The other option, when it becomes too complicated... get a divorce. Sometimes, we all have to know our limits 
Of course I have considered that... But when I compare the prices of a divorce with the Aliexpress prices, we have to be honest that Aliexpress is unbeatable.
Another option is to let the first project (with the short LED strips fail), to avoid having to LEDify the entire house. But such a failure would most probably end up in a divorce, which would get me back in the first scenario...
So I will need to stick to building a decent working solution, for which I need consultants like you guys ...
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OK. So aliexpress then. Here you go: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32981318078.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.73f626eeXUQ1c1&algo_pvid=f96bbcb5-3f56-46ec-a5c4-480c26c12e6a&algo_expid=f96bbcb5-3f56-46ec-a5c4-480c26c12e6a-2&btsid=0b0a050b15988558814332399ecd6d&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_,searchweb201603_
Yet another option.
An all in one yeelight. I have yeelight at home like this. I use Home Assistant integration. You can then use nodered to call the proper service, color, brightness. Limited DIY.
And you have a button too, so that even if NR or HA fails (it happens...), your wife can turn the light on 
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I think ws2812b allows to change the color of each individual led on the strips. Isn't this scoop creep as the feature request mentions (all LEDs the same color) ? 
There are also a ton of LED projects on https://www.hackster.io/ and https://www.instructables.com/ with extensive documentation.
I posted a tutorial about controlling NeoPixels, in Share Your Projects, a couple of years ago.
I used a Wemos D1 Mini, flashed with ESP Easy, as ESP Easy has device drivers for Neopixels built-in, so it's very easy to implement and control the lights using MQTT.
Three things to note about the tutorial.
- The leading slash ( / ) sould be removed in the MQTT references.
- The Wemos works off of 3.3v so for reliable operation you might need a level shifter to drive the 5v strips. You may find the logic-1 level (from the Wemos) is high enough to trigger the Din of the Neopixels so you may get away without a level shifter. More details are in the tutorial.
- Neopixels consume a lot of current and need to be powered from an external power supply.
Check the strip itself. It varies for different LED types. But trust me, those mA sure add up quickly so you will want some decent power supplies. Old laptop power supplies can be useful here if they are the right voltage.
Yes, that's what I'd use if I wasn't creating something with an ESP.
Not available on Amazon UK but a search threw up some possibilities. Not checked to see if any are viable:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=Mi-Light+iBox
I can see that I need to have another look at these now that I can recover my 2 colour LED strips from the front-window now that the NHS support seems to be over (nice NHS blue to show support ).
Hey Jan, that indeed might be overkill for my use case ...
Yes, but I know there is a lot of hardware knowledge in this community. And I wanted to know what other people are using. Must admit that I love the extensive feedback that I have gotten again. Now at least I have an overview of technologies to choose from ...
I'm always surprised how much functionality those little cheap devices offer. I really should experiment with them one day, as soon as my todo list had shrunk to a reasonable size 
Do you mean they use more power as other strips? I didn't have time yet to compare that ...
Yes I'm a bit surprised about that, to be honest...
Everyone thinks of LED's as low power - which is true - but the current required certainly caught me out when I started messing with LED strips.
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One of my IoT students had an idea to combine an ultrasonic distance sensor with a Neopixel strip.
His idea was to have the sensor at the end of a walkway (or maybe on a staricase) to measure the distance to a person walking towards it, then switch-on a section of Neopixels (say 1-10). The section that is illuminated moves as the person walks nearer and nearer to the sensor.
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Based on Jan's reply, I was now wondering why on earth somebody would have to control every LED in a strip. But you have given a nice use case, so thanks for the 'illumination' of that ...
Yes, I once made a tape measure like that. You may find the cheap ultrasonic sensors don't have enough useful range for a corridor though.
I've had no problem driving the neopixel type ones from 3.3v signal as you are only driving the first one.
The all the same colour strips also tend to use higher voltages (12 or even 24v) so need MOSFETs to drive from a pi, but easier to find decent power bricks. One trick is to power both ends of the strip like a ring main.
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Let's not confuse current and power. Neopixels work on 5V so they require more than twice the current (amps) of an equivalent 12V LED strip to have equal power (Watts). This practically means the power supply is bulkier and either the cables need to be thicker or shorter to avoid too big of a voltage drop when using 5V LEDs. They do consume more power compared to a LED strip with a dedicated white LED (or two) when producing white light as its done by lighting all 3 LEDs at once.
Most traditional LED strips are 12 or 24V likely due to this. Neopixels in turn have a tiny chip for each group of red/blue/green LEDs and the chip working on 5V makes them convenient to drive as you don't need extra circuitry on a 5V (usually 3.3V is fine also) microcontroller.
The easy interfacing and possibility to do animations and such makes Neopixels great for many kinds of projects but IMO general lighting is not one of them due to the bulky power supplies.
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You can, however, get 12v neopixel strips.
And even 24V ones.
https://www.gree-leds.com/led-addressble-pixel/24v-5leds-rgb-ws2801-pcb.html
The biggest difference between them - apart from @ristomatti's comments is that you will need to provide power more regularly along the strip in order to get even lighting. The power drop mentioned also happens along the length of the strip. So typically, a 12v strip needs power about every 5m, a 24v strip maybe every 7m or so. Otherwise you will notice that the brightness drops (on white LED's) and/or the colour shifts on RGB LED's (because the 3 elements inside do not give equal brightness and we do not perceive different colours with equal brightness). The other difference is that, since power supplies are fixed voltage but have a max amperage, you can drive more LED's with a single power supply when using 24v.
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Consider using WLED. Google it and check YouTube. Uses an ESP8622 as the controller. Since it is MQTT enabled you can control it to your heart's content using Node-RED. Also has its own web UI.
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Hi @BartButenaers,
I haven't read the whole topic, but maybe something like this was interesting to you:
RGBW controler
Controller can be flashed with tasmota firmware.
The controller is solid (I changed the power wires with thicker ones; I had flickering), and the connector from the controller to led strip is a little weak.
It's working fine now.
Control is with Node-RED, via mqtt.
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Regardless of the option I'm not sure if there's any other option than to have a power supply / controller for each strip if they need to be separarely tunable whether it's Mi-Light, Shelly or an ESP8266 flashed with WLED, Tasmota, Espurna. To me it would seem simplest to pick a solution that comes with a power supply and controller integrated with a power supply.
This is if you're wanting to work with vanilla LED strips. LIFX or Hue strips for example would likely be a bit more integrated solution. I've got LIFX strips of which several one meter strips can be chained and the 24V power plug has a small controller module inline to which connects to your WiFi and can then be controlled over UDP packets on the local network. There's a NR node for this (one that I've taken over to maintain).
Are there nowadays ones which also have a separate white LED (or 2 for color temperature)? My latest info on these is the video by TheHookup already linked on this topic. IIRC the 12V ones mentioned on it didn't have that. If going for wife/girlfriend approval, I'd for sure skip ones with only RGB LED's. White color reproduction on them is horrendous not to mention having to have all colors on full blast...
Right, the non-white LED variants... generate white looks more than mother of perl thing. No consistency at all, because one or more of the RGB colors is typically slightly brighter than its peers.
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I managed to slip one in when the cooker hood lights failed went for an RGB set because I knew I wanted to play with it later and it was on special offer for 2x5m with controller and power supply 
but made it clear that if it was OK, I'd replace with warm white. I got the wifey thumbs up. So I ordered a warm white, 60 LED's per m strip which is twice the normal density and produces much more even direct light. Along with 2 aluminium angled mounting strips with translucent covers. We never turn it on above about 40-50% because it is too bright then!
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I've done a TON of stuff with WS2812 and ESP8266's (see https://austinlightguy.wordpress.com/ ) so was going to suggest the same thing, but looks like lots of folks steering you down that path already. I had NOT head of WLED, which looks ideal, since it takes all the development work off your plate. Otherwise you'd be writing custom code for the ESP, developing an app or mini website for your phone, PLUS figuring out how to to integrate with node-red, if that is on the horizon for you. And, yeah, go with the WeMos - the built-in uart and regulator in a small, cheap package make it a no-brainer.
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