New RGBW LED ribbon-filament bulbs

[PhotonWrangler]

I stumbled across these RGBW ribbon filament bulbs at the "blue" DIY store the other day. I picked one up because I've never seen an integrated RGBW LED ribbon like this before. It's a little spendy at $25 and at 300 lumens it's more of a decorative lamp than anything else. I haven't set up the wi-fi connection yet and honestly I'd rather find a way to communicate with it locally rather than tying it to an app that probably phones home with usage data. Still a very unique looking bulb though.

 

[Dave_H]

I saw something related though much less elaborate and lower priced in HD recently: a dual strip white spiral-filament bulb having tint changeability. No ET phoning home with this one.

Dave

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I saw something related though much less elaborate and lower priced in HD recently: a dual strip white spiral-filament bulb having tint changeability. No ET phoning home with this one.

Dave

How do you change the tint on that one? Power cycling or something else?

 

[Dave_H]

I don't recall, should be able to check in-store within a week. Fairly sure it's dimmer or power switch control, not RF.

Dave

 

[Dave_H]

I don't recall, should be able to check in-store within a week. Fairly sure it's dimmer or power switch control, not RF.

Dave

Turns out it's an EcoSmart product. Manual tint change, very geeky, need to remove the bulb and insert a small "key" into the base and rotate. Two pack for $15 (nah).

Dave

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Wow, what an odd combination of high tech and low tech.

 

[Dave_H]

Wow, what an odd combination of high tech and low tech.

That's for sure!

I don't know if "blue DIY" store here is the same one you refer to but I browsed their in-store offerings but didn''t see anything like it. RBG/W remote-control bulbs have been around for awhile, this one just has a new "twist" to it...

Dave

 

[Dave_H]

This has given me an (admittedly grandiose) idea for a large "spiral" light which like the small one would be more for low-level lighting and decorative effect.

Take an RGB or RGB/W LED strip and wrap in spiral around a long cardboard or plastic tube. Two could be wrapped in parallel "bifilar" fashion. USB IR-controlled strips are common and cheap. I can get 6-footer for about $10 at HD (I think Walmart has similar deal). Even a 3-footer is only $4 OTC from a "dollar store" but may not be long enough and I'd skip the bother of trying to connect two in series thought it's possible.

Wire the strip(s) to USB power adapter(s) and hang the thing from a ceiling. Large plastic "bulb" around the whole thing is optional! (on second thought,not advised).

A couple of minor issues come to mind. Cheap strips are good for basic colours plus limited mixes, typically not all great (on these, white is bluish, and yellow is "dirty"). Also, using two strips and trying to control independently could be awkward unless each IR sensor is somehow isolated from the other.

Dave

 

[PhotonWrangler]

Interesting idea Dave. This bulb could probably have it's ribbon filament harvested to work with one of those cheap IR controlled drivers.