Hey all – we’re looking to resurrect Project Cribs, but want to see what everyone thinks in terms of pricing and if it’d be worth it for us, given that we’re all about having value driven products at great prices.
At this time, in order to launch this, we need to price this around $69.97 on Amazon and we can likely do it for $64.97 on Inovelli.com. It’s actually still below our benchmark margins, but we love this product a lot and hopefully if it sells well, we’ll have more negotiating power.
Our question is… would you pay this price ($69.97 on Amazon, $64.97 on Inovelli.com) for the light-strip?
Is there a demo video somewhere Eric? I have a pretty good idea of what the product does/is but $70 is pretty steep for 6 feet. I’ve gone the fibraro RGB controller and cheap strip route in several places and it works fairly well. The price point is similar but I get more length. Sorry to make it about size…
Yeah, we’re working on it right now lol. Trying to pull some footage from CES. Problem is we lost the controller, so we can’t create one right now
In addition, we’re trying to get the price point down a bit. The price they gave us is like 5-6x the industry average per foot. Their justification is that ours has RGB and CCT built into the strip (whereas most have RGB that creates an artificial white).
Hang tight, we’ll get something up shortly that shows the strips in more detail.
Would potentially be a little steep. For reference I went with a RGBCCT 16ft strip, with a zigbee based controller (gledopto) and power supply for $114 in total earlier this year via amazon. Strip stats report 7200 lumens in total, which would be about 1000 lumens brighter at 6ft. Strip has 150 rgb leds and 150 cct leds, I believe. Assuming the amazon listed specs can be trusted.
So a slightly brighter strip and more length, $7.16 a ft vs $11.66.
I would still potentially support it, especially if it came with an easy way to connect cut strips. Along with the whole supporting a local/small business. Potentially would be more appealing as well if there was an option to just purchase additional strips without the controller to save money (Where more than 6ft is required).
@Eric_Inovelli My understanding is that these are smart RGB pixels, and the controller will be able to individually address each pixel, meaning that the whole strip does not have to be the same color all the time, and can do different effects, such as chase, etc… IF that is accurate, then $70 is a fair price, as long as we can buy extensions to add more length, without having to buy additional controllers.
If they are dumb RGB that requires the whole strip to all be the same, then I think the price is a bit steep.
I wish there was a “maybe” in there. This is essentially the same pricepoint as the Philips Hue strips. I agree, that having individually addressable lights on this would be killer, but that’s a steep price compared to what @djw did. I actually use the same setup but I don’t even spend that much on lights. I just got 50 (granted they were ONLY RGB) but got that for like $36 with a cheap power supply.
Now there are MANY differences here. However, I think the specific use cases of addressable lights is far smaller then general LED lighting. That being said, I have waited specifically for this that is NOT Philips because I thought they were very expensive (but I love Inovelli so internal struggle here).
I think (and I know this is a BAD idea) having multiple options would be great. I personally never use the white aspect of LEDs. If I’m putting them in, it’s either typically for color or for “light”, i.e. white. So for me I but either/or. The addition of the “W” for RGBW lights is a lot but again, this is a personal thing.
IF the extensions were cheaper than Philips, I think the initial buy could be fine. If everything is the same, I don’t know if you will garner as much enthusiasm. I think there’s need to be a value prop over the Hue or people will think it’s just the same.
ALL of that being said…I would likely buy it just to support you guys and I will find a way to do something neat with it haha.
I would like to see extensions sold as well. I really like bias lighting on our TVs and would mostly use it there; however 6 ft would get all the way around. I don’t want to have to buy another “kit” in order to finish out the LED party.
Another question would be can we cut the 1 ft down to a smaller chunk if it is too large? My current lighting I could cut to fit (and flexible for turns).
Just something to think about. I wouldn’t mind the price with it coming with a controller, but if I’m having to buy 6 ft full kits for something that is 20 ft long, then I’m out.
Do you happen to have the brand name of the LED strip you purchased? I’d love to reference this when we go back to the table. We’re not really debating the controller cost, it’s more the LED strip costs that we’re fighting over.
Yeah, so how ours are designed is that they will not be cuttable as that ruins the addressable LED’s, but we will sell them in 1’ and 9’ increments (weird, I know).
So, the starter pack would be, 5x 1’ strips and 2x 6" strips (so, 6’ total). Then you could buy 9’ (~3m) strips separately that would be at a much lower cost (at present costs, we would likely be looking at around $40-45 – but I think those costs could be lowered as there wouldn’t be as many soldering points and clips on the strips). We’d also be selling the controller separately – not sure on the price yet – likely around $30-35.
Yes, exactly – each LED is individually addressable – here’s a list from @EricM_Inovelli
Bicolor Chase - Two LEDs running on a background color (set three colors).
Tricolor Chase - Alternating three color pixels running (set three colors).
ICU - Two eyes looking around.
In addition, you’ll be able to create your own animations.
Yeah, this is a good point – they do sell a more basic version which is just RGB, so that may be something to consider as an alternative. We just like to go big or go home with our products lol. But, yes, I think we still could even with a more basic option in addition to the premium option.
Agree (value prop) and thanks for the support as always lol!
Yeah, totally – sorry, I should’ve included that in the initial post (I’ll edit). There will be extensions (either you can buy 1’ extensions or a 9’ extension if you need to cover some serious ground).
No, unfortunately you cannot due to the LED’s being addressable (this is what they told us). But we will be selling the initial kit with 2x 6" strips, so hopefully that helps.
What would be the maximum run allowed? For my RGB LEDs on the house, I have a dedicated DC power supply at ~24A supporting a 216’ run. We had to tap in a second point to provide the last 50’ run to match brightness. It’s easy for a DC PWR supply, but I don’t think a wall wart plug will suffice for a long distance to provide power.
As an anecdotal I paid $27 foot installed for my install. Not RGBW and a poor UX designed controller; however it was color matched channel rail and outdoor rated.
@Eric_Inovelli ahh so they are individually addressable, did not realize that! My strips were all just dumb RGBCCT strips, so I could share the brand, but it’s probably not as helpful.
I didn’t do much research on individually addressed strips to provide a super valid opinion. It feels slightly high, but just a feeling based on no hard facts.
I would still potentially consider it, would save some of the DIY effort I seem to remember was involved with those strips.
pixel addressable LEDs (which is not a feature I necessarily would shop for but it nice to have and it reduces the controller size so I’m into it)
excellent CRI/Ra (93+) and R9 (70+)
wide white point range (2500K–6500K) — then it can be used for both general illumination at various times of day, task lighting on countertops, in addition to beautiful theatrical style colors/effects
6’–10’ of LED material with reliable connectors and no soldering required
either a rigid aluminum backing/profile as standard or a simple and clean hardware mounting system for an adhesive tape that can be installed in many mounting solutions
15mm-ish width (or narrower)
controller with power supply or integrated all in one unit
power, thermals, and drivers solved such that nothing self destructs when it is running at 100% output on all circuits simultaneously (you know it is very sad when I have to mention something like this but I have seen both sneaky ways to fake-fix this by reducing output at 100% and bad fixes where thermal overload shuts things down or products that simply fail at high output values over long periods of time)
Integrated ZWave (wow and you’re saying 700 series so this will be quite capable considering the new ARM architecture and memory vs 8051 of the 500 series)
One big question I have pertaining to the specs you’ve outlined pertains to lumens. Is that 1600lm/ft, 1600lm/meter, or 1600lm total output of the entire 6’ of material? Is that all colors+whites driven to full? Given even my own small condo as an example I know many places where I would want to install tape but it has to be bright enough that without doubling the run side-by-side I get ample (too much?) illumination on a countertop. That’s my benchmark in general for tape especially at this price point which I would call “premium” but not out of line if some of these boxes are checked.
The price for me is on the steep side but if it is IP67 rated so I can mount them as outside trim decoration or in my fountain, I will start saving up.
What would it take to get a 110’ run so I can do this?
This sounds exactly like what I’ve been hoping for to fill an illuminated ceiling inset that currently just has white rope lighting. If the price is on point for those 9’ strips, count me in for 4 of those and a set of the 1 footers
It looks like everyone else covered most of my questions. The price is certainly a bit higher than my wallet would like, that being said all of the features and functionality make it very appealing.
I would be interested to see the controller available independently of the strip. Ideally with support for RGB/RGBW strips. There are places I would love to install lighting strips, but can’t justify premium RGBWW strip.
I would also be interested in pre-cut with connector RGB/RGBW strips that could be used with the controller. The ability to mix and match strips based on the use case would be nice.
Do you plan to offer pre-terminated cable to use with the strips (corners, short distances, etc)? I realize this is more on the accessory side, but having ready to go options would be nice instead of me needing to hack together my own - and/or offer kits to make my own lengths.
I’ll be very interested to see how these turn out. I can think of at least two uses within 2’ of my computer… then there’s the rest of the house to consider
– here’s a list from 
– this is the data we want to hear to convey to the manufacturer!
