Index

Every guide, in one list

A plain index for when you already know what you are looking for. If you would rather read an introduction to a group of products first, each of the four section headings below links to one.

Decorative and festive

Light as the decoration — length, spacing, and how it holds where you put it.

• How many Christmas lights does a tree need? — length by tree size, wrap method, reading a half-dark string
• Curtain lights: sizing and variants — six variants that look identical, and matching a panel to a window
• Light screens: what they can display — resolution arithmetic, viewing distance, characters of text
• Chaining several panels into one display — separate power per panel, and mapping order and orientation
• Installing a firework light — hub loading, wall space, tail routing, and going outdoors

Ambient and projection

Placed rather than installed. Nearly every disappointment here is positioning.

• Sunset lamps: distance and angle — why the room never looks like the listing photo
• Star projectors: coverage and speed — two layers, ceiling coverage at your height, laser safety
• Water ripple lights: placement — throw distance versus brightness, and which surfaces hold a pattern
• Running water lights: how flow works — chase versus addressable flow, segment count, the two speed limits
• Sound-activated lights — the microphone is in the controller, not in your phone
• Sky ceiling light vs star projector — two different products, not two names for one

Strip and vehicle

Jobs you only want to do once. Power is the limit more often than the light is.

• LED strip: power and a dim far end — what a run draws, why the controller is the real limit, where to inject
• Dual-white strip: 2-wire vs 3-wire — how each mixes warm and cool, which holds its colour when dimmed, what a kelvin number promises
• TV backlighting: sizing and layout — lengths for 43" to 85", three sides versus four, why adhesive lets go
• Car interior ambient lighting — routing through trim, power options ranked, airbag paths, parasitic drain
• Motorcycle rear lighting — what must never be obscured, vibration, wheel spray, charging headroom
• Cabinet lighting — under-cabinet glare, reed switches, and driver capacity
• Stair lighting — placement, and why the motion sensor triggers from the wrong place
• Ceiling fan lights — why the wall switch breaks smart control, and the blade-strobe effect
• Aquarium lighting — sizing, condensation, and what it will not do

Apps and control

Sixteen apps, all free, and none of them interchangeable.

• Which app controls your light? — three questions, then a table of all forty product categories
• Pairing for the first time — three pre-checks, a short video per app, and reading the failure
• Colours come out wrong — channel order, and the software fix most people never find
• Wireless stick-on switches — a switch where you want one, and the placement rules that keep it reliable
• Offline voice control — what works without a network, and why false triggers decide whether you like it
• Music sync: three modes — phone library, phone microphone, controller microphone

Also on the site

• FAQ — the questions our support actually receives
• What we make — the product lines behind these guides
• About — who writes this, and how