About

LED Cabinet Lights

I'm a big fan of under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen and have installed it in all of my homes. There are plenty of LED options available on the market but I wasn't able to find any with a dimmer setup that I liked. In the past I had a Xenon set that used a touch sensor to cycle through low > medium > high > off and it was perfect. For some reason the current LED sets all use a one-button variable dimmer so you're stuck with on/off at whatever the last setting was and then having to hold the switch until it dims to the level you want.

I decided that if I was going to build the perfect LED dimmer setup I may as well add RGB into the mix. Now I can tweak the white balance for a nice warm glow at lower brightness levels as well as have fun color modes for holidays and parties.

Hardware:
Particle Photon
RGBW LED Strip
AT42QT1010 touch sensor
Integrated current meter

The LED strips are mounted in aluminum channels with frosted plastic covers to help disperse the light more evenly. The aluminum channels provide protection for the strip and a cleaner look overall. The touch sensor will eventually converted into a nicer looking panel but for now is just tacked in place with hot glue.
This is the updated touch pad 3D model and internals. I designed it so that the touch sensor board LED would be centered on the front of the pad and would be visible when active. I used copper foil tape wired to the sensor pin to expand the touch sensitive area to include the entire front of the touch pad. Because the sensor is capacitive it is able to detect touches through the 1.5mm plastic of the enclosure.
The mounted touch pad provides a tidy look as well as providing a much larger target area. Additionally, it protects the electronics of the sensor board from hard taps and can safely be wiped down with typical cleaning products.
I mounted the control and power circuitry in the cabinet above my microwave. It already had a power outlet available and provided a central location to run all the wires to. I used a surface mount box so that I could remove the front plate for easy access in case something needed tweaking.
Short press: change to next state (brightness or color scheme) in current mode
Hold 3+ seconds: change to next mode

Normal Mode:

Holiday Mode:

Game Day Mode:

Solid Color Mode: