Set up ambient light (widget type "Ambient light")

Updated 9 October 2026Lighty

Ambient light is your coloured mood lighting: colour, white level, colour temperature and complete scenes. You set it up via Lighting and Add widget in four steps.

1. Choose the widget type

Choose Ambient light (colour & mood). If you only have warm and cool white without colour, choose White light instead.

Choose the widget type: Light, Ambient light and White light

2. Choose the module

Only Lightys appear here, because only they can do colour. Choose the Lighty your colour strip is connected to. If you have several Lightys, a clear name such as "Lighty bed" helps. You can rename it under Connections and then under Modules.

Choose the module: Lighty with a clear name

3. How is it wired?

Instead of choosing individual channels, you simply tell Lighty how your strip is connected. The channel assignment follows from that automatically:

  • RGBWW strip: one colour strip across all five channels R, G, B, WW and CW. No channel is left free.
  • RGBW + 1 single: colour via R, G, B and WW. CW stays free for a dimmable single light.
  • RGB + 2 single: colour via R, G and B. WW and CW stay free for two dimmable lights or, together, for one white light.

How is it wired? RGBWW, RGBW plus 1 single, RGB plus 2 single

You then set up free channels as their own widgets, individually as "Light" or as a pair as "White light".

4. Configure

  • Name and icon for the tile, for example "Bed light".
  • Fuse: at what current it switches off and how quickly: fast, normal or slow (time-delay). The highest value you can choose results automatically from the current still available, up to 20A in total across all channels.
  • Voltage protection: undervoltage protection (UVP) and overvoltage protection (OVP) protect your battery, simply switch them on.
  • External switch: whether a wall push button or a switch is connected to the channel.
  • Wireless push buttons: which buttons of your paired wireless push buttons switch this light, several are possible too, for example at the entrance and at the bed.

Setting voltage protection, external switch and wireless push buttons

Done

Your ambient light appears as its own tile with brightness, colour and scenes. At the bottom of the tile you see voltage, current and power live.

Ambient light tile with brightness, colour and consumption

You choose the colour with the colour wheel. With the White slider you mix in real white light, and the slider below shifts it from warm white to cool white.

Choosing a colour with the colour wheel, white level and warm white to cool white

Related questions

What can I control with Lighty?

Lighty controls all the lighting in your camper over 5 independent channels. Everything is possible, from a single white strip to full RGBWW lighting with colour plus warm and cool white. Or you connect up to five individual lights, such as kitchen, bathroom, bed left, bed right and outdoor light, each on its own. You set colour, colour temperature, brightness and entire light scenes just as you like.

Does Lighty work on 12V and 24V?

Yes, both without any changes. Lighty works in the range from 9 to 36V, so it is just as much at home in a 12V panel van as in a 24V motorhome.

Do I need a SmartKnob for Lighty to work?

Not necessarily. From firmware 0.4.7, a new Lighty responds to its push buttons straight away, without any setup. With Lighty Extension, each of the five push buttons switches its own channel. A short press switches, press and hold dims. With just one push button and no Lighty Extension, you switch channel 2. Even if your SmartKnob ever fails, your push buttons keep switching and dimming. The SmartKnob adds colours, white light (warm white and cool white as one light), scenes, the dashboard, automations, the wireless push buttons and the double tap for all lights.

How is Lighty connected, and what is in the box?

Connection is deliberately kept simple: power and light channels go into high-quality Phoenix lever terminals, almost tool-free, safe and reusable. You wire the push button to the supplied pluggable spring terminal connector and then simply plug it in. In the box you will find Lighty, four mounting screws and the pluggable spring terminal connector for the push button.

Which LED strips work with Lighty?

Lighty controls single-colour and multi-colour LED strips with shared colour channels, meaning normal single-colour strips as well as RGB, RGBW and RGBWW strips. Addressable pixel strips (such as WS2812), where every LED is controlled individually, are deliberately not supported. Lighty is not designed for them.

How many metres of LED strip can I connect?

What counts is not the length but the current: Lighty handles 20A in total. For example, a COB strip with 14W per metre draws about 1.2A per metre at 12V. Two strips of 3m each come to roughly 7A and fit easily. Several strips may also share one channel.

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