How To Evaluate A Factory Direct LED Supplier’s Production Capabilities

As a professional electrical contractor, evaluating a factory direct LED supplier's production capabilities is an essential part of ensuring that the LED products meet the necessary standards and specifications required for the project. In this blog, we discuss the key factors you would want to consider when choosing your supplier.

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Table of Contents:

• Quality Control
• Manufacturing Capacity
• Certifications
• Research and Development
• Customer service and support
• Supply Chain Management
• Environmental and Social Responsibility
• HitLights Can Help With Your LED Strip Lighting Needs

Quality Control

You want to evaluate the quality control processes of the supplier. Ensuring that the LED products meet the required quality standards is essential. You want to ensure the supplier has an established quality control system that involves testing and inspecting raw materials, in-process inspections, and final inspections of finished products. A supplier with a robust quality control system will provide consistent and reliable products that meet or exceed the required quality standards.

Manufacturing Capacity

Another vital factor to consider is the supplier's manufacturing capacity. You want to ensure the supplier meets the required production volume and delivery schedule. A factory direct LED supplier with a high manufacturing capacity can quickly adapt to changes in demand and deliver products on time.

Certifications

It's also essential to evaluate the testing and certification of LED products. You want to ensure the products meet the necessary performance and safety standards. The supplier should be able to provide certifications and test reports from accredited third-party testing laboratories. Verifying the certifications to ensure they are up-to-date and cover the required products is essential.

Research and Development

Research and development is another crucial factor to consider. A factory direct LED supplier with an active research and development department can provide innovative and efficient LED products that meet the specific needs of your project. They should be able to offer customized LED solutions that optimize energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact.

Customer service and support

Customer service and support are also crucial. You want to ensure that the supplier provides exceptional customer service and support. They should be responsive to inquiries, provide accurate product information, and offer technical support when needed. A supplier with good customer service can quickly resolve any issues during the project.

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management is another critical factor to consider. A factory direct LED supplier with a well-managed supply chain can provide a stable supply of raw materials and finished products. They should be able to handle any supply chain disruptions and maintain a consistent supply of products.

Environmental and Social Responsibility

Finally, the supplier should commit to sustainable manufacturing practices, ethical sourcing of raw materials, and fair labor practices. A supplier that takes environmental and social responsibility seriously can provide LED products that align with your project's values.

Considering these factors, you can select a reliable and reputable factory direct LED supplier to deliver high-quality products that meet your project's needs. 

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I have done this with Gledopto and similar clone drivers. They work fine if you are looking for a simple device without effects, chasing, individual addressing, and so on. They are Zigbee, which I would recommend over Z-wave.

If going this way, I would recommend (and did use) diffuser channel to make these look better. I did not use any IP rated lights, but they aren't really exposed in these channels the way I have them positioned. Any liquid would be very minimal if any at all.

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If I were to start again, I would consider Govee. I have a couple of their items (outdoor lights), and the effects and the ability to create many colorful scenes are nice. This gives the ability to create chasing, rainbow, color blend/fades, and other cool effects. That said, their app is a complex, cluttered disaster to use, and it makes me a tiny bit nervous that someday they may cut off access or the company goes bankrupt, and you lose the ability to control the lights. They are also a LOT more expensive than generic strips and drivers, and most rely on Wifi, which is OK, but some are Bluetooth only, which I would completely eliminate from consideration.

Matter devices may be a consideration as well, but I have not looked recently to see what is available, or the pricing of such items. I wouldn't pay more to purchase Matter over Zigbee, but if the price was equal, I would consider it. That said, some have mixed experiences with Matter, but my couple RGB bulbs have been fine so far.

Here is a picture I have posted in the past with my setup.

So any setup will require 3 things.

1. Power supply.
2. The LED strip it self
3. A controller

I would start with the strip itself like you have, mainly because the strip's will likely determine what the other stuff is you need. When looking at the strips there are two things that really determine what you need.

The length of the run and then the kind of light you want. The length of the run is important because it can affect the density of the pixels and the power requirements for the strip. Considering you said this is to go under a vanity pretty much any strip will work. I wouldn't expect that to be more than a couple of meters so even strips as dense as COB lights as mentioned by @vitaliy_kh are a option. Then you need to consider placement and Diffuser requirements.

The Led strip technology comes in two main flavors now which are strips without IC's to control segments and addressable strips with IC's that can control individual segments. Generally addressable strips will call out IC's in the type of strip like RGBICWW or just RGBIC while nonaddressable strips would just be RGB or RGBWW. You only need something like pixelblase, or wled, ect if the strip is addressable. Nonaddressable switches can use more basic zigbee/Zwave controllers.

The other aspect is do you want dedicated pixels to provide Warm and cool white light. Simply put if you don't have dedicated warm and cool white pixels some strips really struggle to produce white light. They end up trying to produce the Color temp by mixing the RGB in ways to make it which often isn't great. Your best bet for white lights is to get a strip that has the white color built in. This means to look for a strip that has either a W or WW at the end of the strip type identifier. Contrary to what some say WW does not mean Warm white it is actually a Cool white pixel. The first W generally represents a Warm white pixel is included as that is harder to reproduce without. The second W is for Cool white and isn't as important but can be good if you use that color temp a lot. Sometimes these white pixels are not called out though so research is good to do.

The power supply is simply a result of the strip you choose. Simply put once you pick your strip you need to do some math for the power requirements. The strip should tell you want voltage it runs at and then how much amps it will use at max. Then take that number and do the math to figure the size in amps of the power supply to use at most 80% of it's rated capacity and get that. So as an example, if the strip says it will use 12v at 1.5 amp max for the strip then i would get a 12v 2amp power supply. It doesn't really hurt to go larger if you want, it will just cost more money.

The controller is a interesting thing. Prebuilt controllers can be pricey unfortunately. When i was looking at this a while ago and got my Gledopto kit i use in my pantry, most of the cost was the controller and not the strip itself. LED strips don't actually cost that much. For that reason, I don't even think I would consider a nonaddressable setup now. I do think they have gotten a little bit better in price though. There aren't many options either for Zigbee, Zwave. I only know of a few. Things look very interesting with WLED and pixelblaze now, i just haven't tried them yet. It looks like it should be very simple though to simply load them on a ESP32 and control any strip. If you don't use color and just a single-Color temp strip you can probably even get away with just a smart outlet controller.

Prebuilt systems like lifix, hue, Govee, ect are great options because you are guaranteed it will work . Govee has in the past tended to be less costly when the focus was primarily being a alternatives to the big names, but now they also have some very unique options. They sell a prebuilt strip in a diffuser that can fit in corners for walls and ceilings. They have prebuilt diffuser options to help with that for placement in certain areas like baseboards. and allot more. Govee has really come into their own. Many of their products support a LAN API so that is a way to avoid their cloud, and allot of the new devices are also supporting Matter so that is another way to keep it local.

I actually think this is less of problem then you might initially think. Especially when Hubitat is involved. Simply put all of their devices support Bluetooth so even if the cloud goes out they will likely work fine with that, and if the devices support LAN API or Matter then Hubitat can control it without the cloud.

This is certainly true for some devices, but not all. I have had one Govee Device fail on me completely It was a Lyra Lamp. They just sent me a replacement so i got to take it apart and look at the inner workings. The wires going into the strip are interesting. and not your typical 3 wires for RGBIC. I haven't dug into more, but quickly moved on to something else. That said i did see a youtube video where their desk strip LED was converted to wled. Looked pretty easy actually as it does use the typical 3 wire + - Data setup

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