma as the strips were too short for good effect and the black levels are much better on the screen.

Raymond Lin · 6 Mar 2013 at 13:56

Picked up a pack from Maplins today, 3 x 50cm should be enough for a 40" TV

DirtyJester · 6 Mar 2013 at 13:58

Raymond Lin said:
Picked up a pack from Maplins today, 3 x 50cm should be enough for a 40" TV

Waiting for some pics

d_brennen · 6 Mar 2013 at 14:21

Raymond Lin said:
Picked up a pack from xxxxxx today, 3 x 50cm should be enough for a 40" TV

That place was a dirty word around here up until recently, don't know if that's changed or just OCUK haphazard moderating...

Pics please too

Raymond Lin · 6 Mar 2013 at 14:57

Name of store isn't, like I can say amazon but just can't link to products that OCUK sells.

Unless they sell LED strips? Then I'd happily amend my post.

Pics when I get home

TheVoice · 6 Mar 2013 at 15:31

Pics would be great Raymond, curious to see what these things are like, whether they're too bright, not white etc. £25 for a 4-strip set from Ikea, it's not a lot but I don't want to end up with something I don't want to use.

d_brennen · 6 Mar 2013 at 16:16

Raymond Lin said:
Name of store isn't, like I can say amazon but just can't link to products that OCUK sells.

Inconsistent moderating then

Sure I got told off for mentioning I bought some resistors and such there

Raymond Lin · 6 Mar 2013 at 23:29

The package, there is minimal instructions and it doesn't tell you that the LED will only work if the strips and plugged in 1 way even though they fit either top side or upside down.

As you can see, there are 3 strips. the remote has a button for all the colours, top buttons control brightnees, ON/OFF. The there are a button for cycle through the colours, pulse etc

It can also rotate the colours, the camera picks up the flicker that isn't there in real life.